surgery v. IM pgy1

[kungfufishing]

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so, if I match at a 2,3,4 I will have options for my first year. Of the two, which do those of you who have done it or are in residency think is more pertinent/applicable to EM - a surg prelim or a medicine one? Which yearlong beatdown is rougher/gentle?

 

[ERMudPhud]

I did IM and thought it was probably the best choice. I feel like I had a better IM background than many of my EM peers and much of what comes in to a non-trauma center (where you will likely work when done with residency) is medicine. I also felt like surgical internship was a lot of scut and floor work with little education or even many procedures. Surgery programs seemed to me to load up most of the education in the 2nd and 3rd years with the interns acting mostly as scut monkeys.

On the other hand a nice cushy transitional year somewhere tropical probably would have been the best.

 

[DrQuinn]

Agree wholeheaertedly with ERMudPhud. I have heard this at several institutions from several levels of residents/attendings...

"The surgery intern is the most overworked person in the hospital."

I agree. I did my month of trauma surgery and talking to the surgery interns, man, some of them had a horrible first few months. 80 hour work week for them? Bah!

Do an IM rotation (unless you really LOVED surgery), or a easy-peasy transitional one. You'll still get a LOT of learning done in that year, even though you will feel like you didn't.

Q, DO

 

[Sessamoid]

Originally posted by ERMudPhud
I did IM and thought it was probably the best choice. I feel like I had a better IM background than many of my EM peers and much of what comes in to a non-trauma center (where you will likely work when done with residency) is medicine.

I worked in a major tertiary care and trauma center after residency, and still by far the most common of the problems I saw were medical in nature. There's a reason our specialty is called "Emergency Medicine" and not "Emergency Surgery".

 

[kungfufishing]

thats about the way I had it figured. Of course, Im not all that likely to end up in a 2-4 since almost all of my places are 3's, but if I do Ill opt for the medicine part.

 

[iwakuni_doc]

SURGERY....nuff said!

 

[LaCirujana]

As a surgery resident who loves her job and wouldn't trade you guys for anything, I'd recommend IM or a transitional year. Being a surgery intern sucks a$$ and all the "cool" stuff doesn't trickle down far enough for you to get do, or often even see any of it. Like Sessamoid said--it's emergency MEDICINE, not emergency surgery.

 

[Apollyon]

Originally posted by LaCirujana
As a surgery resident who loves her job and wouldn't trade you guys for anything, I'd recommend IM or a transitional year. Being a surgery intern sucks a$$ and all the "cool" stuff doesn't trickle down far enough for you to get do, or often even see any of it. Like Sessamoid said--it's emergency MEDICINE, not emergency surgery.

Now, if this endorsement doesn't do it for you, then nothing will tell you.

 

[kungfufishing]

man, I got popular on this thread. Really appreciate it.