Surgeon Shortage!

[Street Philosopher]

<a href="http://www.cnn.com/2002/HEALTH/03/14/surgeon.shortage.ap/index.html" target="_blank">http://www.cnn.com/2002/HEALTH/03/14/surgeon.shortage.ap/index.html</a>

Looks like some of you people won't have to cross your fingers behind your back and say "primary care" when they ask what you plan on doing with your MD.

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[futrfysician]

Look, if you lied anyway you are obviously not being authentic about yourself and your intentions. An ADCOM would rather hear that you like the school but are in love with surgery than to have to gush over it and tell them a lie. It could come back to haunt you later.

Simple rule here: Be honest.

 

[Amy]

What makes you think that "primary care" is what schools want to hear? Just BE HONEST, and you can't go wrong.

 

[TSpoon]

I like how the article amazingly skips the fact that many of us don't want to deal with $250,000+ insurance premiums each year, along with just general frivilous litigation.

When is the public going to smarten up?

 

[johnM]

What are they talking about with the $50K/year resident salary? Is that typical? I was pretty sure the most residents are closer to $35K/year. I'm personally really interested in gen surg, so its a little refreshing to see the shortage. I kinda hope that it remains this way for another 4 years. :wink:

 

[THE instiGATOR]

I've said this before... The school that offered me an acceptance placed 70% of it's last class into primary care areas. When I interviewed, I told my interviewer that I was leaning heavily toward surgery of some sort. He smiled and thanked me for being honest.

Don't lie...it's a bad habit.

About surgical residencies...I think the avg is ~$42,000/yr. I'm not extremely certain, though.

 

[dr.evil]

I think the avg. of $42,000 sounds about right. On the east/west coast, pay is usually higher while in the midwest/south the pay is usually a little lower. Most surgery residencies will start with salaries of at least $34,000 and progressively increase over 5 years.

I'm doing surgery (I'm an MS4) and have mixed feelings about the surgery shortage. The optimist in me tells me that a shortage means I will have an easier time getting a job with possibly better incentives, etc. The pessimist in me tells me I'm going into a field no one else likes, it will get infiltrated with FMG's or poor quality applicants, I will be getting even more overworked when I'm in practice b/c I'm one of the few surgeons in town, blah, blah, blah.

Everything goes in cycles. The talk about how surgery is down will likely cause some minor changes in residency programs making life a little easier for residents (probably after I'm out though ). This will also translate into more people going into surgery and the competitiveness will increase. Who knows? We'll just have to sit back a ride the ride.

It just amazes me that suddenly, less people are interested in surgery. That can't be really true. I think more people are saying "Hey, I would be happy in this specialty too and life is much better so I'll do that."

Surgery is the best. Granted, the life is not the best but the job is. I just have to battle through the residency.

 

[dr.evil]

Oh yeah, to all you guys/gals applying to med school. When the interview comes around, please tell the truth. I was on the admissions committee and was one of those 4th years who grilled you :wink: )

Anyway, when we asked an applicant what they thought they wanted to do, we truly appreciated the honest applicant. One guy who was one amongst many with the same stats on paper said, "I have always wanted to do orthopedic surgery." He went on to tell us what about it interested him. When we discussed him later, the attending that interviewed him with me said, "I really like this guy b/c I didn't think he was filling me full of b.s. during the interview. He never tried to tell me what he thought I wanted to hear." That applicant starts med school in August while many with his same stats will be re-applying.

Just thought I would give you anecdotal evidence.

 

[E'01]

•••quote:•••Originally posted by SwampMan:
•I've said this before... The school that offered me an acceptance placed 70% of it's last class into primary care areas. When I interviewed, I told my interviewer that I was leaning heavily toward surgery of some sort. He smiled and thanked me for being honest.
•••••I did the same and the interviewer told me at the end, THREE times, "our school has a VERY heavy focus on primary care - we make sure to do that by screening extremely carefully during the admissions process". Needless to say, I got waitlisted.

 

[Scooby Doo]

A lot of schools DO NOT want primary care applicants. Stanford being one of them!

 

[THE instiGATOR]

•••quote:•••Originally posted by E'01:
• •••quote:•••Originally posted by SwampMan:
•I've said this before... The school that offered me an acceptance placed 70% of it's last class into primary care areas. When I interviewed, I told my interviewer that I was leaning heavily toward surgery of some sort. He smiled and thanked me for being honest.
•••••I did the same and the interviewer told me at the end, THREE times, "our school has a VERY heavy focus on primary care - we make sure to do that by screening extremely carefully during the admissions process". Needless to say, I got waitlisted.•••••USA, the school I was writing about, also screens very heavily. They even go as far as to ask what type of medicine you want to practice on their secondary application. I listed a good # of surgical specialties of interest to me (nowhere did I indicate I wanted to enter a primary care field). I suppose that if you indicated your preference anywhere on your app and were invited to interview, you passed their screen. Not every school wants to crank out all primary care physicians. They've got to produce a few specialists. I don't think it is worthwhile to be dishonest for the sake of getting an acceptance.

 

[BlackPuma]

•••quote:•••Originally posted by Peustow:
•Oh yeah, to all you guys/gals applying to med school. When the interview comes around, please tell the truth. I was on the admissions committee and was one of those 4th years who grilled you :wink: )

Anyway, when we asked an applicant what they thought they wanted to do, we truly appreciated the honest applicant. One guy who was one amongst many with the same stats on paper said, "I have always wanted to do orthopedic surgery." He went on to tell us what about it interested him. When we discussed him later, the attending that interviewed him with me said, "I really like this guy b/c I didn't think he was filling me full of b.s. during the interview. He never tried to tell me what he thought I wanted to hear." That applicant starts med school in August while many with his same stats will be re-applying.

Just thought I would give you anecdotal evidence.•••••and which school would you be? cuz I said orthopedic, and cardiothoracic several times...in one interview...this person said, that I was too short to be an orthopedic surgeon

so much for honesty...his remark was that you have to be the "frat" type to go into ortho....

snif snif

 

[Street Philosopher]

Sorry I must have been in an accusatory mood. It was posted 4am after writing up a research proposal... my apologies. I thought that's what most people considered to be the "correct answer." I personally don't want to do primary care and I wasn't going to say so. Anyway, I think in Los Angeles at least, resident salaries hover around the 29,000 to 33,000 mark. I've actually seen offers a list of salary offers a few years back when my sister was applying for internship/residency. But she was doing internal medicine so surgery might be higher.

Is the 250,000 insurance premium only in Nevada or is that a common thing?

 

[Winged Scapula]

•••quote:•••Originally posted by johnM:
•What are they talking about with the $50K/year resident salary? Is that typical? I was pretty sure the most residents are closer to $35K/year. I'm personally really interested in gen surg, so its a little refreshing to see the shortage. I kinda hope that it remains this way for another 4 years. :wink: •••••I answered this question in the Rotations and Residencies Forum as well, but figured I'd do so as well here.

Many programs pay more than $40,000 per year; some NYC programs START at $40,000+. The salary varies widely - usually it relates to cost of living, but then again, some of the programs in DC are amongst the worst paying in the country and the cost of living there is rather high.

I will make $38,750 next year as an R2; I expect a $1500-$2000 raise every year of my residency which will bring me close to $50,000. I have a friend who's a Chief in California and she makes a little over $50,000. To be sure there are programs with salaries right around $30,000 but most start in low-mid 30s.