A Surgeon’s Path – What to Expect After A General Surgery Residency

Detalles del producto

Hardcover: 312 páginas
Editor: Springer; Edición: 1st ed. 2018 (31 de julio de 2018)
Idioma: English
ISBN-10: 3319788450
ISBN-13: 978-3319788456
Dimensiones del producto: 24.1 x 2 x 16 cm
Peso del envío: 1.7 pounds

June 2016 was my 15-year anniversary of graduating from my surgical residency. June 2001 was the time I felt like I was leaving the protective nest of being a resident and had to enter the real world. I felt bittersweet nostalgia. I felt on top of the world as a chief resident. I knew how to get anything done in the hospital for my patients. I knew who people were, how to work the computer system, every shortcut, every door combination, and I had the respect of everyone around me. They had watched me grow from a hatchling intern afraid of his own shadow, fearing I would kill a patient by inserting a nasogastric tube, to the surgical chief who could do an appendectomy skin to skin before his attending made it in from home to scrub the case. Looking back, I didn’t know what I didn’t know. I remember feeling nostalgic for those days when I didn’t have so much uncertainty and worry in my life. A quick inventory included worry about malpractice lawsuits, timely completion of my patient charts on the latest and greatest electronic health record, would the proposed addition of the nursing practitioner for the bariatric surgery program budget be approved, how did my personal life disintegrate when all I was trying to do was work hard and take care of patients, and the list went on and on.

It was in that same month that a soon-to-graduate chief resident set fire to an idea inside of me that had been smoldering for quite some time. I was in the operating room, the case was done, the orders were being put into the computer, and I suggested to my chief some words of wisdom about what comes after graduation. She hungrily consumed every word lamenting all the things she hadn’t learned in residency and some trepidation and fear about what comes next. I shared with her the idea of putting the collective wisdom of years of mistakes we surgical attendings make in a tome and providing it to residents at graduation. She suggested that the current chief residents could even contribute based on their experiences their _inal year as they prepare for graduation/fellowship/new jobs. I offered maybe even some help from other professionals in related and even dissimilar fields. The idea caught fire. We started to solicit authors, asking if they would be willing to contribute. An idea was pitched to a publishing company. It was accepted. Spreadsheets were created. Commitments were obtained. The fire grew to an inferno.

Herein contains the collective wisdom of what happens after residency, by so many who had to learn wisdom only by making mistakes. The goal, however, should be to learn before the mistake is ever made. Or at least to recognize the mistake for what it is, and then maybe the mistake won’t be so devastating or so much of a setback. I don’t believe in blindly approaching the maze of life, but by intelligently approaching it. You don’t have to have it figured all out to enter the maze, but you don’t have to hit every dead end either.

Not everyone can be a surgeon. Being a surgeon takes commitment, discipline, curiosity, and patience. This book is meant for those who have already made it to being a surgeon, but they now need a “quick reference map,” a pathway for what comes next, so they minimize their chances to get lost. Today’s surgeon has to be part technician, part IT specialist, an administrator, a clinician leader, and likely half a dozen other roles I haven’t mentioned. The chapters are meant to be little nuggets of helpful wisdom in those roles. Like appetizers. Helpful information in a condensed format. Easy to read. Suggestions offered. Lessons provided. Some chapters are similar in content, as there may be different lessons to learn from the same challenge depending on your age, gender, or point in your career. We hope this will aid you in your quest to become an attending surgeon: the person we all looked up to as an early medical student, in complete control in and out of the operating room, fully con_ident, without uncertainty or fear.

Marc Neff
Cherry Hill, NJ, USA

This book has been a long project in the making. The sheer volume and number of chapters included in the book certainly would not have been possible to compile together without the participation of each individual contributing author from all over our country. I am grateful for their participation, their words of wisdom, and also for their patience over multiple emails from myself for their drafts. Without them, this book would not have been possible.

This book certainly would not have been possible without the guidance and leadership from our senior editor, Dr. Marc Neff. Not only was this book his original idea for many years, he was involved in every aspect of the development of the book. Without his guidance, the book nor I would be where we are now.

Secondly, I would like to thank my Fellowship Program Director, advisor, mentor, and hustler sister, Dr. Carla Fisher, for eagerly agreeing to come onboard on the project and pushing me along the way. Her keen and unusual sense of honesty and attention to detail have improved this book in so many countless ways, and for that and for many other things, I am forever grateful.

Lastly, I would like to dedicate this book to my dear husband, companion in life, biggest supporter, baby daddy, and partner, Peter M. Flannery, Esq. He has seen through it all, from graduate school, commuting into the city for a research position, medical school, a brutal surgical residency to a challenging surgical fellowship and _inally in _irst practice. Without his support, I would not be where I am in my career, nor would I have had the courage to continue my demanding surgical career all the while not compromising our ambition for a large family. My hope is that every single medical student, surgical resident, and young surgical attending reading this book will hopefully understand that despite the dif_icult days and years that have accompanied us along the way, all of it can and will be possible if you have the will for it, especially if you have a supportive partner standing beside you. I know I did and I am eternally grateful.

Kahyun Yoon-Flannery
January 2, 2018