Trauma Surgery/Surgical Critical Care

[Born2baDoctor]

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I absolutly LOVE Trauma:Life in the ER!! You get a good idea of what it's like to be in the receiving areas of the trauma centers. However, it doesn't give much insight on the surgical portion of the case. How satisfied are trauma surgeons with their jobs? How often do they take call in a level one center and is it in house? How much does the trauma surgeon participate in the emergency departnent resuscitation? All responses will be appreciated.

 

[Plastikos]

I absolutly LOVE Trauma:Life in the ER!! You get a good idea of what it's like to be in the receiving areas of the trauma centers. However, it doesn't give much insight on the surgical portion of the case. How satisfied are trauma surgeons with their jobs? How often do they take call in a level one center and is it in house? How much does the trauma surgeon participate in the emergency departnent resuscitation? All responses will be appreciated.

Sorry for the vagueness, but it will vary greatly depending on location and individual hospital's standards. Attendings in general still work like dogs, at USC they take in house call and run the show in the ER.

 

[DO_Surgeon]

I absolutly LOVE Trauma:Life in the ER!! You get a good idea of what it's like to be in the receiving areas of the trauma centers. However, it doesn't give much insight on the surgical portion of the case. How satisfied are trauma surgeons with their jobs? How often do they take call in a level one center and is it in house? How much does the trauma surgeon participate in the emergency departnent resuscitation? All responses will be appreciated.

Keep in mind shows like that are only showing a select number of cases after months of filming and editing only the really good cases are shown. For the most part trauma is babysitting for the ortho/NS services after some form of blunt trauma. Wait until your GS residency, most find that trauma is nothing like what it appears on TV.

 

[Plastikos]

Keep in mind shows like that are only showing a select number of cases after months of filming and editing only the really good cases are shown. For the most part trauma is babysitting for the ortho/NS services after some form of blunt trauma. Wait until your GS residency, most find that trauma is nothing like what it appears on TV.

Depends on where your at, but in general it really is moving towards a babysitting type of deal. We used to get a ton of penetrating trauma and still do get a good amount, but everyone is moving towards non-invasive things for a ton of stuff.
It still can be pretty exciting here, but the rotations are now enough to satisfy those old trauma desires.

 

[Leukocyte]

I absolutly LOVE Trauma:Life in the ER!! You get a good idea of what it's like to be in the receiving areas of the trauma centers. However, it doesn't give much insight on the surgical portion of the case. How satisfied are trauma surgeons with their jobs? How often do they take call in a level one center and is it in house? How much does the trauma surgeon participate in the emergency departnent resuscitation? All responses will be appreciated.

This is a TV SHOW! The network want/has to make it look interesting in order to get better ratings.

If you want to really know what Trauma surgeons do then do a Trauma elective. From my experience as a medical student, I came to this conclusion:

Emergency Medicine is to Medicine as is Trauma Surgery is to Surgery.

Meaning, in many cases I saw the trauma surgeons act as the case managers of the trauma cases, calling Ortho, Neurosx, Urology, Vascular....for consult depending on the case. From my experience Trauma sx is more like trauma management.

Good Luck.