Is it harder to become a general surgeon than all other fields?

[Future Doc1]

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Is it harder to become a general surgeon than in all other fields or does it just depend on one's perception of the residency and or its program?

 

[Fedekz]

http://medicine.osu.edu/studentaffairs/7334.cfm

According to that - plastic surgery is the "hardest" to get.

 

[Terpskins99]

Is it harder to become a general surgeon than in all other fields or does it just depend on one's perception of the residency and or its program?

Depends on what you mean by "hard".

General surgery is considered one of the most difficult and demanding residencies in medicine. So in that sense, yes it is very hard.

Now, if you are referring to competitiveness... general surgery is not considered a particularly hard residency to obtain. I'd say it is average. It is nowhere near as difficult a residency to land than certain specialties such as derm, integrated plastics or radiation oncology.

 

[xnfs93hy]

Def. not the most difficult to obtain at all.

But yeah, it's probably one of the toughest residencies you can go through.

 

[Crazyday]

It's a tough residency, but I've heard neurosurgery is harder (might be the hardest).

 

[xnfs93hy]

NS is probably the most tedious I would imagine..

 

[Terpskins99]

It's a tough residency, but I've heard neurosurgery is harder (might be the hardest).

Neither residency is a walk in the park.

Frankly, as long as both residencies stay compliant with the 80-hr work week I think the workload is comparable.

 

[DLi]

I would imagine plastic surgery as the hardest to get into because it's an area that insurance doesn't touch (unless it's reconstruction). Not to mention the number of people who are willing to pay $3-4K to get their tits stuffed with silicone.

The only people in this field who make more than plastic surgeons are the lawyers who sue plastic surgeons.

 

[Terpskins99]

I would imagine plastic surgery as the hardest to get into because it's an area that insurance doesn't touch (unless it's reconstruction). Not to mention the number of people who are willing to pay $3-4K to get their tits stuffed with silicone.

The only people in this field who make more than plastic surgeons are the lawyers who sue plastic surgeons.

Plastic surgery is the hardest to get into because it is among the most desired residencies and has one of the fewest slots.

 

[Arm N Hammer]

probably depends on where you take the residency