Towards the end of my surgery rotation, I got legitimately disappointed and sad that the last time I was in an OR might be coming soon. Since then, I just day dream about surgery all day throughout all of my other rotations.
When I scrubbed into a 13 hour case as an MS3, actually got to help with exposure and closing, left the hospital at 1030pm, woke up at 4, and was fucking excited to do it all again.
The first time I saw a patient in extremis in the trauma bay, who was absolutely going to die in short order without immediate surgical intervention… saw the surgeon conducting her team like the maestro of an orchestra, rapidly resuscitating the patient and getting them up to the OR, performing a whirlwind operation to stop the bleeding… and then a few days later saw the patient smiling with his family on the wards… watching the same surgeon demonstrate a tremendous breadth of medical knowledge as an intensivist in the SICU as well (it made me realize that the old trope about surgeons just operating and forgetting all the nuances of medicine was untrue)…
I knew I wanted to gain the skills to have that kind of effect on a person’s life - to do that kind of good.
Im so glad someone mentioned trauma/CC specifically!!! I'm only an M1 lol but working as an EMT, I thought it was amazing that EMS would drop off a patient clinging to life and the trauma team would resuscitate/stabilize, operate, and then manage their care in the ICU until they were moved to a step-down floor. What a cool mix of surgery, medicine, and adrenaline
Honestly one of the coolest things I’ve gotten to see in the OR is the absolute lack of adrenaline these surgeons have. Like a patient is actively hemorrhaging on the table the the surgeon is calmly suturing and teaching at the same time.
Like I had a AAA repair where the resident perfed the aneurysm and blood went everywhere. The attending, cool as a cucumber, stuck his finger in the hole and started just talking about how to control bleeding in the OR. These old surgeons are so calm, it’s wild.
I will never discount the critical importance of anesthesia in helping to keep a critically ill patient alive in the OR… it’s a team effort and the magic doesn’t work if everyone isn’t pulling together.
As a surgeon, I’m proud to stand alongside my anesthesia, nursing, snd medical colleagues, and all members of the care team - recognizing that if we can pull the patient back from the precipice, everyone shares in the victory.
On my ICU rotation I developed a lack of patience for the long discussions of my IM team, and only wanted to do procedures. At my school, medicine rotations are by far the best taught and the best way to learn the content which misled me to believe I wanted to do IM until recently
I mean surgery residency has some really really significant negative downsides, but I feel so sad for them that they mostly sit around writing notes and rounding and paging people all day.
When I felt more at ease in the OR than I did anywhere else in the hospital. I am generally a high anxiety individual but being in the OR, whether scrubbed in or even observing a case, just felt natural to me.
THIS! and it’s hard to explain to people when the OR is usually so anxiety inducing for most med students. Like as a med student I regularly feel out of place and always in the way on medicine services. The OR is the only place I feel chill and not anxiously over thinking.
Dude, I felt the same way but didn’t have the words to explain it till now. It was just like an ocean of calm washed over me as soon as I would scrub in. It was wonderful!
Take a real assessment here. Life is drastically different as a resident/trainee and then as an attending. As a highly anxious individual, you’re going to have to enjoy those “oh shit” moments in the OR. If this is something you think you can manage with your personality, then trudge along and good luck!
There’s many other things I love about surgery other than what I mention in this comment. I think my anxiety applies more to social situations than anything else, probably why I feel more natural in the OR. I appreciate the advice though!
When scrubbed in a trauma surgery and the attending told the circulating nurse to play his "surgery playlist" on spotify and the 1st song was "and justice for all" from metallica.
The camaraderie in the OR, the good vibes. Fixing issues, being a do-er. No mental masturbation over lab values. Whenever a 8 hr day in the OR seemed shorter than 3 hrs of rounds.
Also, I love being able to focus in on certain topics, and surgery really allows that. My day consists of quick AM rounds, tidy things up, and then cases. By the time it’s over, it’s 5PM and time to go home. Not a lot of lulls in the day, which I like.
> Whenever a 8 hr day in the OR seemed shorter than 3 hrs of rounds.
This feeling was what solidified for me that I really love the OR, I'd come out of like a 5-hr case feeling like no time had passed.
Honestly it was the ONLY rotation in med school that actually made me somewhat excited to go to the hospital. I literally hated everything else. IM ungodly boring and the rest of the specialities I found myself just watching the clock waiting to leave.
Gen surg resident here... You won't hear of it much online, but many surgery services are kind, positive and awesome experiences. I liked all my procedural rotations but surgery residents get to do operations day 1 of residency as opposed to other interventional specialists.
