Did you know, being a doctor is nothing like the TV show Greys Anatomy?
I know! Shocking isn’t it?
Also, not quite as shocking, is once you’re a doctor there are heaps of different pathways
and specialities you can go down
Just like general surgeon
So if you’re a patient and you need an operation, the general surgeon, along with a whole team
of highly skilled staff, is the person who cuts you open, messes around with your insides
and quite possibly saves your life.
Being a general surgeon is not just about the operation
They meet with patients, examine them, determine if they need an operation and explain risks
and procedures
There’s also post-operative care, making sure the patient is progressing well, and
maintaining records
Today we’re chatting with Dr Chandra to see what it feels like to save someone’s life
Dr Chandra
Hi
Jesse, nice to meet you
Look, I want to find out what it’s like to be a general surgeon
keen for a chat?
Fantastic let me show you around
Beauty
So much equipment! I’m afraid I’ll break something
No fear of that, Jesse what would you like to know
Well first up, what exactly is a general surgeon?
So a general surgeon is a surgeon, well, once upon a time we were all general surgeons but
slowly what’s happened is we’ve divided up into different parts of the body, different
sub-specialties
But true general surgeons are a combination of surgeon who operates but also physician
to do medical management on the wards and that’s what makes general surgery so challenging
Why’d you choose to be a general surgeon? I chose general surgery because I get to see
people on the worst day of their lives and hopefully we can actually change that, we
can actually remove tumours, we can fix emergency situations, we can make people better very,
very quickly which is incredibly rewarding
Well you mentioned the emergency department and that sort of thing, what is the most challenging
part of the job?
Look it gets very scary because you can see people who are very sick and are very unstable
to operate on; you could be working around very large blood vessels where a millimetre
error in either direction and that could be the end
And things don’t always go according to plan.
Some people get complications, you have people who have issues, you have people who don’t
do as well after surgery as you would like and that can be really quite challenging
Wow now I can see there’s heaps of equipment around us now can you take me through just
a typical day
So a typical day would start with a ward round where we go and check all of the in-patients
and make sure that they’re doing well, then we’ll usually go to my clinic and I’ll
see patients who have had surgery or need to have surgery, we’ll have surgery in the
afternoon and deal with emergencies towards the end of the day
Sounds like a pretty intense day
Yeah it can get crazy
Well Dr Chandra I think it’s time for the edge are you ready?
We’re ready
So first one, what characteristics does someone need to be a general surgeon
So they need to be technically quite good with their hands, they need to be able to
physically get things done but more than that is they need to be good at decision making,
they need to be able to talk to people and to listen to what they have to say so those
parts of the job are probably harder than the actual surgery itself is just chatting
to people and making sure they know whats going to happen
Now can you list from school to today, what someone needs to do to get where you are
These days you don’t need to do any particular subject at school, you can choose whatever
you want to do and then you have to do an undergraduate degree and that can be anything
you like and then you have to sit an exam called the GAMSAT which is a general aptitude
test and then you have to have an interview and hopefully one of the medical faculties
you want to take accept you 4-5 years of medicine and you become a junior doctor
5 more years of training, a nasty exam at the end of that and then you become a surgeon
Then you get the white coat and the stethoscope
Pretty much, yes
Ok so lastly, if you could give one piece of advice to people thinking about moving
into medicine or general surgeon, what would that be?
I think it would be to just talk to people early, If you’ve got that idea that you
want to be a surgeon, general, orthopaedic, whatever, come along and talk to one of us
and we’ll be more than happy to spend some time
Awesome, thanks so much for the chat Dr Chandra
Not a problem
Do you have anything I can wear maybe?
Absolutely come with me and we’ll make that happen for
you
Awesome lets do it
Well if you’re patient, self-disciplined and able to work in a high pressure situation
then maybe general surgeon is the career for you and remember whatever stage you’re at
in your career, head to the careers centre website for investigation, exploration and
planning your next step
Ok, here we go, this is happening
Ok, nope, no way
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