learning after residency--NOT in a fellowship

[waxedapathetic]

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if there was some operative skill you wanted to hone which you didn't feel you learned in residency, is there a good way to pick it up after you finish residency?

for example, if you didn't have many open vascular cases in your program but you wanted to hone your skills in harvesting a vein and creating an anastamosis, is there a way to do this as a junior attdg without doing a fellowship in vasc?

 

[Celiac Plexus]

if there was some operative skill you wanted to hone which you didn't feel you learned in residency, is there a good way to pick it up after you finish residency?

for example, if you didn't have many open vascular cases in your program but you wanted to hone your skills in harvesting a vein and creating an anastamosis, is there a way to do this as a junior attdg without doing a fellowship in vasc?

I don't think that any program in the country prepares its graduates to do everything, perfectly, straight out of the box. But you should have excellent fundamental surgical skills, and the knowledge to apply those skills, to work your way through most problems.

That said, your question is a good one since there is no way that you could learn everything in any residency. If you are concerned about specific operations, or body systems, you might consider a fellowship. Another option is to join a group and when you book a case you think you will need help with, ask one of your more experienced partners to "assist" you with the case.

Every junior attending has some performance anxiety I would imagine. That's where attributes of your residency training like resident autonomy, and high case volume, and all the work you put in reading/studying for cases during residency comes in to play. You will know way more, and will be able to handle way more, than you might think that you do.