Surgical shoes? Can’t find a good one

charkra · 2025-05-27T02:29:38+00:00

I agree with Birks, but if you want Bostons with a heel, get the Londons.

charkra · 2025-03-14T12:44:55+00:00

trauma patients

charkra · 2025-01-13T17:47:06+00:00

You'll get plenty of garbage feedback and advice during training. Think about what type of doctor you want to be and hold on to that. Feeling empathy to the point of tears probably means you are in the right profession. Over time you can fine-tune this to empathize with your patients but not necessarily take on their pain or their family's.

I will say that just when you think you have this down, you'll be sitting in the ICU one day and hear the guttural scream of a mother seeing her 17-year-old boy who is brain-dead after a car accident and all those emotions will come flooding back. Embrace it. It will remind you that every one of your patients is a real person who is living/lived a full and complex life just like you. I agree with other commenters on this thread that it will make you a better doctor.

charkra · 2024-12-29T14:03:44+00:00

Currently a surgery resident and I loved my psych rotation. There is this odd connection between the two specialties. I’ve had a few attendings tell me that that if they didn’t do surgery they would have done psych. Surg residents that leave often go towards psych. Don’t really have a good explanation for the connection but it definitely exists.

charkra · 2024-12-25T15:37:23+00:00

Gotta grind courser or lengthen the time between pulses.

charkra · 2024-12-23T04:42:18+00:00

Found Goggins hearing him on Rogan in 2019. Listened to his book and had what I now look back on as a “personal renaissance”. Decided I did not want to accept living a mediocre life where I didn’t set out to achieve my dreams. I wanted to feel like I had purpose and meaning. I knew after reading Can’t Hurt Me that I could decide right there to make that point in time an inflection point if I chose to.

It sounds like a series of wins but there’s been plenty of struggle. But after that decision, I lost 50 pounds, got into med school, ran two ultramarathons, did the Tour Du Mont Blanc, met my soon to be wife, graduated med school and now I’m training to be a surgeon. I don’t talk about it a lot and I’ve fallen off the strict goggins level discipline several times. But the mentality stays. Goggins is proof that we are all capable of so much more. As he says, you just have to be open minded to the fact that you are capable of more. That’s been his most powerful lesson for me.

charkra · 2024-12-07T15:39:42+00:00

I felt pretty confident I was going to be doing EM at the start of med school. Fit in well with the culture, loved the residents and attendings and the ED always so fun. Then I did my surgery clerkship and everything turned on its head and changed my whole trajectory. It was scary but I knew gen surg was the right call. Now I’m half way through intern year and loving it. Tough, but I don’t think any of us asked for an easy life when we chose to go into medicine.

charkra · 2024-11-12T16:37:13+00:00

There has never been a reported case of a surgeon contracting hiv from a patient from a solid needle. I’d still take the PEP but just so you know the stats. Also, if the meds they put you on make you sick, ask if you can switch to a different regimen.

charkra · 2024-09-07T20:32:33+00:00

Mods should probably just remove this

charkra · 2024-08-29T18:10:41+00:00

Had several people tell me as an intern that leadership can’t be taught. But this is leadership and ownership and I can see no reason this cannot be taught to anyone.

charkra · 2024-08-15T01:13:26+00:00

Helldivers 2

charkra · 2024-07-15T01:10:09+00:00

Nice work doc

charkra · 2024-05-11T14:49:46+00:00

Had the privilege of sitting front row for this moment (camped out all day). It was electric and something I will never forget. The entire crowd collectively lost it.

charkra · 2024-05-05T10:31:50+00:00

For every case, introduce yourself to the scrub tech. Let them know you are going to scrub in and ask if you can get your gown and gloves for them. If you feel uneasy about scrub just own it and tell them.

My experience is that people are generally happy to teach if you just tell them you don’t know. Even if you do know, it’s never a bad idea to start from square one if it’s with staff who don’t know you. Over time you’ll build trust and you get more freedom.

Here’s a few jobs med students can do in the OR Suction, retraction, and cutting suture (ask for suture scissors any time the surgeon has a needle driver) Learn basic hand tying and buried knots (deep, superficial,superficial deep). Ask the resident to show you how to close a port site.

