If I my motor skills are not exceptional can I still become a surgeon?
Are all surgeon specialties competitive?
What does it take to get into surgeon specialties?
I am a PGY-3 in Vascular Surgery.
#1 Motor skills.
Your hands matter. But, you need to realize that like everything in this world, practice is everything. We all start at different levels, a lot of it is a product of how much we did with our hands as kids, a lot of people would make arguments for carpentry, video games, sports etc. At the end of the day the starting point differences are quite small relatively to the end point. The real question is how much do you love surgery? Would you put in the time to practice? Would you put in the time to learn the skills that you are sub-par in? When I left my medical school, I had the best basic surgical skills of any MS4, suturing, lines, chest tubes, running a trauma algorithm, etc. I was also by far the most active student, I practiced every weekend. I took extra shifts, etc. When I showed up in residency, my co-intern blew me out of the water. I always told people, he is just so much better than me innately, he just gets it. Then we talked about what medical school was like. He did the same thing as me, but likely 20% harder. You need to be at a place that will nurture your interests. A part of being interested in surgery is technical excellence. You need people that will walk you through things and more importantly tell you when you are screwing up and how to fix it. But, after that, it is entirely on you. If you don't enjoy developing those skills, I'm not sure why you are interested in surgery!
By the same token, you need to realize that people like to focus on the OR with surgeons. The reality is that the hardest things to learn are not in the operating room. Who needs an operation vs. who doesn't. What operation. The timing of an operation etc. THOSE are the hard things. A lot of interns get pissy that they don't have much time in the OR and we definitely push that they start to develop their OR skills early, but they, like most students need to realize that the floor, the ICU and clinic are all teaching areas as well.
#2 Competitiveness
Not all surgical specialties are considered competitive. Things like plastic surgery, ENT, integrated sub-specialties etc. can be among the most competitive specialties out there. On the other hand, general surgery (mainly because of the larger number of programs) is not nearly as competitive. There is a wide range within many surgical disciplines.
#3 What does it take to get into surgery?
Nothing different than any other specialty. Good step 1 score, good clinical grades, and a good LOR (+/- research for some sub-specialties) will get you an interview at almost anywhere. When you interview, it is all about passion. We want people excited about our field. We want people that are dedicated. I want an intern that is going to bust their ass to get their work done and join me in the OR. I want a junior resident that is going to run the floor and work tirelessly on honing their surgical craft. I want a chief who is going to run the service, manage people, and graduate aiming to make a difference in people's lives as well as our field.
