want to be a neurosurgeon

[rosar1]

m a newbie here and i dun even know if i m posting it at the right place...

so if anyone could help me out here that will be really gr8 of him/her...

i want to be a neurosurgeon and i m not sure abt the path that i need to go and how much time it will take untill i become a full fledge surgeon ... i know it sounds kind of kiddish ... but m just not sure abt the path to be taken... m gonna go into 1st year post secondary ... m taking life sciences - biology and i just want sumone to help me out here and just lemme know wat exactly is gonna come in front of me in these upcoming years and wat i need to do in order to face all those fearlesly.

and yes i m in canada (toronto)... so please refer me to medical schools and places of interest in canada... help will be really appretiated...

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[typhoonegator]

First off, people will take you more seriously if you type actual words when you post. If you don't have time to type "great" rather than "gr8", why should I take the time to help you?

There is a whole neurosurgery SDN forum listed under...neurosurgery. They will likely be able to help you better than the people on the neurology forum.

Neurosurgery requires 4 years of college, 4 years of medical school, 1 year of general surgery internship, and 6-7 years of neurosurgery residency. After that, possibly a fellowship, then a career of remunerative but demanding work.

If you cruise these forums long enough, you realize that an exorbitant amount of male pre-meds go through a neurosurgery phase. Few of those even apply for neurosurgery residency, and even fewer get in. It is a very demanding specialty, both in terms of time and intensity, and seven years of residency is a long time to give in the prime of your life. I too was once convinced that I was going to become a neurosurgeon, but by about half-way through medical school I realized that it wasn't for me. I actually thought the OR was boring.

If you think you're interested in neurosurgery, by all means, pursue it. But do so with your eyes open. Call or email a private or academic neurosurgeon in your community, and ask to shadow them for a few days, to get the flavor of it. If you're just in college, you also have a lot of time to think about this before you have to make the decision. Getting into medical school is not trivial either, and you're thinking even a step beyond that.

 

[SexySurgeon]

...and a few amount of female pre-meds go through the same phase as well...

 

[rosar1]

First off, people will take you more seriously if you type actual words when you post. If you don't have time to type "great" rather than "gr8", why should I take the time to help you?

There is a whole neurosurgery SDN forum listed under...neurosurgery. They will likely be able to help you better than the people on the neurology forum.

Neurosurgery requires 4 years of college, 4 years of medical school, 1 year of general surgery internship, and 6-7 years of neurosurgery residency. After that, possibly a fellowship, then a career of remunerative but demanding work.

If you cruise these forums long enough, you realize that an exorbitant amount of male pre-meds go through a neurosurgery phase. Few of those even apply for neurosurgery residency, and even fewer get in. It is a very demanding specialty, both in terms of time and intensity, and seven years of residency is a long time to give in the prime of your life. I too was once convinced that I was going to become a neurosurgeon, but by about half-way through medical school I realized that it wasn't for me. I actually thought the OR was boring.

If you think you're interested in neurosurgery, by all means, pursue it. But do so with your eyes open. Call or email a private or academic neurosurgeon in your community, and ask to shadow them for a few days, to get the flavor of it. If you're just in college, you also have a lot of time to think about this before you have to make the decision. Getting into medical school is not trivial either, and you're thinking even a step beyond that.

first of all i am really sorry for this act of mine of typing in a sluggish way. and i really appreciate your help sir and it really did gave me a idea what i am going to hit. but i will still want to ask you more questions about this matter since i really want to be a surgeon and i am not sure whether i should go for neurosurgeon or something else. please give me an idea about whats in demand that i should go for.please do reply to this and i really liked the suggestion of finding a neurosurgeon i will do it soon.. thanks for ur help again... nice meeting u typhoonegator.

 

[typhoonegator]

There is another surgery forum here as well that may be able to answer your question regarding the demand for certain surgical subspecialties.

I believe neurosurgery has the lowest ratio of practicing surgeons to population size of any of the large adult surgical specialties. Of course, if you choose to become a pediatric hand surgeon, you would be in very high demand, but neurosurgery is right up there.

Cardiothoracic surgery is in some transition now, due to the strides made by the cardiologists in minimally invasive techniques. To be sure, their services will always be necessary, but not in the numbers that they once were.

There are very few fields in medicine where you would have any real difficulty finding a job, as long as your constraints aren't outlandish. That even counts for cardiothoracics. You should make the decision on your chosen field based on your passion for that field rather than more pedestrian concerns like prestige or money or demand.

 

[yaah]

There's a neurosurgery forum, so I'm moving your post there.