I kinda fell right into a great situation. Last year I had a basketball injury (posterior dislocation of right elbow coupled with radial head fracture). The radial head fracture required surgery and so I got to know some of the residents and an attending through that. Basically, I told the surgeon that some of my friends were interested in watching the surgery and he agreed to let three of them watch. He gave me mad props after the surgery for being so interested in others and letting them have the opportunity to learn through me. I played it off as being something I would want them to do for me and therefore felt like I should do it for them. Now he spends about 15-20 minutes every time I have an appointment just talking to me about golf and various other things in his life. He is pretty cool. Now this year, I was offered an elective in orthopaedic surgery, basically just helping someone out with the writing phase since I don't have more time to commit than that. Anyway, I was chosen by the residency director for our school's ortho program as the person he wanted to help him. So, now through circumstance, one of the attendings really likes me and the residency director hand-picked me to work on his project so I am assuming he sees something he likes. I used to think general surgery would be better for me, but I am getting really interested in ortho at this point.
I guess my point is to break your arm really bad and need surgery and get to know someone through that. Or maybe that is bad advice....I can't say for sure.
