I start med school in Fall at Cincy

[Premedtomed]

How great is the neurosurgery program at Cincinnati?

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[mpp]

It's likely a good program. The Mayfield Clinic is well respected. Talk to the residency director at the program to see what they think about away rotations. It is likely best to do away rotations only at programs you are interested in, programs that require an audition rotation or at top programs only.

 

[Premedtomed]

bump

 

[waterski232002]

You better hope you party your a$$ off now, b/c you'll never do anymore partying if you want to go into Neurosurg... good luck

 

[Premedtomed]

word

 

[Blake]

It's likely a good program. The Mayfield Clinic is well respected. Talk to the residency director at the program to see what they think about away rotations. It is likely best to do away rotations only at programs you are interested in, programs that require an audition rotation or at top programs only.

Just wondering, did you have any contacts with the neurosurgery staff at your faculty before doing your clinical rotations ? Have you done anything about ns during your first 2 years ( research, shadowing, etc ) ? What would you have done differently during these 2 years concerning ns, if you could go back in time. Thanks.

 

[mpp]

Make contacts with the members of your department for any field as soon as you think you're interested. Start with shadowing so you can get to know some of the faculty. Then try and get some research done, some papers published and get to a conference or two. As long as you don't sacrifice your grades (especially your clinical grades) do as much as you feel comfortable to be involved. I would hope that most faculty will love to see an eager medical student interested in their field.

A caveat is to not get in over your head. Saying that you'd like to be involved in a project only to back out later will probably hurt you more than doing the project would help you. I've heard several residents complain of this very thing...medical students say they want to get involved in a project then drop the ball only to say months later that they didn't have time (which is practically blasphemy to a neurosurgery resident).

 

[Blake]

Make contacts with the members of your department for any field as soon as you think you're interested. Start with shadowing so you can get to know some of the faculty. Then try and get some research done, some papers published and get to a conference or two. As long as you don't sacrifice your grades (especially your clinical grades) do as much as you feel comfortable to be involved. I would hope that most faculty will love to see an eager medical student interested in their field.

A caveat is to not get in over your head. Saying that you'd like to be involved in a project only to back out later will probably hurt you more than doing the project would help you. I've heard several residents complain of this very thing...medical students say they want to get involved in a project then drop the ball only to say months later that they didn't have time (which is practically blasphemy to a neurosurgery resident).

Thanks a lot for the reply. I've heard a lot about research, but I've got to admit that I have zero experience in it, and being innovative isn't one of my strong points. How difficult is research for a first year student with relatively little background in neurology/neurosciences ? What should I expect of research ?

I figure you can't answer everything, and I'll get some info myself from the faculty and a 4th year dead-set on this field, but I'd like to get your point of view. We're beginning our neurology unit in 3 weeks, so I figure I could become more technically efficient in research. Anyway, I'll make sure to get some contact with the ns staff at my school and to shadow them as much as I possibly while maintain good grades. Easier said than done, unfortunately. I just hope they won't think of me as another med student who's wasting their precious time, considering my contribution will be minimal.

Finally, do you know any books or websites that explains the basics of ns to a newbie ? I've got a very basic understanding of it, and I saw 2 neurosurgical procedures so far as a pre-med to the local hospital, and I know there's way more to this field than putting a drain into a patient's brain to decrease intracranial pressure, but I'd like to have a more complete picture of this particular field. So, is there ''Neurosurgery for dummies'' ?

Thanks again for your time.

 

[mpp]

Instead of starting with trying to do research see if there is a case report you can write up for publication. That will expose you to some aspect of neurosurgery and force you to start looking through the literature. Get some guidance from an upperclassmen if you need help.

As for books, just go to the library and find a decent textbook on neurosurgery taht you can leaf through. Also be sure to read some of the non-fiction books in the Required Reading thread.

 

[Blake]

Instead of starting with trying to do research see if there is a case report you can write up for publication. That will expose you to some aspect of neurosurgery and force you to start looking through the literature. Get some guidance from an upperclassmen if you need help.

As for books, just go to the library and find a decent textbook on neurosurgery taht you can leaf through. Also be sure to read some of the non-fiction books in the Required Reading thread.

Thanks again. English isn't my first language, so I don't know what you mean by '' case report I can write up for publication ''. I'll look in the library for those required books

 

[mpp]

A case report is an interesting or unique case of a patient's presentation or treatment. You can research the literature, and write a bit about why it is interesting and unique. Journals publish these. Just look under the case report section of most surgical journals and you'll see what I'm talking about.

 

[omarsaleh66]

Thanks a lot for the reply. I've heard a lot about research, but I've got to admit that I have zero experience in it, and being innovative isn't one of my strong points. How difficult is research for a first year student with relatively little background in neurology/neurosciences ? What should I expect of research ?

I figure you can't answer everything, and I'll get some info myself from the faculty and a 4th year dead-set on this field, but I'd like to get your point of view. We're beginning our neurology unit in 3 weeks, so I figure I could become more technically efficient in research. Anyway, I'll make sure to get some contact with the ns staff at my school and to shadow them as much as I possibly while maintain good grades. Easier said than done, unfortunately. I just hope they won't think of me as another med student who's wasting their precious time, considering my contribution will be minimal.

Finally, do you know any books or websites that explains the basics of ns to a newbie ? I've got a very basic understanding of it, and I saw 2 neurosurgical procedures so far as a pre-med to the local hospital, and I know there's way more to this field than putting a drain into a patient's brain to decrease intracranial pressure, but I'd like to have a more complete picture of this particular field. So, is there ''Neurosurgery for dummies'' ?

Thanks again for your time.

do u get time off during the summer between ms1 and ms2? U should definietely be able to crank out some papers between then. I did 3 of these case report/lessons for publications last summer. The ones i did dont take long, maybe 1 week a piece. So i would concentrate on school, ace ur classes and then in the summer, knock some of these bad boys out.

later

Omar

 

[Blake]

do u get time off during the summer between ms1 and ms2? U should definietely be able to crank out some papers between then. I did 3 of these case report/lessons for publications last summer. The ones i did dont take long, maybe 1 week a piece. So i would concentrate on school, ace ur classes and then in the summer, knock some of these bad boys out.

later

Omar

Thanks for the advice. I do have 2 months off during the summer, and I'll discuss my options with people at my school. I definitely want to do something ns or surgery-related this summer.