Please Help

[tompi90]

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Hey everyone, I'm new to this network and I have a few questions that I was hoping you could help me out with. I'm an undergrad just finishing my first year, and I was set on doing neurosurgery.

The problem is that I have read time and again that neurosurgeons have little to no family/social lives. This is is something that will be very hard for me too sacrifice. I looked into ORS - spinal surgery and was very interested in it since it is similar to neurosurgery.

My questions are:

1) Do ORS - spinal surgeons have better social/family lives than neurosurgeons do?

2) How do I become a specialized ORS, basically when do I start to focus on treating spinal injuries?

3) How is the residency life?

 

[ChiDO]

Hey everyone, I'm new to this network and I have a few questions that I was hoping you could help me out with. I'm an undergrad just finishing my first year, and I was set on doing neurosurgery.

The problem is that I have read time and again that neurosurgeons have little to no family/social lives. This is is something that will be very hard for me too sacrifice. I looked into ORS - spinal surgery and was very interested in it since it is similar to neurosurgery.

My questions are:

1) Do ORS - spinal surgeons have better social/family lives than neurosurgeons do?

2) How do I become a specialized ORS, basically when do I start to focus on treating spinal injuries?

3) How is the residency life?

First and foremost, you are in your first year of UG. I think you should probably concentrate on doing well in your classes, study for the MCAT (in 2 years), and finally get ACCEPTED to medical school before thinking about residency. But, to answer your questions.

1. From my understanding, as an attending physcian, you have more say on the hours you work. The amount of $$ you make seems to be based on how many procedures/surgeries you put in.

2. 5 year ortho residency + 1 year spinal fellowship

3. Residency is 5 years for ortho vs. 7? for neuro. Probably sucks equally for both, with neuro sucking more as it's longer.

I'm not in residency nor an attending, so #1 and #3 are my assumptions.

 

[skiz knot]

3) How is the residency life?

Residency training for NES is generally considered to be more demanding than ORS. Neither is easy. You will have significant demands placed on you regarding personal and work demands regardless of the path you pursue in medicine, especially while in residency/fellowship/early career.

Do not pursue medicine as a career if you are unwilling to make these sacrifices. You will be miserable.

 

[DHT]

Hey everyone, I'm new to this network and I have a few questions that I was hoping you could help me out with. I'm an undergrad just finishing my first year, and I was set on doing neurosurgery.

The problem is that I have read time and again that neurosurgeons have little to no family/social lives. This is is something that will be very hard for me too sacrifice. I looked into ORS - spinal surgery and was very interested in it since it is similar to neurosurgery.

My questions are:

1) Do ORS - spinal surgeons have better social/family lives than neurosurgeons do?

2) How do I become a specialized ORS, basically when do I start to focus on treating spinal injuries?

3) How is the residency life?

I just wanted to echo what was said already.

You are too early in your career to be "set" on anything. You will be very surprised how your perceptions of the fields will change drastically when you get to medical school and see them first hand. I had a very different impression of neurosurgery before I saw it and then found out that it didn't fit my personality at all. Keep an open mind when you go to medical school because you never know what you will like the best. Just focus on your grades and MCAT now.

1. In general I would say ORS-spine has a slightly better life than neurosurgeons although in private practice they are about the same. The reason is, most neurosurgeons typically do ~90% spine in their private-practice and some give up their intracranial privileges all together (so not to pay the extra malpractice and not get forced into taking head trauma call). Neurosurgery patients tend to be sick as hell and require a lot of attention and since their are fewer neurosurgeons around, the call is less spread out. In the end, lifestyle will be what you make it and you gain some flexibility as an attending and can balance $$ with hours/week. If you love what you are doing, you will hardly notice the extra time on the job. In either field I would not expect you to ever be able to work 40hr/week, but I bet you could probably do 60 pretty easily in an elective spine practice (ORS or Neuro). Don't go into either unless you are willing to work hard and make plenty of sacrifices along the way.

2. You will starting doing spine in your ortho residency, however it will probably only be 1/6 of your time. You fellowship after that (as was said already). Its not terribly competitive so if you want to do spine, you will probably be able to.

3. Residency for ORS is very hard. Residency for NeuroSurg is BRUTAL. Ortho will work long hours ~80hr/week (some do more). Neurosurgery residents typically work even more than that. The reasons are there are fewer residents to spread out the call and they are taking care of some of the sickest patients in the hospital who require lots of attention and plenty of emergency procedures. Although not true everywhere, neurosurgery residents practically live at the hospital and put more hours in than anyone.