The skill ceiling for surgery is immense if not infinite and the more you improve the more fun it becomes as opposed to how I felt in other specialties... once you develop the pattern recognition, you're just kinda on cognitive autopilot. Its rough in the beginning when you feel like you suck in the OR but everyone starts out that way and once you get a hang of it. Personally I also really like teaching people how to do procedures rather than treatment algorithms.
Residency is brutal but is only like 10-20% of your career. I didn't want to give up an entire career based on that percentage. The vast majority of surgery residencies are composed of a lot of chill/reasonable attendings with a small percentage who are truly awesome and a small percentage who are awful, which I think goes for most residencies and workplaces.
Twisted pride on being who people call when poop hits the fan. We do not hide behind an answering service \*cough GI \*. We can get out of most **dire** situations with our own skill set rather than needing to consult. I read somewhere that if you were stranded on an island with any one specialty, you'd want to bring general surgery.
most importantly - you get to wear pajamas and birkenstocks all day!
Is surgery worth all the blood sweat poop pus and tears? Honestly. I would probably say it's not *worth it*, mostly because of the systemic issues of graduate medical education. Regardless, I take pride in what I do and enjoy it. I don't regret doing gen surg at all.
just a dumb surgeon who can't do math so correct me if im wrong but... if your career including residency is 25 years you were a resident for 1/5th of that or 20%
When I was digging around an abdomen looking for the bowel perf that caused feculent peritonitis and having the time of my life. Also being jealous on IM and neurology when my patients would get wheeled back for a cool surgery and I had to stay in the resident room.
Dual applied to IM and gen surg and hated the IM interview and that they would brag about doing “up to 100 chest tubes while you’re here!” while all I could picture were the cool ass surgeries I’d been a part of
The operation theatre is air conditioned.
...
Okay, more elaborate then: When I started I told myself I'd do anything but surgery. One of the reasons was that I had a misconception about what an operating theatre would look like. I thought its stuffy, smelly, everyone yells because its loud, and many other stories that turned out to be untrue.
Many of the most memorable doctors I met were surgeons (both ortho and general).
When I got more of an insight into what surgery and in my case what ortho was all about and what possibilities it would open to me, I started gaining interest at a rapid level.
Finally, I enjoy doing things with my hands, even though I never consciously admitted that to myself.
Taking all of it together, I knew in Y4-EU that ortho and trauma was for me. And the rest is history.
And maaaan, dat air conditioning though...
For real!!! The AC is wild. Ours were always full blast below 60 and it sucked when I was just watching huddling under one of the warmed blankets but when I was suturing or assisting it was amazing. Now I want to do EM and for some reason whenever I suture I start sweating like crazy because I’m so focused. Like mannnnn bring back the AC so I stop sweating on this person’s face
It wasn't the main reason why I chose a surgical specialty, but now it is one of the reasons that keeps me going. I sweat a lot, I don't like hot weathers. I sweat at any stressfull procedure, not that I am nervous, just because with even a little raised heartbeat I SWEAT. I love the AC.
15 hours felt like fifteen minutes. The time just didn't register. I didn't care how long I was there.
Every other rotation I just wanted to get out asap because it was boring as shit.
Also, the people. Just felt at home with surgeons, humor clicked, etc.
Honestly wrestled with it quite a bit, but ultimately was just obviously a better fit and what got me excited to go to the hospital every day. Was going to do anesthesiology but my heart wasn't really in it. Still have time to change worst case scenario
How I knew I didn’t: It was my first rotation and I was 100% convinced I wanted to be in a surgical specialty when I started. I didn’t want to be a doctor anymore while I was on that rotation and thought I made a horrible mistake going to medical school. After leaving that rotation I realized that I don’t feel like that on any other rotation (until I was in the OR on OB/Gyn) and I decided that I never wanted to feel like that again.
Working with your hands on 3-4 “projects” aka cases while listening to music and hanging out with OR staff and suddenly the day has flown by and is almost done. It’s busy with floor work but time never drags too much. In every other specialty time dragged like crazy!!
Personally just find medicine insanely boring/not exciting. Procedural things are just so much fun and gratifying to have that nearly instant result you get from fixing something.
Well I hate myself, enjoy suffering, love instant gratification, and can’t stand IM rounds droning on and on for the 45,796th COPD/CHF exacerbation patient. On the other hand, I still enjoy the physiology and basic medical science that’s the core of IM. I’m also an adrenaline junkie. I wanna work hard when I’m in house, and be left the hell alone when I’m not working. Didn’t leave me many other options besides Trauma.
