I am really interested in doing a residency in neurosurgery and have been trying to look for some... so far i have only found a couple specifically for DOs... if someone who has done a residency in neurosurgery shed some light on how difficult it is to get one of these residencies? this has always been a strong interest of mine and thus is my first choice... thanx!
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DO Neurosurgery Programs
Started by ComplexGal
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I would definitely say it is no cakewalk!
At the MD or DO level they are the MOST competitive. Some programs take 1-3 students only. It's an uphill battle but I hear it pays off huge dividends with patients' lives being completely changed in your hands.
Its easy.
Why do you say the most competitive? Just b/c most programs only take a small number of residents doesn't mean they're more competitive than a program that takes more. There's usually not a lot of people applying for those spots, relative to the number of people applying for other spots in, say, derm or plastics. I think someone mentioned in the neurosurg forum that in one of the years an extra 10 people applying (out of 16,000+ 4th yr med students) would change the match rate by ~5%. So it's a very small community.
It can pay off, depends what area you end up specializing in. We just had a DO neurosurg/oncology fellow speak with us the other week and he mentioned that in a lot of cases, that he deals with, they're just allowing people to live longer with their terminal illness. Definitely "life changing", but not a field where you should expect complete turn arounds every day.
As with any doctor, its not going to be life changing thing every day. Maybe not the most competitive but certainly up there since they do allow such few residents. Basically I was thinking alot of people for very few positions = hard.
Do you want to do Neurosurgery nlax?
Do you want to do Neurosurgery nlax?
I've thought about it......I think it's an absolutely fascinating field that's undergoing a lot of changes/advancements (but then, what isn't). It's the lifestyle component and the time requirement for residency that gets to me. Something about spending at least 6 years in residency beyond med school, especially when the wife and I will have started our family by that point.
The fellow that talked to us was explaining how his week had gone, and granted that week was particularly busy, but just about every day he didn't leave the hospital until at least midnight, and then had to be back by like 5am the next day. Definitely not the norm each week, but it seemed he got more of those than those in other programs.
To my knowledge, there's only 1 program that takes more than 3 residents and it's arguably the hardest place to match.
It doesn't really sound like you know what you're talking about.
How so? I'm only repeating observations I've heard from other students/residents.
lacrosse is cool btw...
From that thread:
Resident Statistics (2004)
Total programs:95
Total neurosurgery residents in training: 828 (0.1% of all residents in the U.S.)
100 are women (12%)
748 are U.S. allopathic graduates (90.3%)
70 are IMGs (8.5%)
9 are Candian graduates (1.1%)
1 is a D.O. (0.1%)
Source: JAMA, September 7, 2005Vol 294, No. 9
Isn't it odd that there are 70 IMGs but only 1 DO. I wonder how many DOs applied?
IMGs are probably more likely to have better credentials (additional time, degrees, internships, and/or already practicing neurosurgeons in their country of origin). That's not to say DO's aren't well-qualified, rather probably just a function of what's required for any foreign doctor to practice in the U.S. (U.S. residency training). Thus, they're represented in match statistics.
haha, i guess if you become a neurosurgeon, you become a guiding light for others to follow.
Those that didn't apply or get into the DO neurosurg programs.
How is that even possible? That must be just allopathic residencies; because there are 11 neurosurgery residency sites for osteopathic students, each with multiple openings. So don't tell me only 1 DO ended up in neurosurgery.
P.S. Maybe it's like Tex said, neurosurgery is easy, and we all know DO's like to take on more challenging tasks.
