HEME-ONC said:
I was under the impression that most people were not bothering with Gsurg because of the decrease in salary. I didnt know that the workload during residency had that much to do with the rest of your life.
How competitive is it for IMG's?
increases in compensation are much less than they have been in the past. this year, the increase was only about 1.5%. with the avoidance of a 5% cut, this is actually being spun as a 6% increase in reimbursement. this applies to all fields, not just surgical ones.
that being said, surgical fields on average have higher compensation than a lot of the other fields. most students feel that 270k/yr is still a decent income. in private practice, the potential exists to make much more, but this has been covered exhaustively in other threads.
the 80 hour work week has, i bleieve, a lot to do with the increase in popularity of general surgery. students see residents going home at reasonable hours, and like that. perhaps the residents are reporting back to the students that life in residency isn't as hard as they thought it would be. i know at my program, the interns are telling everyone that the year has been pretty sweet compared to what they were expecting. take it for what it's worth... i still think surgical residency is difficult, and pretty consuming.
also, there are a lot of surgical fellowships that require completion of a 5 year general surgery residency. around 70% of surgical residents complete fellowships after the 5 years. there are probably a significant number of residents, that given a choice, would prefer an integrated pathway training in their subspecialty of interest: surg onc, ct, vascular, peds surg, etc...
if all of these pathways existed, then i believe that the numbers in gen surg applications would decrease as these individuals would seek integrated training.
as far as fmgs applying... it is harder for them than it was 4 years ago. fmg applicants that would have matched at that time, are goign unmatched now. we are in the high end of the cycle right now. perhaps in a few years, the popularity of general surgery will wane... who knows? but if you are an fmg, and want to do general surgery, don't let the numbers sway you. just do your best in medical school, do well on step I, get some research, and cultivate some connections... the same things that all med students do. one of the best residents i know, and whom i respect tremendously is an fmg who has had great success in securing extremely competitive training.
best of luck.
