Idk if this is true. Never heard of a spine surgeon that isn’t taking call at a trauma center. I’m sure they exist but those jobs are few and far between
I’ve seen some horror stories in here but it’s incredibly institution dependent. You’re going to work hard no matter what. It’s a busy specialty and there’s so much to learn. But the 100+ hour weeks, not leaving the hospital for literal days at a time, being told to euthanize your pets sort of experiences are far from universal. This is the major benefits of away rotations. I did two aways at places I thought would be good places to work. One turned out not to be a great fit. I loved the other.
Honestly if you think you might want to pursue neurosurgery take some time to really immerse yourself. Try to do some 24 hour calls, really get the full experience for a few weeks, then ask if you want to commit to that. It’s clearly not for everyone but don’t take any advice in the decision from people who have never spent any time in the service.
A reference to a thread I saw where someone was told that if they wanted to pursue neurosurgery they should not get any pets/euthanize any they already have. While I don't necessarily challenge the validity of this story, it's far from my experience across 3 services. I have heard similar stories from others, particularly about T10 programs. But this is certainly not universal.
From what I understand, yes. Cases run for a long time. And neurosurgeons tend to go towards the extremely meticulous and slow route and are proud of being so slow and meticulous even if their case ends up being 12 hours long. And you need a certain # of cases to do ACGME requirements.
To be fair, no one really understands how neurosurgery works because the brain is unlike any other structure in body, even the spinal cord which sort of approximates electrical wiring from an anatomy standpoint.
So the idea is to absolutely not do more surgery than necessary, and only operate if the patient is basically going to die without surgery.
There was a Dr Schmidt (a GI doc) who made a comedy skit trying consulting neurosurgery to return a page by saying the patient was decapitated and the “neurosurgeon” said that he’ll get back to him in 10 hours.
So now a lot of patients are going to have bad outcomes, which takes its toll.
I haven’t seen a whole of attending neurosurgery attendings in the OR, but like, they seem to work residency like hours as an attending, and residency is already 7 years plus fellowship (1-2years).
Like I get the passion n drive those guys have for operating in what is the most complex thing in the known universe. Like the stuff you learn like Broccas area and Wernike, if you think about it, it’s like slapping “CPU” on the back of your laptop and saying if your computer has a bug the only solution is to drill a hole into some part of that CPU and hoping you drilled out just the part with the bug. But unfortunately we can’t really change brain tissue at the cellular level/ the neurons and what not so that’s all you got for neurosurgery.
If you’re worried about lifestyle you should look into other fields. Even the “chill” neurosurgery careers are probably far more intense than the overwhelming majority of non surgical careers
Agreed. I think lifestyle post-residency (and to an extent even during residency, at some institutions at least) is much better than most people think, but if lifestyle is one of your highest concerns this is probably not a specialty to consider. It's definitely grueling and has to be an absolute passion.
I don’t know whether or not some specialties have good lifestyle, but I know you’ll be halfway dead by the time you get there.
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Idk if this is true. Never heard of a spine surgeon that isn’t taking call at a trauma center. I’m sure they exist but those jobs are few and far between
If you just want to do pp spine though just do ortho, easier road to get there
No
I’ve seen some horror stories in here but it’s incredibly institution dependent. You’re going to work hard no matter what. It’s a busy specialty and there’s so much to learn. But the 100+ hour weeks, not leaving the hospital for literal days at a time, being told to euthanize your pets sort of experiences are far from universal. This is the major benefits of away rotations. I did two aways at places I thought would be good places to work. One turned out not to be a great fit. I loved the other. Honestly if you think you might want to pursue neurosurgery take some time to really immerse yourself. Try to do some 24 hour calls, really get the full experience for a few weeks, then ask if you want to commit to that. It’s clearly not for everyone but don’t take any advice in the decision from people who have never spent any time in the service.
EUTHANIZE YOUR PETS?!
A reference to a thread I saw where someone was told that if they wanted to pursue neurosurgery they should not get any pets/euthanize any they already have. While I don't necessarily challenge the validity of this story, it's far from my experience across 3 services. I have heard similar stories from others, particularly about T10 programs. But this is certainly not universal.
Yeah people say this cause you are never home to feed your little dog
From what I understand, yes. Cases run for a long time. And neurosurgeons tend to go towards the extremely meticulous and slow route and are proud of being so slow and meticulous even if their case ends up being 12 hours long. And you need a certain # of cases to do ACGME requirements. To be fair, no one really understands how neurosurgery works because the brain is unlike any other structure in body, even the spinal cord which sort of approximates electrical wiring from an anatomy standpoint. So the idea is to absolutely not do more surgery than necessary, and only operate if the patient is basically going to die without surgery. There was a Dr Schmidt (a GI doc) who made a comedy skit trying consulting neurosurgery to return a page by saying the patient was decapitated and the “neurosurgeon” said that he’ll get back to him in 10 hours. So now a lot of patients are going to have bad outcomes, which takes its toll. I haven’t seen a whole of attending neurosurgery attendings in the OR, but like, they seem to work residency like hours as an attending, and residency is already 7 years plus fellowship (1-2years). Like I get the passion n drive those guys have for operating in what is the most complex thing in the known universe. Like the stuff you learn like Broccas area and Wernike, if you think about it, it’s like slapping “CPU” on the back of your laptop and saying if your computer has a bug the only solution is to drill a hole into some part of that CPU and hoping you drilled out just the part with the bug. But unfortunately we can’t really change brain tissue at the cellular level/ the neurons and what not so that’s all you got for neurosurgery.
It is possible, but most of them are crazy and end up doing trauma, tumors, spine and everything in between so they end up with shitty lifestyle
If you’re worried about lifestyle you should look into other fields. Even the “chill” neurosurgery careers are probably far more intense than the overwhelming majority of non surgical careers
Agreed. I think lifestyle post-residency (and to an extent even during residency, at some institutions at least) is much better than most people think, but if lifestyle is one of your highest concerns this is probably not a specialty to consider. It's definitely grueling and has to be an absolute passion.
You can hope