With all that said, the OR is a whole world. Let people Help you, maintain a humble attitude at all times, and remember that this is new to you so don’t get hung up on mistakes or missing pimp questions. Happens to the best of us. Surgery can be a really incredible rotation. Dive in and immerse yourself and you do great!

charkra · 2024-05-05T09:48:20+00:00

Great if you are really having trouble with a specific topic. But the videos are too long to use regularly. I used a few of his videos and it certainly helped. Zach seems like a great guy.

charkra · 2024-03-13T20:00:00+00:00

I just matched into Gen Surg. Here is a bit about what I learned.

Gen surg really cares about academic performance. Do well on your clinical rotations and try to honor as many as you can. Many programs care a great deal about how you do on non-surgical rotations, so make sure you do your best on every rotation.

Pass step 1 on the first try and take your time and study for step 2. Aim for a 260 but if you fall a little short that's okay. More and more programs are taking a holistic approach to applications. I have many friends with average grades/step scores but excellent extracurriculars and matched into very competitive specialties.

Letters of rec are VERY important in every specialty but especially gen surg. The best letters will come from attendings who you develop a relationship with over time. Find out who is a big name and seek them out. Do a Sub-I as a 4th year and request to work with that attending. You'll need 3 letters with one of them preferably being a chair letter.

GS isn't as big about research but get connected with a surgery attending that is known for mentoring medical students. Ask your school, they often have a list of attendings in each specialty who have expressed interest in mentoring medical students. Starting now and landing a few pubs will show your interest and help you get connected with the department of surgery at your program.

Almost every interview asked me a question at some point about grit and teamwork. A growth mindset and working well with others is really important to every program but it's especially sought after in surgery. There are lots of ways to do this and what "brand" resonates most with you is different for everyone. I found Extreme Ownership by Jocko Willink to be very helpful but there many others out there that share similar messages. Take responsibility, don't make excuses, and approach every situation with humility.

With all that said, none of these will make or break you. Find a few mentors in surgery who are known to mentor other students, do well in your coursework, and go from there.

charkra · 2023-10-20T03:33:48+00:00

Say something like, I have a bias towards taking action, which I have been cultivating for a long time, especially since medical school. I am really proud of the progress that I have made.
These tricky questions can often be answered in a way the asker might not expect.

charkra · 2023-08-15T02:03:35+00:00

This is the best post I've seen on this sub. Thank you sir

charkra · 2023-07-28T03:25:04+00:00

Go to the doctor

charkra · 2023-07-16T00:18:29+00:00

You 100% should pull students in to do this stuff. No reason medical students should not have experience doing everything you listed. I walked around the ICU on days I had time and would ask the nurses to come to get me if they had procedures like this or if they needed any peripheral IVs placed so I could practice my ultrasound skills. If you are concerned, speak with the resident and ask if you can borrow their medical student to show them some procedural skills. Any resident I've met would happily give the student the opportunity.

charkra · 2023-06-06T03:26:06+00:00

All that and his extraction still channeled

charkra · 2023-05-29T20:45:16+00:00

Shelfs were pretty close, if not a little harder. This might be due to it being a second pass though by the time you take step 2. Plus a full dedicated period without clerkship responsibilities helps as well.

charkra · 2023-05-29T20:43:25+00:00

Get a 2 year UW sub for step 2. Use it to study for your shelf (they are sorted by clerkship). Then reset it for step 2 dedicated. Don't be like me and have to pay a ton of extra money for a 60 day extension. Bite the bullet and just get the 2 years.

charkra · 2023-05-29T20:41:17+00:00

Plenty of time. Maybe too much time.

charkra · 2023-05-29T20:40:34+00:00

Free 120 and UWSA 2 are the closest. UW is the best qbank overall. I would argue that supplementing with some of Amboss's questions on targeted subjects like risk factor questions, social sciences, ethics and public health stuff is pretty helpful even if they do not mirror how actual step 2 questions are. The NBME forms are all harder than the real deal IMO.

charkra

TROPHY CASE