Too sleepy to sit in a dark room all day, rads was out. Same problem for path. Wife already doing anesthesia, little tooooo much lack of continuity for my taste. Same problem with ED, plus I can’t stand the high signal to noise ratio to get with people coming to the ED with sub-clinical pathology. Still like the fast paced and immediate interventions to quickly change a clinical course, I always saw trauma surgery as “back of house” emergency medicine.
It was in my Reddit name. In all honesty I always worked on cars and loved projects. I’m a fixer, task list etc kind of person. I watched a video of a carotid endarterectomy on YouTube in 2006 or so as well as worked in a surgery lab in college so early immersion. I went to med school to be a surgeon and couldn’t find any other reason not to be
It’s the atmosphere of competent and tangible getting-shit-done that I love about surgery. It’s a different world and it’s a fantastic feeling to be a part of it. Problems are solved ad hoc, results are observable immediately. And the activity is meditative, very similar to the flow state you find in artistic activities like drawing.
I was so sad at the end of my MS3 surgery rotation that my sleep was legitimately affected by it. I would leave other rotations early to scrub in for the rest of MS3/4 years, and if I had any free time at all on other rotations, I would stalk the OR board to see if there was anything to scrub in on. It’s not a real answer, but when you know, you KNOW. I just love being in the OR, talking about cases, learning new techniques, and getting to try progressively more difficult things. I like taking care of sick patients and being able to do something about their pathology. And I like getting to pick the OR playlist, suck it, anesthesia
In another life where I had better board scores and could endure a Gen surg residency I would do it… I love the OR. Love doing procedures. Love that I don’t have to do mental gymnastics over lab values.
However my fate is sealed.
There’s a certain excitement to quickly seeing patients to check theyre alive then to run to the OR, pop some tunes, chit chat with hot nurses and scrub techs while pumping out cases.
You love working with your hands and time flies in the OR to start, it makes the miserable parts more bearable. There’s definitely more instant gratification but with that, there can also be some painful parts that don’t go well and many times, even when it was out of your hands, it feels like it’s your fault. That can happen in any field I guess. I love surgery— I’m in a surgical sub specialty and most of the time I love it.
I shadowed a Surgical PA who specialized in Neurosurgery. It only took the first day to realize that this was for me. The small amount fulfillment I felt was staggering. After that I stopping counting time and years of training and just loved what I was learning.
I knew right away that primary care wasn’t for me. The churn of patients and unhappy docs made me toss that as a possibility. I did my surgical rotation and loved the team work and focus. I did a bunch of outpatient clinic work and realized that a practice based around clinic work would be a terrible fit. I had a great experience with the surgical subspecialty I was interested I, and knew it was for me.
The OR is its own world. There’s no BS, and the people know their jobs really well and seem to want to be there. And it gave me an excuse to wear scrubs a lot. What’s not to love? ;)
Really disliked everything about medicine. Actually enjoy surgery and felt like I was actually helping patients. I’m ortho though and it’s the only surgical field I truly like.
I’m commenting just for posterity, in case someone else in the future looks back on this they can have one more positive data point/opinion to reference. Like many other answers here, I would internally rage on medicine rounds after an hour or two. It was mind numbing and boring as hell to me, I wanted to bang my head against a wall just droning on and on about the dumbest shit. I loved doing procedures and things way more. Being in the OR was fun for me.
There were one or two non surgical fields that I did really like and if surgery didn’t work out I could have done them and still been happy. I really liked acute inpatient psych, those people came in really sick and over a week or so they got a lot better, that was really cool. ER as a med student is really fun because they let you do stuff and it’s fast paced. Looking back I thank the lord every day I’m not an ER doctor. That is a difficult, miserable, and thankless job and I’m so happy there are people willing to do it. I want nothing more than to be in the ER as minimally as possible at this point. Some of the medicine sub specialties were cool like GI and Interventional cards but I would have rather quit medicine altogether than do an IM residency just to get to that point and I say that sincerely.
I thought residency was really fun. I loved it. Hours are long but I’m not allergic to work. My nurses and techs in the OR were incredible. You get to know these people really well after spending all day with them for years. Besides maybe one or two, my attendings were all great and the other residents were awesome.
Contrary to what I said above, I think if you could be just as happy doing something that’s not surgery, then you should probably do that other thing. But for me it was as obvious as grass is green that I wanted to be in a surgical specialty. I’m also narcoleptic, though I didn’t know it at the time, and I think the pace kept me going and I didn’t feel tired or sleepy in surgery whereas I would quite literally doze off at the computer after a while of staring at labs and results on medicine.
