Surgery and height

[Futuredoc137]

Posting for a friend who is an M3 interested in surgery. Definitely qualified but she was told recently that it would be really hard for her to match because of her height- she’s 4’11 and the doc said she wouldn’t be able to reach the table easily and residencies don’t like that. Has anyone heard this before/experienced this bias before? For anyone that works in admissions, has this ever been discussed when deciding on an applicant? Thanks.

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[Severus21]

Never ever discussed height in rank process. Some of the best surgeons I know are 5 feet tall or just under!

 

[Niwrad]

Every OR has step stools for this reason. One of the common variations can be safely stacked for additional height. Sometimes the other surgeon is just much taller and not necessarily shorter, so even average height people will use step stools to be roughly the same level.

Ergonomics and being able to see is pretty important if the OR table has been adjusted to the other surgeon's height.

 

[LucidSplash]

This is absolute ****ing bull**** nonsense. I’m 5’3”, female, and an attending vascular surgeon. They have stepstools to stand on in the OR for whoever needs it, surgeon, scrub tech, med student, whoever. At times I have stood on 2 if I am operating with someone a lot taller but usually one is sufficient. Tell your friend to press on if she wants to do surgery and completely ignore whoever gave that nonsense information because they clearly have no idea what they are talking about.

 

[LucidSplash]

I will say tell your friend not to be shy about asking for a step in the OR if they need one. As a med student/intern I was a little taciturn about asking for one but in retrospect that was just because I didn’t want to appear needy but as an attending I am the first to tell the trainees to ask for one if they need it to see, and encouraging them to ask for one themselves in the future. I also tend to set table height at the appropriate height for the tallest person operating and stand on a stool myself. Ergonomics are important for longevity in surgery and even though I’m the senior most person scrubbed I’m not interested in ego games and giving my residents back pain. This is a physical profession and there is a reason some of the grey-hairs are shaped like question marks. Not a lot can be done about an attending contorting themself into a curve to watch a trainee operate on a carotid but it is easy for me to stand on a step so the trainee doesn’t have to hunch over.

 

[doyouhaveaflag]

Aren’t interviews still virtual? Ours still are for plastics. Can’t tell people’s height on zoom.

But also that is BS information.