Essay On Becoming An Orthopedic Surgeon

To become an orthopedic surgeon, the physician must now overcome the next obstacle along the path….residency and specialization. For a physician to specialize in general surgery alone, he must complete five to six years of residency. Residency is where the physician is training in a specified area of medicine and making the important decisions regarding patient care. In residency, doctors work many hours and are on call most of the time. According to Dr. Heller, you don’t “get much sleep during residency, but most of us were young, energetic, and passionate about what [they] were doing, so [they] survived” (77). After five to six years of residency in general surgery, the physician will spend another year specializing in orthopedic surgery

After high school, a minimum of fourteen years of post-secondary education is required. Because this amount of time can be intimidating, a person must be very serious before committing to pursuing a career as an orthopedic surgeon.

On many occasions, my father has said to me, “Why half do something? If you are going to do something, shouldn’t you give it all you have?” This is why I will not settle to be just an orthopedic surgeon, but I will strive to be the best orthopedic surgeon possible. Philip Stahel, an orthopedic trauma surgeon for ten years, gives tips in his book, Blood, Sweat, & Tears: Becoming a Better Surgeon, on how to become the best possible surgeon. His tips stray away from the accepted ideas of gaining more knowledge and practice to focus instead on the inner qualities of the surgeon. For example, Dr. Stahel says it is necessary to have the quality of empathy. Empathy is “the action of understanding, being aware of, being sensitive to” (Stahel 17). The doctor-patient relationship is very important. Therefore, having empathy for the patient helps contribute to a positive relationship with the patient, installing trust between both parties. Another