how did you know

[galactica2001]

---

Members don't see this ad.

Maybe this was on the forums already, but anyway...
how did you know that surgery was THE field you wanted to go into?
I haven't got much experience yet (I've been to some oncological OP, did some basic suturing and wound dressing...), but so far I like surgery a lot. I'm just unsure how to decide if I like it enough to plunge in.
How do you know that you're fit for a surgeon (or you just don't worry about it? 😀 )

Thanks in advance 🙂

 

[Chief Resident]

Surgeons have told me you don't really know until you're a resident. The rotations in med school give you a glimpse of it but you won't know for sure until you get into the meat of it during residency. Hopefully by then you realize you made the right career choice!

 

[RichL025]

When I finished my 3rd year surgery rotation.

I was driving down to North Carolina to do my FP rotation, which I originally thought of as a nice cush rotation after the hectic pace of surgery.

As I thought about cajoling poorly compliant diabetics, and refilling scripts for HCTZ, I jokingly commented to a friend "I'd rather do another surgery rotation..." that got me thinking, and the summer between my 3rd & 4th years I scrubbed in to the OR again during my one week of vacation.

The final nail in the coffin was my ER rotation - it was the thing I came to med school thinking I wanted to do. Surgery grabbed me hard, but everyone said "don't even think about it unless you honestly could not be happy doing anything else". Three days into my ED rotation I had my definitive answer 😉 .

No offense, and much respect, to those who choose other things to do - none of it was for me. Some times I _wish_ I could have been happy doing something with *ahem* a better lifestyle, but if lifestyle considerations were _that_ important to me, I would have become a banker.

"Surgeons are internists who have finished their education" - I read that somehwere....

 

[robotsonic]

Check out this recent thread: http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=233676

Along the lines of what RichL025 said... I loved my surgery rotation, and in every rotation after that I missed the OR. At one point during my psych rotation I told a friend that I really wasn't into it and he said, "Well at least it isn't surgery!" My reply was, "Oh, if I could only do surgery again instead of this crap!"

 

[drrouz]

When I came to medical school I wanted to be a pediatrician. I enjoyed anatomy, but I did not seriously consider surgery. I had volunteer experience in surgery while in high school, but I never thought I was talented enough. I guess I was under the false assumption that surgeons are born and not made. It was during my clinical rotations when I noticed that at the end of a 14-16 hour day I came home happy, excited and looking forward to the next morning. It was actually my wife who first pointed out how happy I seemed to be. I was surprised at the scope of surgery and the potential to cure, not just treat or manage, serious disease. As a surgeon you can cure diseases that most people think of as incurable: hypertension (due to renal artery stenosis or pheochromocytoma), and even diabetes (gastric bypass can lead to reversal of insulin resistance). The more excited I became, the harder i worked and the more confidence i built in my technical abilities. I spoke to people who I respected and they all assured me that most surgeons are not born, but are made. More then once I heard the phrase: "I can teach a monkey to sow".
When I did my medicine rotation, it just drove home the point: I would rather stand and operate for 12hours then round for 2 hours with medicine.
Since then I have done a medicine AI, a Surgical Oncology AI and a SICU rotation and I have no doubt that surgery is the career for me. I hope that you keep an open mind during your clerkships and that you find a field which leaves you begging for more (no matter what that field turns out to be).

 

[njbmd]

When I came to medical school I wanted to be a pediatrician. I enjoyed anatomy, but I did not seriously consider surgery. I had volunteer experience in surgery while in high school, but I never thought I was talented enough. I guess I was under the false assumption that surgeons are born and not made. It was during my clinical rotations when I noticed that at the end of a 14-16 hour day I came home happy, excited and looking forward to the next morning. It was actually my wife who first pointed out how happy I seemed to be. I was surprised at the scope of surgery and the potential to cure, not just treat or manage, serious disease. As a surgeon you can cure diseases that most people think of as incurable: hypertension (due to renal artery stenosis or pheochromocytoma), and even diabetes (gastric bypass can lead to reversal of insulin resistance). The more excited I became, the harder i worked and the more confidence i built in my technical abilities. I spoke to people who I respected and they all assured me that most surgeons are not born, but are made. More then once I heard the phrase: "I can teach a monkey to sow".
When I did my medicine rotation, it just drove home the point: I would rather stand and operate for 12hours then round for 2 hours with medicine.
Since then I have done a medicine AI, a Surgical Oncology AI and a SICU rotation and I have no doubt that surgery is the career for me. I hope that you keep an open mind during your clerkships and that you find a field which leaves you begging for more (no matter what that field turns out to be).

Hi there,
This is exactly my story too. I hated everything about medicine and the pace of medicine. I was hooked from my first case in the OR. After my general surgery clerkship, everything else was a let down especially OB-Gyn.

To Chief Resident: You had better KNOW long before you do residency that you want to be a surgeon because you will be hating life on your first night of surgery intern call.

njbmd 🙂
Chief Resident on Cardiothoracic Surgery

 

[galactica2001]

Thanks for your input everyone 🙂
I have still some time to decide and I totally agree that You had better know before you do residency that you want to be a surgeon

I'm doing some volunteering in the ER surg and oncology op. I'll keep that up. So far I really enjoy it (much more than internal med). I hope it lasts till residency 😉