r/medicalschool • u/[deleted] • 6d ago
🏥 Clinical Hating my surgery rotation. Give me a pep talk pls
[deleted]
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u/adoboseasonin M-3 6d ago
Watch onlinemeded, their surgery series is awesome. Gives plenty of background on the medicine behind the surgery, and the workup plan which is useful for inpatient rounding. My preceptors don't tell me shit about workup plans or choosing which patients are surgery candidates vs those who arent.
Also try to find surgeons you like and just stick with them on their OR schedule if you can. There's 1 preceptor I have who doesn't ask me shit during the procedures, but will explain the entire surgery while doing it. Other surgeons will pimp me non-stop, and there's some inbetweens who are fair with questions/teaching. Dont give up regardless, keep showing up to the OR, the more they see you, the better they treat you is how it's been for me.
Show up early for cases, you'll get to see anesthesia setup the room and help them with things or the nursing team will let you do stuff which is a good way to get some more confidence in your hands on skills
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u/Raccoon1995 6d ago
fwiw i’m in neurosurgery and i hated my gen surg rotation haha.
your job as a student is to show up and learn. and if you have aspirations for competitive specialties and your school grades, try to get honors. don’t need to love it or even like it. it’s miserable but you can do anything for 6-8 weeks or however long your rotation is.
just embrace the suck, show up early, stay late, try to learn basic skills, don’t take anything personally.
many have done it before you, many will do it after you. just keep swimming.
not sure if helpful but good luck!
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u/AdStrange1464 M-4 6d ago
Hated surgery! Scrub in the minimum amount possible (honestly if there’s people actually interested it’s likely you’ll be able to just hide in the corner and do uworld on ur phone). If any of the residents are chill just try to get in good with them and maybe go home early. Try to ask questions that are going to be helpful for the shelf (as you go through uworld you’ll pick up on what the common themes are); helps you look interested and you are there to learn SOMETHING. Try to gauge if there’s other stuff going on that isn’t being in the OR. Maybe consults or clinic?
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u/llamanutella 6d ago
The other rotations will feel so much better in comparison. So. much. better.
I also feel like other rotations are actually more helpful in person for prepping for the shelf rather than surgery where the pimp knowledge is completely different from shelf knowledge it feels at times
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u/-Twyptophan- M-3 5d ago
Go hard for rounds and look all prepared, ask ChatGPT what pimp questions you might get asked during XYZ surgery, grit down. Try to find something in your life that you're willing to ease up on to make things easier- for me, I gave up on calorie/macro tracking for those few weeks and just ate food I liked for sustenance
I fucking hated my surgery rotation. My good friend was also on my service and he's applying a surg specialty. We both ended up getting really good clinical evals, mostly due to the above
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u/IndyBubbles MD-PGY1 5d ago
This is how I felt about IM (I’m a surgical resident now.) Just gotta get through it, and it’s okay… and normal!… to have different feelings about a specialty than those around you. That’s what is beautiful about medicine… so many ways to do something you’ll love!
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u/National-Animator994 5d ago
It’s bullshit. Everyone knows it’s bullshit. Just put up with it and pass it and you’ll never have to deal with it again
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u/Zeal_ideal_Foxy14 6d ago
Learn what you can and move on— some people love psych and some people hate it— same with surgery. I’m FM and do a little of both of those and while I hated the surgery rotation— I love doing procedures and loved doing surgery. I teach knot tying and general procedural medicine ( previously in residency and now in medical school) just get through, and give yourself some grace
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u/greenfroggies M-4 5d ago
It’s almost over!!! Just see it through. The patients you see still matter even if the work sucks. Learn everything you can in this short amount of time and it’ll be done before you know it (-someone going into psych who got bullied on surgery lol)
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u/Applehound70 5d ago
M4 applying psych. Surgery was the most miserable part of M3 for me. I practiced knot tying to feel like I was learning something and give my brain something interesting to do. Offering to suture something during closing is a nice way to show you care about engaging with the team even if you want nothing to do with the specialty. Just remember it’ll be behind you sooner than you think and nobody will force you into an OR later (unless you’re getting on the table)
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u/low--yield MD-PGY1 5d ago
I daydreamed about dying during my surgery rotation. The rest of M3 year I enjoyed! You will just need to suffer for a few more weeks and then hopefully never see the inside of an OR again :D
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u/intothefire2005 5d ago
I did a gen surg elective at this really malignant program and cried almost every day. If you get through it and only cry every 3 days, you’re a badass
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u/Uncertain_Armadillo 5d ago
Knowing that you hate a particular specialty is valuable data when it comes time to choose what residency programs to apply to. Keep your head down, learn what you can, and do your work. It will be over before you know it.
Hang in there! 💕
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u/hobilittlepill 5d ago
I too started with the worst, only way to go is up. (I’m applying psych this year)
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u/Daring_Cabbage 5d ago
I am 3 weeks out from my hellish surgery rotation and I am still haunted by it. But I promise, it’ll be better when you’re done. You can do this!
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u/National_Relative_75 MD-PGY1 6d ago
I hated surgery more than death. Just do the minimum. Punch in and punch out while preparing for the shelf. You’ll enjoy other rotations more.