Surgery Elective Suggestions and Gen Surg Concerns

[HIVresearcher8255]

Hi all,

Currently half way (more like 5/8) through my third year. Finishing up my surgery rotation this week and only have peds and OB/GYN left. . Have been doing well in rotations with all A/honors in the rotations I have done and passed step 1 without issues. Going into medical school I was unsure of what a being a physician would look like for me, specialty wise, although I spent a decent amount of time shadowing in the OR in undergraduate. I have had a blast on all my rotations, and surprisingly loved rotations I thought would be a drag. That being said I know I want to be a surgeon, I love the OR, and know I will be kicking myself the rest of my career if I am the one who has to consult a surgical team, and don't get to fix the problem.

Was obsessed with my plastics rotation - especially facial trauma call we took - and now am loving the breast part of my general surgery rotation. Unfortunately I really dislike the colorectal aspect, I don't mind the open colectomy and mass excision/foreign body stuff, but a robotic or laparoscopic procedure just really does not spark my interest at all. I have the ability to do two additional electives in my first part of fourth year and am going to try to go them in two surgical subspecialties.

So questions:
1. Any suggestions on which two additional I should look at? Was considering ENT or maybe a hand specialist?
2. Is it a terrible idea to go for gen surgery if you dislike colorectal, but know you could be extremely happy doing breast?

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[DOVinciRobot]

2. Is it a terrible idea to go for gen surgery if you dislike colorectal, but know you could be extremely happy doing breast?

Breast is a small part of general surgery and unless you do a breast fellowship (definitely possible though) then you won't have a breast only practice.

Reality is that general surgery is a specialist of the abdomen. So if you don't like abdominal surgery I think it would be short sighted to do GS with the goal being one small sub-specialty aspect, as there is always the chance you don't match said fellowship, even if it's just of moderate competitiveness like breast.

I will say that watching robot/lap cases as a student and even a Jr. resident is boring AF, but that changes significantly as you progress and become the one actually doing the cases.

If you are competitive enough for plastics or ENT then I would do a rotation in ENT and see if you enjoy it given you really liked the facial trauma. Hand is a very very niche field and would either be a very long route via plastics or a still long but shorter than plastics route via orthopedics.

Choose specialty that you would most like to do if you were unable to do the niche fellowship.

 

[Dr G Oogle]

Agree with above. I used to hate just about every procedure when I was the watcher. It’s a lot different if you’re the doer. I’m sure your gen surgery department has a robotic and laparoscopic skills lab, ask if you can join the residents there sometime and see.

Also check out urology and maybe ortho.

 

[operaman]

Seconding the post above - robots are boring af unless you’re the one doing it. It’s not really part of my practice now but I got to do some robotic cases as a resident and they were fun. When they develop a robot that really works for my subspecialty niche I may look into it again.

Definitely see what your school has in terms of simulators. The robot sims are really good and I’m sure there’s one around. If not, see if you can go to a national meeting and you can bet that if it’s a big one, there will be robot vendors with sims set up and open to use at all times.

Beyond that, ENT sounds like a good potential fit for you from the facial plastics standpoint. Obviously you would want to do a rotation and see what you think of the rest of the field. Even if you do end up going full on FP, the other aspects of the field serve as uniquely good training because it gives you such an in depth knowledge of head and neck anatomy.

Integrated plastics would also be a nice option.

In either case, you will need to move fast on securing research and making connections and might end up needing a research year. That’s probably the most common reason for research years - the late decider who is otherwise a strong applicant but needs the specialty specific pubs to seal the deal. They tend to match very well.