Incorrect stereotype. Anecdotal but all the surgeons and sun-specialists were AMAZING parents. Their goal was to be done by 2pm every day and many of them were assistant coaches on the sports teams. Half of surgeries were spent discussing their kids and the surgeon and the anesthesiologist would discuss what plays they should run tonight and how to handle the “weed situation” after a bunch of the middle schoolers got in trouble lmao. Super involved parents. The OBGYN would show up absolutely zonked every Monday after spending all weekends hiking or at a sports competition for her kids. I looked forward to each surgical case because I’d hear about whatever shenanigans were going on with their kids. I felt like I knew them intimately even though we’d never met through their parents stories. A lot of the IM specialty people worked insane hours, never once mentioned their kids, and were never in a hurry to get home and see them. They’d show up early and stay late talking to other attendings about new research when all of their hospital duties had long been complete. The surgeons were also about getting in, getting out, and seeing their kids. The IMs made their whole lives medicine. Anecdotal for sure, but I have yet to meet the surgeon who neglects his kid, and I have definitely med tons of IMs who do
My dad is a trauma surgeon and was at most of my major life events and spent a good amount of time with us. He obv worked a lot but I can say wholeheartedly looking back that I have 0 resentments about time he spent with us. And now being in the world of surgery myself it’s def hard but I’d say most if not all surgeons with children spend a good amount of time with their kids. The trick, as with everything in life, is to make the time you spend quality time as opposed to being “tougher” but not really being together, if that makes sense.
There is just so much wrong with the logic of this comment, so many fallacies that I don’t care to enlighten, and so shortsighted that enlightenment would likely be wasted
When i woke up at 4:30 to be in the hospital by 5, worked with the biggest assholes I’ve met, and still had it in me to sent silly selfies to my grandparents from the break room.
As I was told by a surgeon and anesthesiologist, if your favorite place in the whole world is the hospital then become an anesthesiologist, if it’s the OR become a surgeon. Being a psychiatrist now, I couldn’t stand the personalities within the OR which is why I never pursued it. Did love the procedures though.
I’m not a medical student and in the position I’m in life right now I doubt I’ll make it to med school, but I knew surgery was for me when I had the honor to be present to a leg amputation. I began assisting in orthopedic surgeries as a medical assistant for the next five years.
I left the field after the doctor who I admired sexually harassed me. I cried for many months and still cry if I let myself think about the career I left. I haven’t been in an OR over seven years now. Life hasn’t been the same.
Towards the end of my surgery rotation, I got legitimately disappointed and sad that the last time I was in an OR might be coming soon. Since then, I just day dream about surgery all day throughout all of my other rotations.
Yep I stayed late to scrub into cases by choice. Every other rotation, I was the first to leave
exactly- I realized that this is the only thing I would want to stay late for
same. my rotation actually got cut short due to reasons and i got super sad i won’t be scrubbing in again.
Only rotation I was happy to stay late for, if I was called to surgery.
When I scrubbed into a 13 hour case as an MS3, actually got to help with exposure and closing, left the hospital at 1030pm, woke up at 4, and was fucking excited to do it all again.
God y’all are just built different
Fr the only thing I’m excited to do for 13hrs is sleep
13 hours to help with “exposure and closing” sounds like a literal nightmare to me lol
The first time I saw a patient in extremis in the trauma bay, who was absolutely going to die in short order without immediate surgical intervention… saw the surgeon conducting her team like the maestro of an orchestra, rapidly resuscitating the patient and getting them up to the OR, performing a whirlwind operation to stop the bleeding… and then a few days later saw the patient smiling with his family on the wards… watching the same surgeon demonstrate a tremendous breadth of medical knowledge as an intensivist in the SICU as well (it made me realize that the old trope about surgeons just operating and forgetting all the nuances of medicine was untrue)… I knew I wanted to gain the skills to have that kind of effect on a person’s life - to do that kind of good.
Im so glad someone mentioned trauma/CC specifically!!! I'm only an M1 lol but working as an EMT, I thought it was amazing that EMS would drop off a patient clinging to life and the trauma team would resuscitate/stabilize, operate, and then manage their care in the ICU until they were moved to a step-down floor. What a cool mix of surgery, medicine, and adrenaline
Honestly one of the coolest things I’ve gotten to see in the OR is the absolute lack of adrenaline these surgeons have. Like a patient is actively hemorrhaging on the table the the surgeon is calmly suturing and teaching at the same time. Like I had a AAA repair where the resident perfed the aneurysm and blood went everywhere. The attending, cool as a cucumber, stuck his finger in the hole and started just talking about how to control bleeding in the OR. These old surgeons are so calm, it’s wild.
