trauma surgery?

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pre-doc

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Can anyone out there offer some information/insight into this field of medicine (i.e. what is the lifestyle like, etc.)? thanks!

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I'll move this over to Rotations and Residencies Forum for ya. There are numerous threads regarding Trauma Surgery there (if you do a search) but in general the lifestyle is one of the worst in surgery - bad hours, little pay, etc.
 
Actually Kimberli, I read yesterday in Gen. Surgery News (that little throw-away periodical we get) that some Trauma/Critical care surgeons are now billing as much as 2X the amount as their collegues in General surgery & Surg. Oncology due to an increased attention to proper documenting & billing for ICU care & procedures. This increase should put their average pay well over $300K I would imagine (after billing b/w $900k-$1 million as in the article)
 
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Kimberli, what exactely do you mean by bad hours? Are you talking about residency and taking call or are you talking about after residency? Or dare I ask, both?
 
Thanks for the info Rob. I was basing my opinion on conversations with the Trauma Surgeons here who felt they were underpaid with regard to others with similar training.

As for the hours, again I am basing it on the Attendings here. As a Trauma Center, we have IN-HOUSE Attendings who must show up for all Traumas, even those not necessarily requiring a trip to the OR. Sometimes the time required of them in the Trauma Bay is minimal (ie, a patient with minimal injuries, perhaps only requiring a 23 hour observation admission) and others, especially those requiring emergent OR attention, are great time suckers. The House Staff does the majority of the administrative and ward work (getting the patient admitted, tests ordered, interpreted, etc. ) but the attending is still there. IMHO, the hours suck because while it is a set call schedule when you are on-call you have a great chance of being up all night, or being interrupted multiple times during the night and then having to operate your normal hours the next day. Not much fun in my book.
 
I glanced at the very same article in GSN...something to think about I guess
 
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