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04-23-2009, 07:52 PM
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#16 | | Junior Member
Join Date: Mar 2009
Posts: 260
| It is a long haul.
My neurosurgeon went to medical school-->Got his PhD-->Did a surgical residency-->then did a neurosurgery specialty residency -->then did a fellowship in skull base surgery. He went to Duke(89), Cornell med(97), Rockefeller PhD (97), San Francisco General and then neurosurgery (98-03), Brigham and Womens (04).
So he graduated highschool around 1985 and was done and ready to practice neurosurgery in 2004 in his mid-thirties.
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04-23-2009, 08:25 PM
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#17 | | Junior Member
Join Date: Mar 2009
Posts: 36
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oh my goodness...19 years...
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04-23-2009, 08:26 PM
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#18 | | Junior Member
Join Date: Mar 2009
Posts: 36
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did he take any time off?
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04-23-2009, 08:32 PM
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#19 | | Junior Member
Join Date: Mar 2009
Posts: 260
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Nope, the dates are in parenthesis...no time off. When I had my surgery he was in surgery with me for 13.5 hours. Got out around 10pm, left, was back at the hospital to present my case to grand rounds and then see me in intensive care by 8:00 am.
Tough life for him
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04-23-2009, 08:39 PM
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#20 | | Junior Member
Join Date: Mar 2009
Posts: 35
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Neurosurgery will take 4 +4 + 7-9 years. At least 15 years from high school. Even then, you are not really a very good surgeon until you have a few years under your belt. It's a long slog and no shortcuts.
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04-24-2009, 12:11 AM
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#21 | | Senior Member
Join Date: Apr 2006
Posts: 3,292
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A neurosurg residency is 7 years. The only board certified fellowship currently available is endovascular NS, which is another year.
A cardiology fellowship is 3 years but also requires 3 years of an Internal Medicine residency.
If you want to become an electrophysiologist or interventional cardiologist, you have to tack on an extra year beyond the three years of cards and three years of IM...
So 7 years or 8 years after graduating med school? Granted NS is the only specialty in which every single residency program has applied for and received an exemption to the 80 hour work week, and you will be taking call every second night (even if it is from home), but fellowship in cards is no cakewalk either...and the lifestyle of the interventional cardiologists isn't much different from the neurosurgeons.
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04-25-2009, 09:13 PM
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#22 | | Member
Join Date: Mar 2008 Location: TN
Posts: 653
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Jaz
7 - 8 years post medical school is the average for most all surgical fellowships now. Sounds like a lot. You will be in debt until you are in your 40s.
On the other hand, only surgeons "cure" disease. Almost all surgeons love to go to work and love what they do. Most internests, etc don't.
And you have the rest of your life to be happy.
When you finish, almost all docs will be "employees" of something, the days of the independent doc are going. But that means less night call, less $$, etc.
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04-29-2009, 02:25 AM
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#23 | | Junior Member
Join Date: Apr 2009
Posts: 39
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"there are no definites unless you're a legacy"
elaborate please?
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04-29-2009, 11:52 AM
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#24 | | Senior Member
Join Date: Feb 2006
Posts: 9,554
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He means that if your parents attended that particular medical school or residency program, you get a guarantee of admissions, which is not true. Legacy may provide some boost, but not nearly a guarantee.
He is correct, though, that in all other situations, there is similarly no guarantee. Even very qualified candidates get turned away.
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04-29-2009, 04:04 PM
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#25 | | Junior Member
Join Date: Apr 2009
Posts: 39
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^Do all med schools and residency programs do legacies?
Or just private ones?
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04-29-2009, 04:10 PM
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#26 | | Senior Member
Join Date: Feb 2006
Posts: 9,554
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Medical schools do a little bit, I think. I don't know whether residency programs do at all. But certainly all the med schools do it a little.
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05-03-2009, 08:55 PM
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#27 | | Junior Member
Join Date: Jan 2009
Posts: 42
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I've recently become very interested in neuroscience in the past two years- I'm even attending a summer session in Iowa on the subject this year. I thought I would go to school to be a neurosurgeon but this thread is giving me doubts. I love the study of the brain and nervous system. It's so complicated and intriguing- but that many years? And the crazy work hours..I don't know, is it worth it? Are there any other careers in the field that will be as exciting as brain surgery? Wasn't planning on having kids anyway.. probing brains is better lol
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05-10-2009, 07:53 PM
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#28 | | Junior Member
Join Date: Apr 2009
Posts: 39
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Can't you choose to work fewer hours and get less pay?
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05-10-2009, 08:04 PM
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#29 | | Senior Member
Join Date: Feb 2006
Posts: 9,554
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No, not really. Many costs of an office are "fixed" -- that is, since you can't rent your building half time or hire nurses half time, it might be hard to cover overhead. Working in a partnership means your partners will have expectations for you. And working in an academic center carries expectations as well.
Besides, most folks here aren't talking about practice, they're talking about residency. Those hours are definitely not up to you; and even if they were, you wouldn't be able to live on less pay anyway.
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05-10-2009, 08:28 PM
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#30 | | Senior Member
Join Date: May 2007 Location: N. California
Posts: 3,216
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"Neurologists push meds; neurosurgeons cut and cure."
Awww c'mon.... give me a break.
Last edited by Shrinkrap; 05-10-2009 at 08:35 PM.
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