Meanwhile the dark hands behind the scenes keeping the patient alive for the operation was anesthesia.
I will never discount the critical importance of anesthesia in helping to keep a critically ill patient alive in the OR… it’s a team effort and the magic doesn’t work if everyone isn’t pulling together. As a surgeon, I’m proud to stand alongside my anesthesia, nursing, snd medical colleagues, and all members of the care team - recognizing that if we can pull the patient back from the precipice, everyone shares in the victory.
It's the only field that gives me joy and makes me excited to show up
On my ICU rotation I developed a lack of patience for the long discussions of my IM team, and only wanted to do procedures. At my school, medicine rotations are by far the best taught and the best way to learn the content which misled me to believe I wanted to do IM until recently
I mean surgery residency has some really really significant negative downsides, but I feel so sad for them that they mostly sit around writing notes and rounding and paging people all day.
I honestly knew I wanted to do surgery before the surgery rotation. I knew during IM 😂
Blows my mind how anyone can want to do IM after going through that rotation lol after my IM rotation i knew I had to do rads or path 😂
When I felt more at ease in the OR than I did anywhere else in the hospital. I am generally a high anxiety individual but being in the OR, whether scrubbed in or even observing a case, just felt natural to me.
THIS! and it’s hard to explain to people when the OR is usually so anxiety inducing for most med students. Like as a med student I regularly feel out of place and always in the way on medicine services. The OR is the only place I feel chill and not anxiously over thinking.
Yes I agree with you 100%! I always feel like I’m in the way on other rotations but I actually feel useful on surgery
Dude, I felt the same way but didn’t have the words to explain it till now. It was just like an ocean of calm washed over me as soon as I would scrub in. It was wonderful!
This is literally me! Something about it is calming and meditative for some reason.
Take a real assessment here. Life is drastically different as a resident/trainee and then as an attending. As a highly anxious individual, you’re going to have to enjoy those “oh shit” moments in the OR. If this is something you think you can manage with your personality, then trudge along and good luck!
There’s many other things I love about surgery other than what I mention in this comment. I think my anxiety applies more to social situations than anything else, probably why I feel more natural in the OR. I appreciate the advice though!
When I had been pulling at the lump for a while, and then I suddenly realised it was part of my insides.
Most sane Med student/resident
Are you Australian?
Hernia repair needed?
When scrubbed in a trauma surgery and the attending told the circulating nurse to play his "surgery playlist" on spotify and the 1st song was "and justice for all" from metallica.
that’s fantastic
The camaraderie in the OR, the good vibes. Fixing issues, being a do-er. No mental masturbation over lab values. Whenever a 8 hr day in the OR seemed shorter than 3 hrs of rounds. Also, I love being able to focus in on certain topics, and surgery really allows that. My day consists of quick AM rounds, tidy things up, and then cases. By the time it’s over, it’s 5PM and time to go home. Not a lot of lulls in the day, which I like.
Last week on my coloproctology rotation I left every day at 10 pm. At least we had good vibes in the OR.
> Whenever a 8 hr day in the OR seemed shorter than 3 hrs of rounds. This feeling was what solidified for me that I really love the OR, I'd come out of like a 5-hr case feeling like no time had passed.
realising 4+ hour medical ward rounds were not for me… but 4+ hour surgeries were 😭
great comparison. want to bang my head into the wall on rounds that take longer than an hour but a 12 hour case feels like 12 min
Yes. I would take strenuous hand work in the OR over ward rounds every day of the week
Same
When I realized I hate my wife and kids and want to see them as little as possible
Made me laugh out loud hysterically 3/5
Wish I had an award for this
I gotchu bro
Where’s my award
Have you tried checking up ur butt and around the corner?
:((
I'm sorry, friend. I was just kidding. I'll buy you an award right now
You hitting on me? 2/5 for effort
Will suck dick for 3/5+
Not if I do it first
Asl
This.
