Help with surgery career path

[Statemed]

I started med school thinking IM plus fellowship. Did surgery rotation and loved it, though I was miserable the first week but still loved the aura of the OR. I later completed the IM clerkship, which I also liked but not as much as surgery. During my OBGYN rotation, I tried to scrub in on as many cases as possible and I would switch with students who didn't want to be in the OR just to be there and help with procedures.

The most daunting part about surgery to me is robotics. I cannot stand those procedures. It's not just the spectator role as a student that makes it unappealing but the whole concept of being away from the patient and losing that tactile feel. Laproscopic is fine with me because I'm still close to the patient an actually handling things with some sort of a "real" feel. I guess I'm old school in that regard.

My question is... given how fast medicine is advancing, can I still thrive in the future as a surgeon if I don't like robotic surgeries?

Would appreciate your thoughts and feedback.

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[LucidSplash]

I started med school thinking IM plus fellowship. Did surgery rotation and loved it, though I was miserable the first week but still loved the aura of the OR. I later completed the IM clerkship, which I also liked but not as much as surgery. During my OBGYN rotation, I tried to scrub in on as many cases as possible and I would switch with students who didn't want to be in the OR just to be there and help with procedures.

The most daunting part about surgery to me is robotics. I cannot stand those procedures. It's not just the spectator role as a student that makes it unappealing but the whole concept of being away from the patient and losing that tactile feel. Laproscopic is fine with me because I'm still close to the patient an actually handling things with some sort of a "real" feel. I guess I'm old school in that regard.

My question is... given how fast medicine is advancing, can I still thrive in the future as a surgeon if I don't like robotic surgeries?

Would appreciate your thoughts and feedback.

There are plenty of surgical specialties that don’t use robotics and where there’s no real indication for robotics. Trauma, vascular, plastics, ENT...

Even in areas where the robot is used, it isn’t used for all cases.

You can definitely do surgery without robots. You should learn them in training where applicable, but you will be able to practice without them if that’s what you want.

 

[doc05]

My question is... given how fast medicine is advancing, can I still thrive in the future as a surgeon if I don't like robotic surgeries?

No.

 

[HighPriest]

In the future, you will need to become robot in order to compete. Plan on having your limbs and organs replaced within a decade. Eventually you will be just a mind and, if you're lucky, a genital. A machine built for surgery.

 

[LucidSplash]

No.

False.

 

[TraumaLlamaMD]

I started med school thinking IM plus fellowship. Did surgery rotation and loved it, though I was miserable the first week but still loved the aura of the OR. I later completed the IM clerkship, which I also liked but not as much as surgery. During my OBGYN rotation, I tried to scrub in on as many cases as possible and I would switch with students who didn't want to be in the OR just to be there and help with procedures.

The most daunting part about surgery to me is robotics. I cannot stand those procedures. It's not just the spectator role as a student that makes it unappealing but the whole concept of being away from the patient and losing that tactile feel. Laproscopic is fine with me because I'm still close to the patient an actually handling things with some sort of a "real" feel. I guess I'm old school in that regard.

My question is... given how fast medicine is advancing, can I still thrive in the future as a surgeon if I don't like robotic surgeries?

Would appreciate your thoughts and feedback.

I actually prefer the feel of the robot to laparoscopic instruments because the range of mobility you get with the jointed instruments is much closer to the natural movement of your wrists. You may feel very differently when it’s you on the console. (That said, I prefer open cases to both )

 

[Cyphix]

Keep in mind that the procedures you see now as a med student may not be performed the same way when you're an attending. Technology is always evolving, and it's not always easy to predict how it will impact future surgical modalities. So make sure you are drawn to the patient population and pathology of the field as well!

 

[Medstart108]

I started med school thinking IM plus fellowship. Did surgery rotation and loved it, though I was miserable the first week but still loved the aura of the OR. I later completed the IM clerkship, which I also liked but not as much as surgery. During my OBGYN rotation, I tried to scrub in on as many cases as possible and I would switch with students who didn't want to be in the OR just to be there and help with procedures.

The most daunting part about surgery to me is robotics. I cannot stand those procedures. It's not just the spectator role as a student that makes it unappealing but the whole concept of being away from the patient and losing that tactile feel. Laproscopic is fine with me because I'm still close to the patient an actually handling things with some sort of a "real" feel. I guess I'm old school in that regard.

My question is... given how fast medicine is advancing, can I still thrive in the future as a surgeon if I don't like robotic surgeries?

Would appreciate your thoughts and feedback.

Definitely! Robotics are really only common in urology. Sure, they are used in cardiac, thoracic, gyne and a few others i'm missing but they are mainly used as gimmicks as they have not been shown to be better than traditional surgery and require more money to maintain and extra training. Robotics will probably become more common in the future, however by the time they become widespread you will be old and can just keep doing things the old way until you retire.