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Having second thoughts
#11
(06-06-2017, 12:16 PM)Guest Wrote: Thanks for the advice.

It's funny how things get interpreted in a post. When I said my home institution doesn't have enough research, it does not mean I don't like the clinical side. I love working with patients, I can spend the entire day in the OR, I enjoy it. I do have goals for myself in terms of academics, I just thought my home institution would be a dead end for me in that sense only. They have great operative volume which is awesome.

I apologize for making that assumption but now I am confused. You love the clinical side of neurosurgery and prefer to be in academics so of course you will be somewhat unhappy at an institution that isn't research-heavy. I don't see why you're doubting neurosurgery, all you need is a place with more research.
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#12
(06-06-2017, 11:22 AM)Guest Wrote: If you're a pre-med or a pre-MS4, please don't respond. This forum is rife with pre-ejaculatory die hards.

I finished my Sub I at my home institution. I definitely enjoyed it, but there were days I asked myself if I could do this for the rest of my life. I'm not particularly fond of my program because of a lack of research focus. I'll be doing a Sub I next at what I think would be my first choice, which is a research heavy institution. I'm hoping this Sub I will let me parse out if I'm having second doubts relative to institution or to neurosurgery in general.

I've considered almost every other specialty and can't see myself doing any of them.

-Medicine/Neurology people talk too much
-Rads/Path makes me fall asleep
-Anesthesiology is boring af
-OBGYN/Peds - not my turf
-FM, going the way of the NP, chronic diseases
-Ophtho, too meticulous for me
-Plastics/Ortho/GenSurg/ENT/Vascular/CT, all as difficult as NS in many respects, none as interesting

If you put a gun to my head and said do anything besides NS, I'd probably have to do rad-onc. My interests are in onc.

I'm just wondering if this is normal. Is this just the stress of Sub Is, applications talking. 

What would you tell your brother in this situation?

What exactly about research are you missing at your home institution?  In what field did you have the exposure you are desiring?  Why do you think the institution you will rotate at has a better experience?

Also, if Ophtho is too meticulous for you, how can you  justify onc?  Unless you plan to be the convexity met/meningioma and frontal GBM specialist, tumors are up there on meticulousness in neurosurgery.

Research is often what you make of it.  If you have an interest, you can find a project.  Likewise, if you have no interest, but all of the resources in the world, you can let them stand by idly.  There is no reason to not be productive, regardless of your environment.
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#13
(06-06-2017, 11:22 AM)Guest Wrote: If you're a pre-med or a pre-MS4, please don't respond. This forum is rife with pre-ejaculatory die hards.

I finished my Sub I at my home institution. I definitely enjoyed it, but there were days I asked myself if I could do this for the rest of my life. I'm not particularly fond of my program because of a lack of research focus. I'll be doing a Sub I next at what I think would be my first choice, which is a research heavy institution. I'm hoping this Sub I will let me parse out if I'm having second doubts relative to institution or to neurosurgery in general.

I've considered almost every other specialty and can't see myself doing any of them.

-Medicine/Neurology people talk too much
-Rads/Path makes me fall asleep
-Anesthesiology is boring af
-OBGYN/Peds - not my turf
-FM, going the way of the NP, chronic diseases
-Ophtho, too meticulous for me
-Plastics/Ortho/GenSurg/ENT/Vascular/CT, all as difficult as NS in many respects, none as interesting

If you put a gun to my head and said do anything besides NS, I'd probably have to do rad-onc. My interests are in onc.

I'm just wondering if this is normal. Is this just the stress of Sub Is, applications talking. 

What would you tell your brother in this situation?

current resident here. for what it's worth, I think you should go for rad onc. I think u would find yourself to be fairly happy in that field. being completely honest with u here.
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#14
PGY6 at historically "research-heavy" institution here.

You're not the first, nor will you be the last, person to have second thoughts about the profession. It's hard enough, and residency sucks enough, and some days bad enough, that you'll question your decision. But if you love operating, love the pathology, and find yourself having more good days than bad, you're probably better off than many. Know that things get a lot better as you get to the senior years of your residency, when the picture comes into focus and you can navigate patient care and the OR with some confidence. You have a VERY long way to go - and like most medical students you're very, very incompletely informed about what makes a good neurosurgeon, or even a good doctor for that matter.

If your reason for not liking a program is "a lack of research focus" then I call bullshit. Some things about neurosurgery are never going to change: we make money by operating (not staffing clinic), treat very sick patients, staff emergencies 24 hrs a day, and deal with problems that a very small subset of the population has and few physicians know about. You have to spend some time - like, genuine introspective time - figuring out if you're attracted to the essentials of the job. The rest of it (salary, subspecialty, research time, grants, teaching, reimbursement) is just window dressing and is subject to the intangibles of your institution, the healthcare political milieu, etc. If research is your bag, becoming a neurosurgeon is just about the most financially and ergonomically inefficient way to do it.
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