<p>My daughter seems to be heading towards neurology based on her rotation and interests. However after her surgical rotation, the comments were “she is one of us, she should be a surgeon” I guess that is making her question her decision somewhat.</p>
<p>Yeah. DocT. Some of that goes a long way, doesn’t it? My D got that in Peds. Peds? Where did that come from? All the sudden she starts musing about morphing that into some surgery speciality. And , yeah. The surgeons appear to love my kid. She’s very hands-on. 
lol </p>
<p>somemom may have something (a comment to her kid) to add here, too. Don’t ya somemom? lol</p>
<p>Every kid is different. Mine hated Peds with a passion almost as much as she currently hates family medicine.</p>
<p>My d hates peds too! I don’t know why, because she is quite good with kids, was a camp counselor for two summers. She said if she had to be a pediatrician, she wouldn’t want to be a dr. </p>
<p>She has to do a lot of family medicine because she is at a DO med school. She is doing an away surgery rotation right now. Hard to go to a new hospital in a new state. She gets up at 4 to be at hospital by 5.</p>
<p>The application process for residency is very stressful. All you med student parents have that to look forward to! You really wish you could wave a parental magic wand and get your student the residency she wants.</p>
<p>Yep, Curm & DocT, my kid also had some very encouraging words from people on the surgery rotation, she seems to have a knack for it and is enjoying the work, as someone said earlier, she likes procedures, fixing something is good.</p>
<p>My D was also encouraged to go into surgery during her 3rd year rotation. She had no inclination toward that at all until she started that rotation, in fact was quite sure she wouldn’t do that because so many guys at her school were pursuing it and she thought they had “attitude.”</p>
<p>A couple of residents really encouraged her to go into surgery and to apply for residency in their program. A dear high school friend of mine who has been a dr. for 30 years told me that often “med students don’t pick a specialty; it picks you.”</p>
<p>So four of us have Ds who have been encouraged to go into surgery. That is an interesting trend. There must be a push to identify and encourage more women to go into surgery. I think not as many women as men have pursued surgical specialties because it hasn’t been very compatible with having a family.</p>
<p>exactly and that’s why my daughter isn’t super excited about pursuing it. She says “she wants a life” A lot of men aren’t really happy about surgery either but from a traditional standpoint it is a lot tougher on women and it takes more years than some other specialties. The surgeons said she has the personality of a surgeon - I’m not so sure that’s necessarily a positive.</p>
<p>LOL, DocT. I agree. I think it would be very hard to be a mom and a surgeon. We have a family friend who is a nanny for two married drs. The mom is a surgeon and works very long days. The nanny arrives at 6:30 and stays until drs. are done with their day.</p>
<p>Can you be a part time surgeon? Seriously, if they are encouraging women to head toward surgery, as our n=4 sample shows, I wonder if we can expect to see adjustments in the future as to workload?</p>
<p>From what I hear and read, currently it is not family friendly. Most surgeons are still men. Changes will probably come, but maybe not for years. Very hard to have any kids while in residency, yet you aren’t done till into your 30s, especially if you do a fellowship.</p>
<p>My uncle was a well known surgeon and ended up starting a large well known medical facility in the Boston area. Not only did he not want his children to go into surgery, he didn’t want them going into medicine and this was 30 years ago.</p>
<p>What do we know about surgical residencies? As I understand it there is a basic surgery three year commitment, plus a certain number of years for various specialties and possibly a fellowship thereafter. In real life what does that usually work out to be?</p>
<p>The majority of General Surgery residencies are five year programs. Some, like the one my S is in are six and there are a few 7 year programs.</p>
<p>His program has an almost 50/50 split in Gen Surg and this year’s Ortho interns were all female. Gen surg may be the most rigorous of all residencies it’s a beating physically and mentally. </p>
<p>S chose it because he has always wanted to be a surgeon but even after Med school clinical rotations was unsure of what area of specialization he wanted to pursue.</p>
<p>Just for grins, I’ll contribute that as far as I can tell…surgery’s definitely NOT for me. Something attractive about relationships with patients, having time to think through problems, having the luxury of trying something then tweaking it and eventually finding the right mix, etc. Seems way more appealing to me than spending all of my time on my feet doing similar procedures (I plan to specialize regardless) to patients who are sleeping in an oftentimes tense environment. And believe it or not…I like kids (and find them medically interesting) and am definitely thinking about peds!</p>
<p>But maybe I’m the crazy one who likes kids, families, stories, and sitting around talking to patients.</p>
<p>I have learned quite a bit about general surgery residency as that is what my D is applying for right now. It’s really hard as the residents and med students following them have to be in the hospital at five every day to start rounding. At her home hospital they do rounds and then have breakfast together to discuss cases. </p>
<p>At the gen surg residency at this hospital the residents have only four days off per month. Two days are together and then two other days off. It does sound brutal. </p>
<p>All the gen surg programs she applied to are five years. Then there is a one or two year fellowship after that, for plastics or breast surgery or vascular or trauma if you want to do that. (Some plastics and vascular are now integrated residencies, but the gen surg residency gives you more flexibility for future.)</p>
<p>The General Surgery program my S is in also has 4 days off per month. Since starting in July he has pretty much had a schedule of 15-16 days straight then a “golden weekend” of Sat and Sun off then back to 15-16 days straight. In between he has 4 or 5 days of night float. It’s a pretty grueling schedule. Going in I thought his 4 days a month would be more spread out…1 every 7 or 8 days but in his case that’s not how it has fallen. Every time we talk he sounds exhausted.</p>
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<p>That’s how we feel. My H is glad he is at the twilight of his career though he loves his job. Very few of our physician friends’ kids are or plan to be in medicine and more daughters than sons are currently pursuing medicine.</p>
<p>Oh, eadad. That sounds SO hard. I wish my D were pursuing something easier. But we don’t know if she will even match into general surgery. This is a hard phase because there is so much uncertainty even after 3 1/2 years of med school.</p>
<p>I will be doing everything in my power to get mine to consider all other options. That truly sounds horrid. I didn’t get to pick her path so far, but dang. I simply don’t want “that” for her. Helicoptering a 25 year old? Yeah. Sue me. She can tell it to the shrink. I want her to enjoy all parts of a balanced life. Yuck .</p>