Post residency question...

[blaze1306]

I noticed on a NS site that after residency you must be in practice for "x "amount of years before becoming board certified. How long is "X" number of years? And are are you working for resident wages before boards? Could a person go get one of the well paying NS job while practicing before boards?

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[mpp]

It depends as it is not a necessary amount of time but rather an amount of patients and have unrestricted privledges at a hospital. Check the American Board of Neurosurgery (www.abns.org) for qualfications.

Everyone graduating from a neurosurgery residency program is board eligible and then can get staff paying jobs. If you look at advertisements for any type of physician job they are usually looking for BE/BC physicians which stands for board eligble or board certified.

 

[blaze1306]

What is the total residency time? Am I correct in that neuro is extreamly competitive?

 

[mpp]

Total residency time depends on the program. Most programs are 7 years but there are some that are 6 and a couple that are 8.

It is fairly competitive, but less so than some other specialties (more competitive specialties include dermatology, radiation oncology, and possible ortho, ENT, and urology). In recent years between 80-85 percent of applicants (and I'm talking 4th year medical students at U.S. allopathic schools, not DO's or foreign grads) matched into a program, meaning nearly 20 percent of people fail to match. The applicant pool is quite accomplished with most people having board scores above 235/95 with honors in many courses, a good percentage of people being AOA, and a good percentage having significant research including 10-15 percent with PhD's.

Still, neurosurgery probably has the highest atrition rate of any specialty meaning more people drop out of neurosurgery during their residency than any other specialty. It can be very demanding...certainly more demanding than the work it takes to get honors or a high board score.

 

[NSGYRes]

I noticed on a NS site that after residency you must be in practice for "x "amount of years before becoming board certified. How long is "X" number of years? And are are you working for resident wages before boards? Could a person go get one of the well paying NS job while practicing before boards?

Actually, there are two designations you have after neurosurgery residency.

BE (Board Eligible) and BC (Board Certified)

BE means you completed residency andpassed the ABNS (American Board of Neurological Surgeons) primary written exam. At that point you can enter practice as a fully competent neurosurgeon without restrictions. You will get paid the same as any other entry level neurosurgeon after residency (somewhere between $250k-$600k to start).

In order to become BC you must practice for one full year and supply the ABNS with a list of all patients you operated on, complications with information on at least 3 months of follow-up. At this point you can then apply to take your Oral Board exam for ABNS in Houston, Texas. It usually takes 6 months to process this before you actually sit for your oral boards. If you pass your oral boards you are then Board Certified.

Advantages of being Board Certified:
-you can tell your patients you are BC
-if testifying in court your statements are more heavily weighted being board certified (compared to the opposition having a neurosurgeon testify who is not board certified)
-some practices will not let you "buy in" to be a full partner until you are BC
-in academic settings promotion to associate professor may require BC

As far as privledges at a hospital, anyone who is BE or BC can get privledges for neurosurgey.