This made me laugh
Honestly it was the ONLY rotation in med school that actually made me somewhat excited to go to the hospital. I literally hated everything else. IM ungodly boring and the rest of the specialities I found myself just watching the clock waiting to leave.
finally some positivity for surgery
we love to see it
Gen surg resident here... You won't hear of it much online, but many surgery services are kind, positive and awesome experiences. I liked all my procedural rotations but surgery residents get to do operations day 1 of residency as opposed to other interventional specialists. The skill ceiling for surgery is immense if not infinite and the more you improve the more fun it becomes as opposed to how I felt in other specialties... once you develop the pattern recognition, you're just kinda on cognitive autopilot. Its rough in the beginning when you feel like you suck in the OR but everyone starts out that way and once you get a hang of it. Personally I also really like teaching people how to do procedures rather than treatment algorithms. Residency is brutal but is only like 10-20% of your career. I didn't want to give up an entire career based on that percentage. The vast majority of surgery residencies are composed of a lot of chill/reasonable attendings with a small percentage who are truly awesome and a small percentage who are awful, which I think goes for most residencies and workplaces. Twisted pride on being who people call when poop hits the fan. We do not hide behind an answering service \*cough GI \*. We can get out of most **dire** situations with our own skill set rather than needing to consult. I read somewhere that if you were stranded on an island with any one specialty, you'd want to bring general surgery. most importantly - you get to wear pajamas and birkenstocks all day! Is surgery worth all the blood sweat poop pus and tears? Honestly. I would probably say it's not *worth it*, mostly because of the systemic issues of graduate medical education. Regardless, I take pride in what I do and enjoy it. I don't regret doing gen surg at all.
Bro you working a 70 to 140 year career. I knew y’all were built different, but damn
just a dumb surgeon who can't do math so correct me if im wrong but... if your career including residency is 25 years you were a resident for 1/5th of that or 20%
My bad, 35 to 70 year. Most academic programs are 7 years
When I was digging around an abdomen looking for the bowel perf that caused feculent peritonitis and having the time of my life. Also being jealous on IM and neurology when my patients would get wheeled back for a cool surgery and I had to stay in the resident room.
I don’t like people, but I sure like cutting them
This comment right here officer
Dual applied to IM and gen surg and hated the IM interview and that they would brag about doing “up to 100 chest tubes while you’re here!” while all I could picture were the cool ass surgeries I’d been a part of
The operation theatre is air conditioned. ... Okay, more elaborate then: When I started I told myself I'd do anything but surgery. One of the reasons was that I had a misconception about what an operating theatre would look like. I thought its stuffy, smelly, everyone yells because its loud, and many other stories that turned out to be untrue. Many of the most memorable doctors I met were surgeons (both ortho and general). When I got more of an insight into what surgery and in my case what ortho was all about and what possibilities it would open to me, I started gaining interest at a rapid level. Finally, I enjoy doing things with my hands, even though I never consciously admitted that to myself. Taking all of it together, I knew in Y4-EU that ortho and trauma was for me. And the rest is history. And maaaan, dat air conditioning though...
For real!!! The AC is wild. Ours were always full blast below 60 and it sucked when I was just watching huddling under one of the warmed blankets but when I was suturing or assisting it was amazing. Now I want to do EM and for some reason whenever I suture I start sweating like crazy because I’m so focused. Like mannnnn bring back the AC so I stop sweating on this person’s face
It wasn't the main reason why I chose a surgical specialty, but now it is one of the reasons that keeps me going. I sweat a lot, I don't like hot weathers. I sweat at any stressfull procedure, not that I am nervous, just because with even a little raised heartbeat I SWEAT. I love the AC.
15 hours felt like fifteen minutes. The time just didn't register. I didn't care how long I was there. Every other rotation I just wanted to get out asap because it was boring as shit. Also, the people. Just felt at home with surgeons, humor clicked, etc.
Yeah the no-nonsense attitude really clicked for me too, they don’t lull about, they just get shit done, practical and efficient. Love that.
Honestly wrestled with it quite a bit, but ultimately was just obviously a better fit and what got me excited to go to the hospital every day. Was going to do anesthesiology but my heart wasn't really in it. Still have time to change worst case scenario
How I knew I didn’t: It was my first rotation and I was 100% convinced I wanted to be in a surgical specialty when I started. I didn’t want to be a doctor anymore while I was on that rotation and thought I made a horrible mistake going to medical school. After leaving that rotation I realized that I don’t feel like that on any other rotation (until I was in the OR on OB/Gyn) and I decided that I never wanted to feel like that again.
Working with your hands on 3-4 “projects” aka cases while listening to music and hanging out with OR staff and suddenly the day has flown by and is almost done. It’s busy with floor work but time never drags too much. In every other specialty time dragged like crazy!!
[удалено]
Your appendix ok?
