Trauma surgery rotation, yay or nay? Or something else?

[MedicineZ0Z]

---

Members don't see this ad.

I'm applying to EM. What would be more useful as I'm required to do a surgery subspecialty rotation. Would trauma be good potentially?

 

[Redpancreas]

Yes. You’ll be together running codes and will in fact spend 10% of your time together with the ED team in the recess bays for trauma codes. You’ll develop a solid understanding of ATLS. Another good choice is Orthopedics strictly because of the scarcity of information generalists know about it contrary to vascular surgery where most boards test on things like compartment, cold limbs, etc. there’s often not a lot of practical information on Orthopedics. Plastics is OK and you’ll hopefully get a chance to suture or at least learn to quickly assess hand deficits. Vascular teaches a lot of good medicine but you should get a lot of it from other rotations. I would avoid colorectal.

 

[MedicineZ0Z]

Yes. You’ll be together running codes and will spend 10-20% of the same in the recess bays for trauma codes. You’ll develop a solid understanding of ATLS. Another good choice is Orthopedics strictly because of the scarcity of information generalists know about it contrary to vascular surgery where most boards test on things like compartment, cold limbs, etc. there’s often not a lot of practical information on Orthopedics. Plastics is OK and you’ll hopefully get a chance to suture or at least learn to quickly assess hand deficits. Vascular teaches a lot of good medicine but you should get a lot of it from other rotations. I would avoid colorectal.

Good advice, thank you!

I guess the trauma vs ortho part is the debate.

 

[Oso]

Good advice, thank you!

I guess the trauma vs ortho part is the debate.

I would do trauma over ortho. Ortho could be useful but you'll also spend a lot of time in the OR learning the details of the operations which is much less useful for EM.

 

[Redpancreas]

I would do trauma over ortho. Ortho could be useful but you'll also spend a lot of time in the OR learning the details of the operations which is much less useful for EM.

Interesting point. I wonder with Ortho if all that extra stuff they talk about like when to do ORIF, the 9 million types of hip fractures, etc. change management anywhere outside the OR. If not, I guess Ortho’s not the best idea...

 

[KinasePro]

You'll get the most bang for your buck on an ortho rotation that allows you to take call with the residents. My program is trauma-heavy and when we have EM-bound med students on our service taking call with us, we'll let them take swings at reductions, traction pins, revision amps, nailbed repairs, etc... If its a trauma-heavy ortho service, you'll also get some reps putting on splints in the OR as well. On the other hand if your ortho service is at a hospital without much trauma, then the rotation is honestly less worth your while. You'll mostly be scrubbing arthroplasty/scopes and huffing farts in the work room.

 

[doc05]

Ortho will probably be the most useful. You'll learn proper techniques to splint, reduce fractures/dislocations etc. This is important for an ED doc especially if you end up in the community.

Trauma is really a big waste of time because all you do is ABCs and send patients to CT scan.

Also don't discount plastics or vascular, and don't pretend you learn about either of these fields from other rotations.