Surgery: Is cardiac or brain surgery more demanding?

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applemilk1992

in regards to your 'true ambition', do you realise how hard and costly it is to set up your own practice? do you own an operating theater? :tongue:

Reply 61

Papado

What I can't understand is why whenever I make a thread about medicine, asking a simple question, because there are obviously people on TSR which have much more knowledge on all of these subjects than me, and discuss my plans in a career in medicine, people immediately have to destroy my hopes and give me negative rep. (like I really care). I didn't say I was an expert in medicine, and I never claimed to know that you could change your career from a neurosurgeon, a heart surgeon, or any other type of surgeon to become a respected plastic surgeon. Therefore a simple explanation or clarification would've sufficed; you didn't all need to humiliate me on the matter. I simply said I've researched the different procedures involved in both brain and heart surgery, and that I thought that you could specialize in more than one field of surgery, for example, plastic and heart, while getting enough experience and reputation as a surgeon, in both areas, to start your own business. And then simply asked for advice on whether heart or brain surgery was more difficult. Why is that so hard to answer? Plus, what does my age have to do with anything? Some people know what they want to do since they are small kids. Sure, I understand the argument. Since there are so many fields in surgery, not to mention medicine as a whole, when and if I got into medical school I could very well change my mind. But believe me, I won't, because I've been set on this for 2 years now and I've done enough research into medicine to be sure about it. And, also, I'm 18 in a month, and my profile clearly says I'm 17, AND puberty stops when you're 17, so whoever said I'm 16, learn how to read and get your facts straight, and then maybe you can talk with the big boys.

Reply 62

Helenia

If you wanted to specialise in more than one area of surgery, you'd have to re-train several times, which would take YEARS, and in which time you'd lose your specialist skills in the other areas you had worked in.

I have no idea what's more difficult, but both are highly competitive careers. And I still think that making sub-specialty decisions before you've even got into med school is naive to be polite about it.

Most doctors (in this country) who go private don't start their own business, they just go to work for a pre-existing one.

Reply 63

Asclepius

Papado

puberty stops when you're 17

Really?! Who would've thought it, bodies conform to set rules without any variance.

My body

*looks at date* Woah there! It appears that it is my 17th anniversary! Guess I'd better stop with all this puberty nonsense!

Sorry

Reply 64

Papado

Helenia

I see. Well to be honest I have no idea when you get to decide your specialty and how long it takes to specialize in one field of surgery, but I'm sure there are many surgeons (like the examples in two previous posts) which have gone from one specialty to another. So maybe someone wouldn't be able to specialize in heart surgery and plastic surgery at the same time, but surely that surgeon would be allowed to switch from one to the other if he changed his mind, no?

Reply 65

Asclepius

Papado

If the surgeon wanted to switch then I believe he/she would have to go back to the point just after having completed Basic Surgical Training, meaning a huge step backwards in career terms. I believe Renal answered this better a few posts back (somewhere around the second page, take a look).

The others will have been trained on a different system, so things that were possible back then will no longer be possible now.

Reply 66

Asclepius

Why should people bother helping you, if you're just going to neg them. Yes I've taken the piss in a couple of posts, but I've also answered a fair few of your questions too :confused:

Reply 67

Papado

Alex L

Really?! Who would've thought it, bodies conform to set rules without any variance.

Sorry :tongue:

I can't tell if this was supposed to mock me or if it was you apologizing... :confused:

Reply 68

Asclepius

Papado

I can't tell if this was supposed to mock me or if it was you apologizing... :confused:

It was me apologizing for being an arse in that post. I still stand by the rest though, without having any experience of either speciality you can't make a proper informed decision on what you want to do. Just be flexible and see what you enjoy when it comes to actually doing it :wink:

Reply 69

Papado

Alex L

Why should people bother helping you, if you're just going to neg them. Yes I've taken the piss in a couple of posts, but I've also answered a fair few of your questions too :confused:

Sure you've answered some of my questions, in the last two posts, but the previous couple of posts were to poke fun at my age (which you read wrong anyway). I have no idea what that has to do with anything seeing as how I'm obviously not a stupid teenager, as you implied, and your second point was to make fun at my lack of knowledge of medicine when I never said I was either studying medicine or knew a lot of it and was just asking a question. So yes, I gave you a negative rep., simply because from your comments I deduced you were one of the people who did the same to me (I don't know how to check who gives me neg. rep and tbh I didn't care enough to ask). And, it was before you posted your last few helpful message, so it's not like I give neg. rep to people who give me advice for no reason, so... sorry :tongue:

I guess I'll just take your advice to wait and see what med. school brings.

Reply 70

Asclepius

Papado

I beg to differ. My first post (although mocking) was the first of the thread to actually point out the major flaws in your "plan" to train up in one area then switch to another to go private, in the fact that you would lack confidence/competence/reputation in plastics. I'd consider that to be sound advice.

Apart from that, no other post of mine was directed at you, nor insulting to you. I always leave a name with my rep anyway.

Reply 71

Asclepius

Papado

I guess I'll just take your advice to wait and see what med. school brings.

Sounds like the best plan to me. Just concentrate on getting into medical school before you worry about planning out your entire life :tongue:

Reply 72

Helenia

Papado

I suggest you learn a little more about that bit in bold before coming up with too many grand plans.

Currently, it takes at least 5 years (after Core Surgical Training) to gain a Junior Consultant post in a particular surgical specialty. If you wanted to switch from cardio to neuro to plastics, you'd have to start again each time. Sure, it would be possible but practically it'd be a bit of a bitch, and opportunities for private practice would be limited as you just wouldn't have the same experience as someone who's stayed in one specialty the whole time.

Reply 73

Asclepius

Helenia

How long is Core Surgical Training?

Reply 74

Helenia

2 years, I think. Probably subject to change though, as all these things are.

Reply 75

Asclepius

True. Not that it matters right now, because I don't have a bloody clue what I want to do! Just gonna see how things pan out :tongue:

Reply 76

Papado

Alex L, are you planning on becoming a surgeon? Also, could you tell me what the first year of med. school is like? I know it's different for each uni. but still, anything would help, since I don't know anybody who's been to med. school rececntly.

Reply 77

Asclepius

Papado

The thought has occurred to me, but its still far to early to tell, especially given that the only thing that made me think about it was a couple of days shadowing a surgeon during WE (so I saw clinics, pre/post-ops and observed in theatre) which is nowhere near enough exposure. But I definitely haven't ruled it out, along with numerous other specialities (which I know varying degrees of information about). This will change many times over the next five years though :tongue:

In Manchester the first semester is based around learning the basic science, including genetics, with some immunology too. Second semester seems quite a lot more interesting because its on cardiorespiratory fitness, and the cases have a lot more of a clinical angle to them. PBL takes some time to get into, but is fine once you're going. We have a few visits, I think its 3 GP visits. 4 Hospital visits and a few community based things over the course of the year, so you occasionally get to see patients to do a bit of communication type stuff, but that isn't all that often.

Reply 78

Hygeia

here's UEA first year to give you a different impression

Every week (from week 1), you spend a day at a GP practise, talking to and examining patients - learning alongside the PBL sessions and lectures/seminars. The first unit is very much getting everyone to the same point - some people love it, but it has a lot of psychosocial elements (law and ethics as well), which some people don't like. In year 1 you get 8 weeks of hospital teaching (split into 2 blocks of 4 weeks). Unit 2 is orthopaedics and rheumatology so a lot of clinical stuff as well as learning the basic sciences behind each condition.

example timetable for a week

Reply 79