General Surgery Preliminary Year

[rrreagan]

Hi,

I'm interested in doing a General Surgery Preliminary year and was wondering what it's like....

These Prelim positions are typically easier to come by than Categorical slots, right?

What can one expect in terms of the workload?

I don't mind taking call, peri-operative care, floor responsibilites, or rounding on many pts.

However, I'm not terribly interested in getting OR exposure or participating directly in OR related events.

Can the OR be avoided altogether by a Preliminary intern?

Do the surgeons actually need or want a Preliminary intern involved in their cases?

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[surg]

In most programs, true Prelim (e.g. not already accepted into the institution's urology, ortho, ENT programs) interns work a similar schedule as the categorical interns, although sometimes they get a few extra electives or a fewer electives depending on the needs of the programs.

In smaller programs, it seems likely that you will have to go to the OR sometimes because they don't have enough bodies to cover all the cases done at the institution, at larger programs this tends not to be as much of an institution and prelim interns can avoid the OR completely (I've seen it happen for those that are going into anesthesia and chose a surgical internship) as long as they recognize that sometimes that means they will be doing extra floor work while their colleagues go off to the OR.

In general, though, those that are interested in learning will be taught by those interested in teaching, so if you express an interest, there isn't any reason why you can't go to the OR and learn to operate as well.