<p>Im in high school and am thinking that surgery would be interesting.
I really like all aspects of it except for one thing: the time commitment</p>
<p>I have shadowed for more than 150 hours and surgery itself seems cool so far.</p>
<p>How is the time commitment between different types of surgeries? I want to have a social and family life and Ive heard that its really hard.</p>
<p>I also want to do research but surgeons dont really have time for that. Are there any other medical professions that are as intense on the job as surgery but allow for cell biology/chemistry research? I mean basic research</p>
<p>How good are you at rote memorization?
Do you need to put in hours of study in science and math to get the same grades as others who study less?
How good are your three dimensional spatial skills?
How good is your manual dexterity?
What is your normal energy level? Are you the last person standing, or do you need a break before other people?
Can you spend hours on your feet without a break, hunched in a somewhat awkward position?
How easily are your feelings hurt? Do you take criticism well, or does it upset the rest of the day?
How much sleep do you need?
How do you react in an emergency?
Do you enjoy getting your hands dirty, doing projects, working on complicated, real, things?</p>
<p>Many areas of medicine are family friendly, with regular hours. At the very least, you going to spend four years of undergrad, four years of medical school and 5-10 years of residency working very hard, having less time for family and fun than your friends. Depending on your honest answers to the questions above, those years will be more or less painful for a kid following a path to surgery.</p>
<p>The person who can easily pull 98% on Anatomy and Physiology tests, who is in good physical shape, who has a a lot of energy, who can picture things in three dimensions, who has great small motor skills, who takes criticism, even when it is delivered harshly, in a non-oersonal way, who thinks quickly on her feet, who is eager to dive in and get her hands dirty … Will have a much easier time working towards becoming a surgeon than someone who has difficulty with those things. It isn’t impossible for the other person, it is just going to take more of your time, mental energy and emotional energy if those are not areas of strength.</p>
<p>eastcoascrazy is spot on. You’d have to start now making sure your math and science is strong. Take every
AP math and science. In undergrad you have to study all the time and go out only once a week for a few hours. Some people can achieve this goal a little easier than others. Few can enjoy the frat life and parties and still get into med school. It is a very long path and there is much that is sacrificed. </p>
<p>How good are you at rote memorization? CANT MEMORIZE TONS OF FACTS
Do you need to put in hours of study in science and math to get the same grades as others who study less? I NEED TO PUT IN WAY MORE HOURS BUT I’VE HAD THE HIGHEST AVERAGE GRADES IN EVERY SCIENCE/MATH CLASS IVE EVER TAKEN
How good are your three dimensional spatial skills? FINE
How good is your manual dexterity? REALLY FINE
What is your normal energy level? Are you the last person standing, or do you need a break before other people? DONT TAKE BREAKS
Can you spend hours on your feet without a break, hunched in a somewhat awkward position? YES
How easily are your feelings hurt? Do you take criticism well, or does it upset the rest of the day? I TAKE CRITICISM REALLY WELL.
How much sleep do you need? 1-2 HRS USUALLY
How do you react in an emergency? NEVER BEEN IN ONE
Do you enjoy getting your hands dirty, doing projects, working on complicated, real, things? YES</p>
<p>My dad was a heart surgeon. He was a cold-hearted SOB, and my mother (who met a lot of surgeons and their families) led me to believe they were mostly like that. It makes sense. Split-second decisions mean life or death. And you don’t always get to choose your patients. To have surgical privileges in most hospitals, you need to volunteer a significant amount of time in the emergency room, where you will usually be the (possibly only) surgeon on duty. Lots of emergency surgical cases DIE, they just DIE, and you have to be able to deal with that, over and over.</p>
<p>If you’re a type-A sociopath, you may flourish in surgery. Most people aren’t like that.</p>
<p>Let me disagree that a lot of surgeons are cold-hearted SOBs. Also disagree that there are a lot of split-second life or death decisions. The overwhelming majority of medicine, as well as surgeries, are boring and routine. In fact, that is what physicians want. They want to make their cases as stress free as possible. No one wants constant stress, or days that are challenged by delays or deaths. The surgeons I work with, except one SOB, are absolutely nice folks. We carry conversations about almost anything and joke around in the OR.</p>
<p>But the training and lifestyle is very difficult. You will spend a good 65 hours per week working (at least in my area). Sometimes much more. This is what wears your patience really thin. Cardiovascular surgeons have it much worse. They’ve trained for 9 years to work in an environment where the pager doesn’t turn off and the morbidity/mortality rates are much higher. Try sleep deprivation for a couple of years and see how you act. CV surgeons are notorious for having bad dispositions. But not all!</p>
<p>Agree with everything eastcoastcrazy said.
If you want a more family-friendly surgical field, try looking at Ophthalmology, Otolaryngology and Orthopedics.
As for research, all fields in medicine (surgical and non-surgical alike) allow research opportunities. If you are interested in research, try to work at a teaching hospital (most likely a university hospital) after all your training. However, being part of faculty of a university hospital entails also a lot of time commitment but it can be very fulfilling.
Good luck in your search.</p>
<p>It’s good that you are thinking about having time for your family, because some medical specialties are harder on families that than others. An older study, done at Johns Hopkins around 1999? showed that psychiatrists and suergeons had the highest divorce rates. Perhaps the changes in medicine will result in less stressful workplaces for doctors, but high powered and demanding positions can strain families.
At this point, you can focus on undergraduate and getting into medical school. It will be many years before you choose a specialty, and you will rotate through all of them before choosing. Stereotypes exist because there can be truth in them- the calculating surgeon, the warm and congenial pediatricians, but there are exceptions. Some people choose a specialty with family in mind, and some pursue their dreams regardless. We need good surgeons. But you can choose when you know much more about it in the future.</p>
<p>I do surgery.
If you want research, your final job would be at an academic institution.
Surgery research tends to be more clinical rather than basic science/bench research.
The basic science research is done be PhDs who do it full time, and the surgeons will come in and do procedures related to the research. There is not enough time in the day to do both because true bench research takes a team of people.</p>
<p>Specialties with small surgery components with good family life:
Plastic surgery
interventional radiology
Anesthesiology
ENT
Ophthalmology
Gasteroenterology
Interventional cardiology</p>
<p>Bad family life:
Cardiothoracic surgery
Neurosurgery</p>
<p>Alternately, you could be almost any type of surgeon at a place like Kaiser and always have a family life. No research, though.</p>
<p>I first talked to people I knew in our friend circle and actually first shadowed with a cardiothoracic surgeon for 2 weeks and 3 hours per day (or until long procedures were done).</p>