Procedure OR times as an attending

[B-wildered]

Hi,
I am interested in applying to Uro. However, I do have some lower back issues. I was told by an urologist that as an attending you spend half of your time in clinic and half in the OR. Also he mentioned that generally the procedures are short and many are assisted with “robotics” therefore it’s not super hard on your back . I am just wondering if anyone have more inputs or perceptions.

Thanks

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[Donald Juan]

You can ultimately tailor your practice to whatever you want when you are an attending. Yes, in urology (and basically all surgical fields) you are about 50/50 OR and clinic time. And it is true that you can definitely make a career with smaller shorter surgeries and avoid big long open cases if you want. However, in residency you might be in the OR standing for 16 hours 6-7 days/week. You can't tell people you're not gonna scrub into that 7 hour surgery because you never plan on doing that type of surgery in practice because it is still part of your training. Have you done M3 surgery rotations yet? They should give you an idea of what to expect for any surgical residency, although know it will be worse and for 5-7 years.

Edit: just saw your other post and I realize you don't have a home urology program and have already done surgery rotations. Know that endoscopic cases which are bread and butter for us, can be hard on the back. You also mentioned on the other post that sitting for a long time is hard on your back, so realize that a robotic surgery is usually 2-4 hours of sitting at a robot console.

I'm not just trying to talk you out of it, but it sounds like you were against doing anything surgical, and someone sort of gave you the impression that urology will be easy and surgery "light." This sounds like a recipe to being very unhappy with your specialty choice in the long run.

 

[B-wildered]

You can ultimately tailor your practice to whatever you want when you are an attending. Yes, in urology (and basically all surgical fields) you are about 50/50 OR and clinic time. And it is true that you can definitely make a career with smaller shorter surgeries and avoid big long open cases if you want. However, in residency you might be in the OR standing for 16 hours 6-7 days/week. You can't tell people you're not gonna scrub into that 7 hour surgery because you never plan on doing that type of surgery in practice because it is still part of your training. Have you done M3 surgery rotations yet? They should give you an idea of what to expect for any surgical residency, although know it will be worse and for 5-7 years.

Edit: just saw your other post and I realize you don't have a home urology program and have already done surgery rotations. Know that endoscopic cases which are bread and butter for us, can be hard on the back. You also mentioned on the other post that sitting for a long time is hard on your back, so realize that a robotic surgery is usually 2-4 hours of sitting at a robot console.

I'm not just trying to talk you out of it, but it sounds like you were against doing anything surgical, and someone sort of gave you the impression that urology will be easy and surgery "light." This sounds like a recipe to being very unhappy with your specialty choice in the long run.

Thanks for the reply.

I meant when I’m sitting and not moving around in a awkward position such as holding the retractors for a surgeon it’s not ideal for me. However if I can make my self comfortable and move around is not as bad. Seating I general does not make me miserable, unless I’m bending over or in a “uncomfortable” angle. I imagine if I’m running the surgery I could make my self comfortable as many surgeons do. I scrubbed in a couple of kidney stones removal and it didn’t seem that bad, however that was n=2. I asked the urologist that was performing the procedure and he mentioned that “in general “ the surgical procedures in urology are not as long as in the other surgical specialities, and a lot of them are assisted with robotics which are more “ light” on your back , but again he is one urologist that I spoke n=1, he also mentioned that the first year of surgery can be brutal. I just like surgery and urology seems interesting as far as procedures and the pathologies that you see in the field, unfortunately I do have some back issues that I need to take in consideration. Again thanks for the input

 

[mcloaf]

he mentioned that “in general “ the surgical procedures in urology are not as long as in the other surgical specialities, and a lot of them are assisted with robotics which are more “ light” on your back

As mentioned above, you could pretty easily tailor your practice to shorter cases once you are an attending. However during the 5-6 years you are in residency you will need to be able to get through long cases.