Education is important in nearly every occupation you could ever think of. To be a surgeon you have to go through Eight years of education and three years of residency, that totals up to 11 years of education. After students complete their undergraduate education, they must compete for entry into a medical school and then enter into an internship or residency. Specialized surgical residency is a two to eight year process, with ER doctors and neurosurgeons have the shortest residency times.
This works out for me because I want to be a neurosurgeon, and since they have the shortest residency time, I won’t have to lose time in the education process of it, I’ll be able to get my feet wet early and get hands on experience (physicians and surgeon). The working conditions for surgeons are 60 hours or more a week in small private offices or clinics, assisted by a staff of nurses and administrative personnel. It also involves long or irregular hours, combined with long periods of standing while performing surgeries.
Both physicians and surgeons may be required to attend to patients on-call, with physicians traveling to hospitals and nursing homes to deal with emergencies (physicians and surgeon). For all the training and hardship required, physicians and surgeons enjoy some of the highest salaries of any occupation. Surgeons in general practice with over one year in specialty saw median earnings of $282,504. A doctor with over a year experience in family practice earns $156,010 on average. Anesthesiologists earn some of the highest salaries in the profession; those with over a year in specialty earn an average $321,686 yearly.
(Physicians and surgeon). How did you get started? I became interested in medicine because I had a brain tumor when I was nine months old, so I was around a lot of doctors. I also watched the Donna Reed Show where Donna Reed’s husband was a pediatrician and I thought he had a nice life. And that’s the truth (interview). What do you like about what you do? I help a lot of people. They come back to me and they say, “Thank you for helping me. I feel much better. ” “Thank you for helping me. My pain is gone. ” “Thank you for taking out my brain tumor. ” I have four partners in my group who get along great.
I can make my own schedule. I don’t have to work as hard if I don’t want to. One of my partners is much younger and has four younger kids, and he’s able to work less. We’re able to, in a sense, set our own schedules (interview). How much does a neurosurgeon make? It depends. Neurosurgeon salary can be anywhere from $400,000 to over a million. It’s really a function of how hard you work and how your practice is set up (interview). What advice would you offer someone considering this career? The entry into medical school is pretty much now the same as it was 20 years ago. You need about a 3.
6 GPA and you need to have reasonably good medical MCATs, Medical College Admission Test scores. And then once you get into medical school, then you can decide on any medical or surgical specialty. And you rotate through the different specialties and you see what you like or which professor inspires you. But you have to want to work hard because residency is hard, but even when you go into practice, a normal work day is 10 to 12 hours a day, and there’s always some night and weekend call. I have four partners, so I’m on call every fifth night and every fifth weekend, which doesn’t mean I operate at all those times.
It means I have to handle phone calls and emergencies. So, a lot of hard work and good grades in college and to get into medical school (interview). How much time off do you get/take? Well, we have requirements for continuing medical education. So, we have to go to approximately two meetings a year and those are usually in nice places. I’m going to San Diego in three weeks. I just came back from Washington D. C. in the spring. So, you get sort of a chance to go on a nice vacation to a nice place for a meeting. And then usually the amount of time you take off, other than the meetings, is about four weeks a year (interview).
Everybody has a different reason for doing what they want to do. Mine is pretty simple, I want to help people. I’ve always wanted to make an impact on the life of someone who needs help, but honestly, I’ve never been in the position to do so. My drive to being a surgeon is the same as my drive to become professional in the NFL. I want people to look up to me, or look to me for help when they need it the most. To be in a profession like this you need to be 100% dedicated to what you do, and after you’re confident this is what you want to do, the results are up to you.