About
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What is Surgeon Junior?
In surgical residency, you have to document every surgical case you participate in to prove to an accreditation council that you have, in fact, performed enough operations to become a Real Surgeon. When we operate as residents, we do alongside the Real Surgeons who guide our instruments, instruct us on where to throw the next stitch, and offer feedback — sometimes in kind and encouraging terms, other times with grunts and a few terse words. In these cases, we report our role as “Surgeon Junior."
Who Am I and Why Should You Care?
I’m a General Surgery resident at a large academic hospital. General Surgery is the broadest of the surgical training tracks, and can lead into further sub-specialty training (yes, more years) in trauma, colorectal, transplant, endocrine, bariatric, oncologic, thoracic, breast, vascular, or even plastic surgery. As residents, we spend 5-7 years rotating through many of these specialties and providing care to patients with surgical problems, both in the operating room and on the hospital wards.
I’m not sure why you should care, but I care a lot about cancer care, medical humanities, shared decision making, and have written a bit about medical training among other matters. My opinions and experiences are just that — my own, and I can’t promise they’ll always be interesting or entertaining.
Disclaimer
None of my opinions reflect those of my employer. More importantly, I’ve changed the details of these stories to protect my patients. I'll often be vague and I’ll always delay sharing stories until well after they occurred.
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I will also aim to tread lightly in my posts because I’ve been repeatedly warned about being vocal as a doctor (about any topic, really) since professionalism is so central to good patient care. But I do believe, from the bottom of my already-hardening heart, that you can both be a human with feelings and opinions to share, while also being a professional, respectful physician. It's my hope that writing through these years will only render me a more compassionate, attentive surgeon.
