Family Medicine vs General Surgery

[Kahreek]

I know these are rather different specialties, but has any of you made the choice between these two?
I guess the choice is a lot about taming the ego and prestige/income desires.
It is not just simply choosing between hernias, lumps and gallbladders vs outpatient clinic.

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[JonMonkey]

Go to bed tonight at midnight and wake up tomorrow at 4am and ask yourself if you can do this everyday for years on end...or read these SDN threads instead.

FP vs. Surgery

family med vs surgery

The decision not to become a surgeon

 

[JustPlainBill]

I know these are rather different specialties, but has any of you made the choice between these two?
I guess the choice is a lot about taming the ego and prestige/income desires.
It is not just simply choosing between hernias, lumps and gallbladders vs outpatient clinic.

Based on your userid information which lists you as pre-health, aren't you getting the cart before the horse? let's see if you can get accepted to medical school first -- heck, let's see if you can survive O-chem without wanting to switch your major.....

 

[Atlas Shrugged]

Go to bed tonight at midnight and wake up tomorrow at 4am and ask yourself if you can do this everyday for years on end...or read these SDN threads instead.

FP vs. Surgery

family med vs surgery

The decision not to become a surgeon

Currently on general surgery Sub-I. Reminds me why I am doing FM. Only partially joking.

Surgery is cool, but it ain't that cool.

 

[Bacchus]

Currently on general surgery Sub-I. Reminds me why I am doing FM. Only partially joking.

Surgery is cool, but it ain't that cool.

Who'd you piss off tonhave to do a surgical sub-I?

 

[deleted87716]

Who'd you piss off tonhave to do a surgical sub-I?

I did a trauma surgery sub-I in fourth year. It was fun, but I was a procedure geek back then. And a whole lot younger.

 

[JustPlainBill]

Currently on general surgery Sub-I. Reminds me why I am doing FM. Only partially joking.

Surgery is cool, but it ain't that cool.

Yep -- about my second week into a gen surg rotation during MS3, I realized that it was just plain boring -- the guy I had was truly a nice guy with great credentials and a good teacher but after the umpteenth thyroidectomy or endocardectomy or hernia repair or cholecystectomy or amputation, yeah, ok, what else do we do? Yeah, it's probably a lot different when you're driving, but even during residency, we worked with a community GS -- port placement, cholecystectomy, hernia repair and breast biopsies -- no thanks....I'm truly good with my nice little 8-5, get to hang with the family on weekends/holidays and make a nice living.....

 

[Atlas Shrugged]

I'm actually on trauma (not actually much at this hospital) as well. Our school requires a surgical and medical sub-I for fourth year. It's fine. I'm in the army and interested in operational medicine which can involve doing a lot of primary and secondary survey and triaging who actually goes back to the OR in a deployed setting. I enjoy procedures as well so it isn't all bad.

And I agree with the getting bored. I realized in medicine, no matter what you do, the goal is to become bored with what you do in a sense. Become so good that things become reflexive and routine for the most part. Part of the allure of family medicine is dabbling with everything and always having to learn something new depending on the directions you want to go in your career.

 

[FrustratedFamDoc]

My first day on my 3rd year gen surg rotation, 10:30 am: "trauma team to the emergency room" (in my best NY accent)... Did 3rd and 4th year of med school in Jamaica Queens, NY (interesting place with pathology galore, in every language you can imagine). Arrive to the ER wondering what I'm about to encounter as I have exactly 0 trauma experience up to this point. They wheel in a very, very broken lifeform who had just jumped from the 8th floor of the parking deck adjacent to the hospital. B/L compound tib/fibs, compound humerus, shattered pelvis with bleed, liver laceration, 1 lung down, 3 epidural hematomas (and I'm sure I'm missing a few other things). He goes upstairs to the surgical suite where ortho, general and neurosurg are all working on him at the same time. 24 units and multiple platelets/FFP. So yes, he actually lives through this and after months of rehab, they allow him (he was the chief resident of medicine) to complete residency there.

I learned a lot of things after that day:

1. Just say no to any residency they try to offer me out of the match
2. Gen surgery/trauma is pretty cool, but only during regular business hours. The endless hours of work/pages from 11:30 pm to 6 am got really old , really fast.

Mr Miagi was always big about "Balance! Daniel san." What could I do for 30 years, keep my interest/sanity, make a good living and maintain a good family/work balance.

 

[JustPlainBill]

My first day on my 3rd year gen surg rotation, 10:30 am: "trauma team to the emergency room" (in my best NY accent)... Did 3rd and 4th year of med school in Jamaica Queens, NY (interesting place with pathology galore, in every language you can imagine). Arrive to the ER wondering what I'm about to encounter as I have exactly 0 trauma experience up to this point. They wheel in a very, very broken lifeform who had just jumped from the 8th floor of the parking deck adjacent to the hospital. B/L compound tib/fibs, compound humerus, shattered pelvis with bleed, liver laceration, 1 lung down, 3 epidural hematomas (and I'm sure I'm missing a few other things). He goes upstairs to the surgical suite where ortho, general and neurosurg are all working on him at the same time. 24 units and multiple platelets/FFP. So yes, he actually lives through this and after months of rehab, they allow him (he was the chief resident of medicine) to complete residency there.

I learned a lot of things after that day:

1. Just say no to any residency they try to offer me out of the match
2. Gen surgery/trauma is pretty cool, but only during regular business hours. The endless hours of work/pages from 11:30 pm to 6 am got really old , really fast.

