Recent content by Smoke This

My fellowship director said that there are some ERAS registration problems that they haven't resolved yet that are preventing downloading apps. There may be more going on behind the scenes of the programs you're applying to than you're aware. This person also said how applications are...

If you are able to take 1-2 research years in residency, moonlight and pay down loans. Typically people go into lab after PGY2 or 3 so not that much interest will have accrued compared to waiting 5 years. Making an extra $75-100K/year is doable but you'll be busy. Alternatively, finish...

Moonlight. Pay down loans. Sleep more. Enjoy life.

Gen surg resident here. I got a motorcycle license during residency although I was in lab at the time. Sure it's doable (and a lot of fun). Just make sure that your buddies at the trauma center know your wishes for no heroic measures if you come in neurologically devastated (as do mine).

JackADeli, bravo. I wish you were my program director. There is a reason that surgery still has around a 20% attrition rate, and I think that reason is that the emphasis continues to be on service instead of education. It's always interesting to me that our private hospital rotations are...

IMHO Toronto is by far the best HPB fellowship, and also the most competitive (~250 applicants, 4 interviewed, 1 fellow/year). The fellows get autonomy in the OR like you'd never find in the US and see an immense volume. I didn't personally apply there but one of our chiefs this year landed...

I'm surprised to hear that since that's at odds with published salary information that I've seen. I've actually heard that it's more like $200K.

Our system: Trauma center: interns cover floors and help out at level 1 traumas, juniors cover burn ICU and traumas/ER consults/burn admissions; interns are q4-5 or so and junior call is covered by a junior-level night float 5 days/week with the remaining 2 days covered by the other 3 juniors...

Thoracic is great and I'd highly consider it. Pros: diversity, great mix of lap/thoracoscopic vs open, benign and cancer cases, small and large, both sides of the diaphragm, lots of scopes, opportunity to develop a niche like endobronchial U/S or esophageal function, lots of room to be a...

Absolutely. I was bored to tears just standing around in the OR as a med student. I can tell you it is a world of difference between doing and watching. I don't think it's a red flag not to find everything interesting if you're just watching someone else operate. Frankly, some cases are only...

:laugh: That's about right. Everyone and their PA wears a long white coat these days. At the hospital I was just rotating through even the chaplains wore long white coats over their chaplain gear.

Hard to say how much we really owe society, but I'd still be hard pressed to trade places with a layperson. A cubicle drone will never know what it's like to run a successful code or scrub in to an operation.

I'm a PGY2. This a case of "the grass is always greener." I say, absolutely the OP should stay in medicine. There are VERY laid-back residencies out there (FP, IM, psych, path, PM&R) that are both relatively short and lead to flexible careers that would pay at least as well as a PA if you...

Word. I like to place IJs as low as I possibly can, and U/S makes it safe to do that. I love subclavians too, but even for semi-emergent lines I'll get out the site rite when the last thing the pt needs is a complication of a ptx. As a practical matter, I wonder if there's a real difference...

IU has one.