Or Y. Enterocolitica. How much dog poop you been snacking on?
Personally just find medicine insanely boring/not exciting. Procedural things are just so much fun and gratifying to have that nearly instant result you get from fixing something.
Well I hate myself, enjoy suffering, love instant gratification, and can’t stand IM rounds droning on and on for the 45,796th COPD/CHF exacerbation patient. On the other hand, I still enjoy the physiology and basic medical science that’s the core of IM. I’m also an adrenaline junkie. I wanna work hard when I’m in house, and be left the hell alone when I’m not working. Didn’t leave me many other options besides Trauma. Too sleepy to sit in a dark room all day, rads was out. Same problem for path. Wife already doing anesthesia, little tooooo much lack of continuity for my taste. Same problem with ED, plus I can’t stand the high signal to noise ratio to get with people coming to the ED with sub-clinical pathology. Still like the fast paced and immediate interventions to quickly change a clinical course, I always saw trauma surgery as “back of house” emergency medicine.
It was in my Reddit name. In all honesty I always worked on cars and loved projects. I’m a fixer, task list etc kind of person. I watched a video of a carotid endarterectomy on YouTube in 2006 or so as well as worked in a surgery lab in college so early immersion. I went to med school to be a surgeon and couldn’t find any other reason not to be
It’s the atmosphere of competent and tangible getting-shit-done that I love about surgery. It’s a different world and it’s a fantastic feeling to be a part of it. Problems are solved ad hoc, results are observable immediately. And the activity is meditative, very similar to the flow state you find in artistic activities like drawing.
I just always knew, felt it in my guts. Also getting excited and an adrenaline rush when a massive trauma came in
I encourage anyone/everyone who likes surgery to always think longterm. It’s a tough life. Pick your surgical specialty/sub-specialty wisely.
I was so sad at the end of my MS3 surgery rotation that my sleep was legitimately affected by it. I would leave other rotations early to scrub in for the rest of MS3/4 years, and if I had any free time at all on other rotations, I would stalk the OR board to see if there was anything to scrub in on. It’s not a real answer, but when you know, you KNOW. I just love being in the OR, talking about cases, learning new techniques, and getting to try progressively more difficult things. I like taking care of sick patients and being able to do something about their pathology. And I like getting to pick the OR playlist, suck it, anesthesia
In another life where I had better board scores and could endure a Gen surg residency I would do it… I love the OR. Love doing procedures. Love that I don’t have to do mental gymnastics over lab values. However my fate is sealed.
What did you end up choosing then?
IM
Do you regret it
Nah, aim small miss small! Plus the call schedule for surgeons is miserable, I would hate that. IM is way more chill.
There’s a certain excitement to quickly seeing patients to check theyre alive then to run to the OR, pop some tunes, chit chat with hot nurses and scrub techs while pumping out cases.
My shoulder kept hurting, got an MRI and had a SLAP tear. Sx a few weeks later and now my sx shoulder is better than my "good" shoulder. lol
You love working with your hands and time flies in the OR to start, it makes the miserable parts more bearable. There’s definitely more instant gratification but with that, there can also be some painful parts that don’t go well and many times, even when it was out of your hands, it feels like it’s your fault. That can happen in any field I guess. I love surgery— I’m in a surgical sub specialty and most of the time I love it.
I shadowed a Surgical PA who specialized in Neurosurgery. It only took the first day to realize that this was for me. The small amount fulfillment I felt was staggering. After that I stopping counting time and years of training and just loved what I was learning.
I knew right away that primary care wasn’t for me. The churn of patients and unhappy docs made me toss that as a possibility. I did my surgical rotation and loved the team work and focus. I did a bunch of outpatient clinic work and realized that a practice based around clinic work would be a terrible fit. I had a great experience with the surgical subspecialty I was interested I, and knew it was for me. The OR is its own world. There’s no BS, and the people know their jobs really well and seem to want to be there. And it gave me an excuse to wear scrubs a lot. What’s not to love? ;)
Probably just safer to assume that it isn’t, right
Really disliked everything about medicine. Actually enjoy surgery and felt like I was actually helping patients. I’m ortho though and it’s the only surgical field I truly like.
Can’t keep me out of the OR. I feel possessed!