Mr Miagi was always big about "Balance! Daniel san." What could I do for 30 years, keep my interest/sanity, make a good living and maintain a good family/work balance.

yeah, any residency that made me want to jump off of an 8 story building (or climb to the top of it with a clown suit and a high powered rifle) I'd have to politely decline....

 

[ThoracicGuy]

I know these are rather different specialties, but has any of you made the choice between these two?
I guess the choice is a lot about taming the ego and prestige/income desires.
It is not just simply choosing between hernias, lumps and gallbladders vs outpatient clinic.

The choice of surgery vs FM is not all about ego/prestige/income. You do what you like, what you find that you want to wake up and go to work to do. For some people, that's going to clinic. For others, its the OR. So, yeah, it's mostly about picking surgeries vs clinic.

 

[JustPlainBill]

The choice of surgery vs FM is not all about ego/prestige/income. You do what you like, what you find that you want to wake up and go to work to do. For some people, that's going to clinic. For others, its the OR. So, yeah, it's mostly about picking surgeries vs clinic.

I was trying to be nice but thank you @Thoracic for saying this --- To the OP -- please, before you go any further, mature enough so that you don't use your patients to feed your ego. that's how you wind up cowboy'ing up and potentially killing someone, all to feed your ego.

 

[Kahreek]

Go to bed tonight at midnight and wake up tomorrow at 4am and ask yourself if you can do this everyday for years on end...or read these SDN threads instead.

FP vs. Surgery

family med vs surgery

The decision not to become a surgeon

Based on your userid information which lists you as pre-health, aren't you getting the cart before the horse? let's see if you can get accepted to medical school first -- heck, let's see if you can survive O-chem without wanting to switch your major.....

Currently on general surgery Sub-I. Reminds me why I am doing FM. Only partially joking.

Surgery is cool, but it ain't that cool.

Who'd you piss off tonhave to do a surgical sub-I?

I did a trauma surgery sub-I in fourth year. It was fun, but I was a procedure geek back then. And a whole lot younger.

Yep -- about my second week into a gen surg rotation during MS3, I realized that it was just plain boring -- the guy I had was truly a nice guy with great credentials and a good teacher but after the umpteenth thyroidectomy or endocardectomy or hernia repair or cholecystectomy or amputation, yeah, ok, what else do we do? Yeah, it's probably a lot different when you're driving, but even during residency, we worked with a community GS -- port placement, cholecystectomy, hernia repair and breast biopsies -- no thanks....I'm truly good with my nice little 8-5, get to hang with the family on weekends/holidays and make a nice living.....

I'm actually on trauma (not actually much at this hospital) as well. Our school requires a surgical and medical sub-I for fourth year. It's fine. I'm in the army and interested in operational medicine which can involve doing a lot of primary and secondary survey and triaging who actually goes back to the OR in a deployed setting. I enjoy procedures as well so it isn't all bad.

And I agree with the getting bored. I realized in medicine, no matter what you do, the goal is to become bored with what you do in a sense. Become so good that things become reflexive and routine for the most part. Part of the allure of family medicine is dabbling with everything and always having to learn something new depending on the directions you want to go in your career.

My first day on my 3rd year gen surg rotation, 10:30 am: "trauma team to the emergency room" (in my best NY accent)... Did 3rd and 4th year of med school in Jamaica Queens, NY (interesting place with pathology galore, in every language you can imagine). Arrive to the ER wondering what I'm about to encounter as I have exactly 0 trauma experience up to this point. They wheel in a very, very broken lifeform who had just jumped from the 8th floor of the parking deck adjacent to the hospital. B/L compound tib/fibs, compound humerus, shattered pelvis with bleed, liver laceration, 1 lung down, 3 epidural hematomas (and I'm sure I'm missing a few other things). He goes upstairs to the surgical suite where ortho, general and neurosurg are all working on him at the same time. 24 units and multiple platelets/FFP. So yes, he actually lives through this and after months of rehab, they allow him (he was the chief resident of medicine) to complete residency there.

I learned a lot of things after that day:

1. Just say no to any residency they try to offer me out of the match
2. Gen surgery/trauma is pretty cool, but only during regular business hours. The endless hours of work/pages from 11:30 pm to 6 am got really old , really fast.

Mr Miagi was always big about "Balance! Daniel san." What could I do for 30 years, keep my interest/sanity, make a good living and maintain a good family/work balance.

yeah, any residency that made me want to jump off of an 8 story building (or climb to the top of it with a clown suit and a high powered rifle) I'd have to politely decline....

The choice of surgery vs FM is not all about ego/prestige/income. You do what you like, what you find that you want to wake up and go to work to do. For some people, that's going to clinic. For others, its the OR. So, yeah, it's mostly about picking surgeries vs clinic.

I was trying to be nice but thank you @Thoracic for saying this --- To the OP -- please, before you go any further, mature enough so that you don't use your patients to feed your ego. that's how you wind up cowboy'ing up and potentially killing someone, all to feed your ego.

Thanks guys, currently i am in prelim, i would like more insight from you family physicians that once were considering surgery, and vice versa.

 

[jm192]

I read somewhere once upon a time that if you can see yourself doing anything besides surgery, don't do surgery. That pretty much made the decision for me.

 

[TableMD]

Hi

I thought very hard about OB, which has some overlap with surgery, and as an MS 3 considered general surgery as well. I think the deciding thing for me was I realized I did not like hospitals. The OR was interesting enough, but when I talked to my buddies who LOVED the OR, I realized that was not me.

General surgeons are some of the most amazing and dedicated people that you will meet. Sure there are some ones that are less than ideal/pleasant, but the special ones will always impact how you think about medicine. Spend as much time with them as you can if it's something you are thinking about.