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I'm not too sure whether I'm on right forum to be posting this topic here, but I'm giving it a try. Firstly I'm neither an American citizen nor my queries relate to US residency programmes. But I believe questions I face are more generic and universal in nature. So if moderators believe this thread doesn't belong here they have the right to move it somewhere else.
I'm an Indian medical graduate (MBBS) waiting for what you guys call a "match". At the moment I have really very good prospects of matching in top notch anesthesia and what I call second tier ophthal programmes here in India. To be honest my first choice for specialisation was neither of these to specialities. I always wanted to do derm but my "scores" are not top notch. So ophthal and anaesthesia are really my fall backs and i need to choose one of them.
So getting to the point, I have got few questions which are really troubling me a lot and I believe you can help me with these -
1) here in India we have uniform 3 year residency programmes with plenty of hands on surgical experience (we call it "cutting" here) but phacoemulsification and LASERs remain relatively the preserve of attendings. I believe these procedures require high level of manual dexterity with little margin for error. My question is whether 3 years is sufficient time to master these skills if I get to do at least 4 procedures a month PGY-2 onwards?
2) once you finish with your residency how difficult it is to shut down your practice for a while to go somewhere to master newer surgical techniques and modalities. I have an impression that ophthalmology procedures are more technology intensive, complicated and difficult to master. Is it true that skill upgradation is an issue?
3) i'm a non traditional student, so I started out a bit late in my medical career. I fear I may not be able to physically remain at the top of my game for too long. Should my age be a valid concern?
Thank you
I'm an Indian medical graduate (MBBS) waiting for what you guys call a "match". At the moment I have really very good prospects of matching in top notch anesthesia and what I call second tier ophthal programmes here in India. To be honest my first choice for specialisation was neither of these to specialities. I always wanted to do derm but my "scores" are not top notch. So ophthal and anaesthesia are really my fall backs and i need to choose one of them.
So getting to the point, I have got few questions which are really troubling me a lot and I believe you can help me with these -
1) here in India we have uniform 3 year residency programmes with plenty of hands on surgical experience (we call it "cutting" here) but phacoemulsification and LASERs remain relatively the preserve of attendings. I believe these procedures require high level of manual dexterity with little margin for error. My question is whether 3 years is sufficient time to master these skills if I get to do at least 4 procedures a month PGY-2 onwards?
2) once you finish with your residency how difficult it is to shut down your practice for a while to go somewhere to master newer surgical techniques and modalities. I have an impression that ophthalmology procedures are more technology intensive, complicated and difficult to master. Is it true that skill upgradation is an issue?
3) i'm a non traditional student, so I started out a bit late in my medical career. I fear I may not be able to physically remain at the top of my game for too long. Should my age be a valid concern?
Thank you