Elective advice: General Surgery and Pediatric Surgery

[eripearson]

Hello...I'm a 3rd year and am in the midst of planning my electives for a general surgery residency and pedsurg fellowship. Are there any recommendations from current residents or fellows regarding an elective spectrum that is attractive for the big programs (for instance...should all elective be in gen surg and surgical specialties or should medicine be approached as well.) Thanks for the info and help.

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[SocialistMD]

You will be a surgery resident for at least 5 years; use your electives in fields you will never see again and/or that will make you a better physician (i.e. radiology, ICU and medicine subspecialties).

 

[geekgirl]

or to check out programs you might like. away electives, i mean.

 

[blue2000]

Hello...I'm a 3rd year and am in the midst of planning my electives for a general surgery residency and pedsurg fellowship. Are there any recommendations from current residents or fellows regarding an elective spectrum that is attractive for the big programs (for instance...should all elective be in gen surg and surgical specialties or should medicine be approached as well.) Thanks for the info and help.

I agree with the above poster. Don't focus solely on GS electives. Go for a broad range of things. If you like peds a lot, go for PICU, NICU, Peds-GI, etc, whatever is interesting to you. I did a relatively limited number of surgery electives through my fourth year, b/c I knew I would spend the rest of my life doing it, and I never had a program "question" me about my level of exposure. Do enough so you know it's the right choice, and you have the letters you need, and move on to other stuff. Besides, you don't want to work surgeons hours fourth year. Rest too!