After all the ‘horror’ one hears about neurosurgery lifestyle, stress level, divorce rate, malpratice premium, lawsuits, etc. what are the most powerful motivators for those of you who have chosen neurosurgery?

I hear from some neurosurgeons that NS is a ‘calling’ and unless you absolutely cannot see yourself doing anything else, don’t choose NS. There’s no doubt in my mind NS is the coolest job in the world, but how _do_ you really know you can handle it? How do you know (before you’ve ever performed a brain surgery) that you have the manual dexterity, the endurance, the tolerance to stress to handle the coolest job in the world?

i have to say that a lot of the horror stories that you hear are only partially due to career choice.  i know plenty of happily married neurosurgeons who enjoy a nice lifestyle.  a lot of what happens comes from your personality.  if you’re a “career above everything else” kind of person, your personal life may suffer.  you can be a successful neurosurgeon and still make your personal life a priority.

neurosurgery is an amazing field and i think it’s one of the only fields in medicine, if not the only one, that is growing at an explosive rate.  the brain is still a black box and we’re learning new things about it every day.  stuff we couldn’t treat surgically 20 years ago is now being treated with surgery: epilepsy, parkinson’s disease, essential tremor, depression, and even tourette’s.  imagine years down the line when epidemics like obesity and hypertension could be treated neurosurgically.  fields change.  things like brain tumors and aneurysms may be treated differently in years to come, but there is so much more to the brain.

manual dexterity and stamina play a very small role in neurosurgery.  if you think it’s the coolest job in the world, then you should do it.  all kinds of people become neurosurgeons.  tremor or no tremor, we’re all neurosurgeons, and there’s always going to be something for us to do.

there’s always functional/stereotactic! only kidding (sort of).

thanks kenny for encouraging thoughtful words!

i’m about to do my surgery rotation in a couple of months and i’m going to choose neurosurgery as my preference. what kinds of things are 3rd years/AIs expected to do as part of the team? what can 3rd years do to really help out and show interest, without having to live in the hospital for the duration of the rotation?

be as involved as possible.  see consults with the residents, offer to write notes and/or orders, scrub in on every single case.  don’t let anyone tell you that you can’t scrub in.  read up on your patients, ask questions.  at the end of your rotation, let them know that you’re very interested in neurosurgery.  ask if they have any papers or projects they need help with.  any sort of publication will strengthen your application.

and, i hate to say this, but if you’re willing to live in the hospital or at least stay long hours, that’ll go a long way.  your goal is to get in, which is probably the hardest part.  once you’re in, we can start worrying about stuff like lifestyle.

best of luck.

what textbooks do residents use to study for boards and as reference?

For me, I actually went to medical school to become a neurosurgeon.  Thought about other specialties once in med school, but didn’t seriously consider it.  More than a few other folks knew upon entering med school that neurosurgery was the way to go.  For me it’s the intensity of it.  It’s such a violent and fast roller coaster ride, no matter what you’ll never get bored, maybe a bit burned out, but never bored.

I agree with KL’s response.  Personality is everything.  A lot of the divorced would be divorced regardless of their chosen line of work.  Good luck; I would certainly apply.  And look for the people who have done things the way you would like to do them; they are out there.

For me - I actually hated neuroscience in college.  I told myself no matter what, never neurosurgery.  I thought we knew nothing about the brain still, and there’s nothing you could even do there.  Then, I got to medical school, and I learned all the possibilities.  I’ve always known I loved surgery, but the technical aspects of what neurosurgeons do is just striking.
That, and I’m loving the research.  I think this is the decade of the heart, what with the statins and stents and interventional radiologist/vascular surgeons, etc.  I’m predicting the brain’s going to get its time in the spotlight soon, and I want to be a part of that movement.  Yes, I’m idealistic with wide-eyed wonderous admiration, but I think without that much to at least spark an interest, I’ll be doomed to a field I never even liked from the get-go.
But part of that is if you’re willing to work it all the way through.  6+ yrs of 100 hr wks can get to you - i’m waiting for rotations to figure that one out.

:kiss:

great input there, buddy

can we try to keep this board constructive and meaty, instead of filling it with useless trolling?

oops

i believe 90’s was the decade of the brain.

http://www.loc.gov/loc/brain/proclaim.html

barry - 28 February 2007 11:37 AM

For me - I actually hated neuroscience in college.  I told myself no matter what, never neurosurgery.  I thought we knew nothing about the brain still, and there’s nothing you could even do there.  Then, I got to medical school, and I wanted to figure out what I wanted to do early on, so I shadowed a different doctor each week.  Of them all, I thought neurosurgery was the most intense, and the biggest challenge.  I felt like I was part of an incredibly intelligent, confident crowd who constantly discussed the latest literature, the newest procedures, and the latest innovative equipment.  I had always known I was a surgeon at heart, but it was at that point that neurosurgery started looking like “my field”.  Sure enough, my interest grew, and here I am.  I’m not sure if I have a special propensity to the subject matter of any one surgery - I love it all, especially the concept of being able to go inside someone, visualizing what’s wrong, fixing it, and then watching the result in front of your eyes.  But the technology, the equipment, and especially the people, definetely all played a role in pushing me in this direction.

That, and I’m loving the research.  I think this is the decade of the heart, what with the statins and stents and interventional radiologist/vascular surgeons, etc.  I’m predicting the brain’s going to get its time in the spotlight soon, and I want to be a part of that movement.  Yes, I’m idealistic with wide-eyed wonderous admiration, but I think without that much to at least spark an interest, I’ll be doomed to a field I never even liked from the get-go.

abcd - 28 February 2007 05:56 PM

i believe 90’s was the decade of the brain.

http://www.loc.gov/loc/brain/proclaim.html

Yes, this is the decade of the spine.

http://www.worldspine.org/decade.cfm

The next decade is devoted to the pancreas, then the adrenal after that. We will reconsider the brain for decadehood in 2031.

OK, sorry about the goofing off. For most people in NS, whether or not they will admit this openly, there is at least a component of taking on the toughest challenge around. This is true for me. If I had gone into general surgery, or even ortho, I would have thought “what if...?” too much in the future. In NS I’m spared that, because I felt, and still feel, that this is the toughest residency and career around. This is because of the hours/workload imposed on residents, and also because our victories are often ambiguous, and the defeats are devestating. It takes a lot to handle that, and I think it’s fundamentally different from replacing a knee or removing a gallbladder.

Hello Kenny, i’m a medical student from Colombia an i’m stating next year my last 2 semesters.
I have decided do dedicate my life to NS, and yes for me it has been a call, just like been a MD.
I can’t explain in a logic way why i did it. It’s just feels right, like been in love. My Bioethics professor who is also an psychiatris says that most of our important decisions are made emotionally more than rationally, but i guess is this way we keep , and stand things that other people can understand or share with us. That’s what i think so far.