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I was sure about doing orthopedics since day 1 of med school, but have recently started thinking seriously about PRS because of the technical skill level, the creativity, and the broad general surgery experience in residency. However, I'm finding it much harder to find mentors & information to help me make this decision, and to figure out how to go about getting into a program. I would appreciate any help I can get.
A little background: I'm a 3rd year student in the Northeast, and would like to stay in the Northeast. At the risk of sounding like I don't want it enough, family circumstances do not allow me to go to a program not in the Northeast. In addition, I don't like general surgery enough to do that & hope to get into a plastics fellowship 5 years later. I know this limits my options a lot, to about 10 programs. I obviously don't have anything plastics to brag about in my CV, but I have gotten good 3rd year grades and a decent USLME 1 score (240).
What can I do at this late stage to maximize my chances? What are the plastics programs looking for? Do I need to do 2 or 3 4th year electives in plastics?
Also, to help me decide in the first place, I would appreciate some descriptions of what exactly a PRS does, and what the lifestyle is like. I am not so keen on doing a lot of cosmetic procedures, although I'd be willing to do maybe 25% or less cosmetics. Is that possible? I have heard from sources of unknown reliability that if you do mostly non-cosmetic cases, your lifestyle will be pretty bad -- similar to a general surgeon. Is that true? How many hours are you actually working in a given week, after residency? What is the residency like compared to gen. surg. (I realize the 1st 3 years are gen. surg. years)?
Lastly, what are the kinds of procedures & percentages you would see in PRS, both cosmetic and reconstructive? I've worked with one PRS who does 80% breast reconstruction/augmentation. Another does an oocasional cleft lip, but mostly breast & lipo.
Thanks for the help,
b
A little background: I'm a 3rd year student in the Northeast, and would like to stay in the Northeast. At the risk of sounding like I don't want it enough, family circumstances do not allow me to go to a program not in the Northeast. In addition, I don't like general surgery enough to do that & hope to get into a plastics fellowship 5 years later. I know this limits my options a lot, to about 10 programs. I obviously don't have anything plastics to brag about in my CV, but I have gotten good 3rd year grades and a decent USLME 1 score (240).
What can I do at this late stage to maximize my chances? What are the plastics programs looking for? Do I need to do 2 or 3 4th year electives in plastics?
Also, to help me decide in the first place, I would appreciate some descriptions of what exactly a PRS does, and what the lifestyle is like. I am not so keen on doing a lot of cosmetic procedures, although I'd be willing to do maybe 25% or less cosmetics. Is that possible? I have heard from sources of unknown reliability that if you do mostly non-cosmetic cases, your lifestyle will be pretty bad -- similar to a general surgeon. Is that true? How many hours are you actually working in a given week, after residency? What is the residency like compared to gen. surg. (I realize the 1st 3 years are gen. surg. years)?
Lastly, what are the kinds of procedures & percentages you would see in PRS, both cosmetic and reconstructive? I've worked with one PRS who does 80% breast reconstruction/augmentation. Another does an oocasional cleft lip, but mostly breast & lipo.
Thanks for the help,
b