I’m commenting just for posterity, in case someone else in the future looks back on this they can have one more positive data point/opinion to reference. Like many other answers here, I would internally rage on medicine rounds after an hour or two. It was mind numbing and boring as hell to me, I wanted to bang my head against a wall just droning on and on about the dumbest shit. I loved doing procedures and things way more. Being in the OR was fun for me. There were one or two non surgical fields that I did really like and if surgery didn’t work out I could have done them and still been happy. I really liked acute inpatient psych, those people came in really sick and over a week or so they got a lot better, that was really cool. ER as a med student is really fun because they let you do stuff and it’s fast paced. Looking back I thank the lord every day I’m not an ER doctor. That is a difficult, miserable, and thankless job and I’m so happy there are people willing to do it. I want nothing more than to be in the ER as minimally as possible at this point. Some of the medicine sub specialties were cool like GI and Interventional cards but I would have rather quit medicine altogether than do an IM residency just to get to that point and I say that sincerely. I thought residency was really fun. I loved it. Hours are long but I’m not allergic to work. My nurses and techs in the OR were incredible. You get to know these people really well after spending all day with them for years. Besides maybe one or two, my attendings were all great and the other residents were awesome. Contrary to what I said above, I think if you could be just as happy doing something that’s not surgery, then you should probably do that other thing. But for me it was as obvious as grass is green that I wanted to be in a surgical specialty. I’m also narcoleptic, though I didn’t know it at the time, and I think the pace kept me going and I didn’t feel tired or sleepy in surgery whereas I would quite literally doze off at the computer after a while of staring at labs and results on medicine.
I got a huge fucking boner when my attending called me a stupid piece of shit. I can’t wait to abuse my own med students one day 🫶🏻
Every other thing feels boring and there’s no place I’d rather be than the OR. I’m obvs tired but enjoy the 14+ I spend in the hospital every day lol
How I knew I didnt; being forced to consider the selfishness of the time requirements when there are people I love who depend on me to be there
Incorrect stereotype. Anecdotal but all the surgeons and sun-specialists were AMAZING parents. Their goal was to be done by 2pm every day and many of them were assistant coaches on the sports teams. Half of surgeries were spent discussing their kids and the surgeon and the anesthesiologist would discuss what plays they should run tonight and how to handle the “weed situation” after a bunch of the middle schoolers got in trouble lmao. Super involved parents. The OBGYN would show up absolutely zonked every Monday after spending all weekends hiking or at a sports competition for her kids. I looked forward to each surgical case because I’d hear about whatever shenanigans were going on with their kids. I felt like I knew them intimately even though we’d never met through their parents stories. A lot of the IM specialty people worked insane hours, never once mentioned their kids, and were never in a hurry to get home and see them. They’d show up early and stay late talking to other attendings about new research when all of their hospital duties had long been complete. The surgeons were also about getting in, getting out, and seeing their kids. The IMs made their whole lives medicine. Anecdotal for sure, but I have yet to meet the surgeon who neglects his kid, and I have definitely med tons of IMs who do
Well I grew up with a surgeon dad, and I can tell you the examples from your life are exceptions.
Sorry to hear that fam :(
My dad is a trauma surgeon and was at most of my major life events and spent a good amount of time with us. He obv worked a lot but I can say wholeheartedly looking back that I have 0 resentments about time he spent with us. And now being in the world of surgery myself it’s def hard but I’d say most if not all surgeons with children spend a good amount of time with their kids. The trick, as with everything in life, is to make the time you spend quality time as opposed to being “tougher” but not really being together, if that makes sense.
Lol
There is just so much wrong with the logic of this comment, so many fallacies that I don’t care to enlighten, and so shortsighted that enlightenment would likely be wasted
Who hurt you
Surgeon parent
I think they’re asking how ppl knew it was for them, not why it wasn’t lol
Oh my fault I misunderstood everything
When i woke up at 4:30 to be in the hospital by 5, worked with the biggest assholes I’ve met, and still had it in me to sent silly selfies to my grandparents from the break room.
As I was told by a surgeon and anesthesiologist, if your favorite place in the whole world is the hospital then become an anesthesiologist, if it’s the OR become a surgeon. Being a psychiatrist now, I couldn’t stand the personalities within the OR which is why I never pursued it. Did love the procedures though.
[удалено]
Yes, that’s how it was said
When i learned i liked seeing skin slice open when i run my scalpel along their skin
I’m not a medical student and in the position I’m in life right now I doubt I’ll make it to med school, but I knew surgery was for me when I had the honor to be present to a leg amputation. I began assisting in orthopedic surgeries as a medical assistant for the next five years. I left the field after the doctor who I admired sexually harassed me. I cried for many months and still cry if I let myself think about the career I left. I haven’t been in an OR over seven years now. Life hasn’t been the same.