General Surgery as Career Dr. Jonathan Fong Surgical Registrar

How to select a career pathway Current pressure to pick a pathway Competition Requirements Non-optimized rotations/years/jobs Decision is made on many factors Difficulty to get on program Benefits/difficulties on the program Work/life/difficulties as a consultant Balancing own priorities in life vs sacrifices needed to pursue career pathway Perspective changes based on your experiences, current needs What is the most boring, worst, common pathology you have to deal with – can you do that for the rest of your career?

Why Effort vs Reward Where/what do you want to be in 10 years time Who do want to be there with What do you want to compromise along the way

How did I end up in General Surgery

How did I end up in General Surgery Medical Student President of the Surgical Society of Austin Mentors Prof Ewing, Ms Stelmach Rotations (Almost all here at TNH!) Surgery vs Radiology (Didn’t want to die from radiation) General Surgery vs Other surgical specialties Broad opportunity in GS Didn’t understand orthopaedics, plastics Didn’t have much exposure to urology, vascular, ENT, neurosurgery Competition in other surgical specialties Considered number of years, effort, I would need to spend to get in

How did I end up in General Surgery Residency Non-accredited Registrar 3 years Accredited Registrar 4 years Onto training Completed training Plenty of courses, diploma, conferences, research along the way

Pros and Cons of GS Pros Cons Independent working lifestyle Private Public Combination Theatre A lot of work Pathology Your patients are your patients Multitude of post training options Subspecialist training Research Academia Metropolitan Regional Country Lots of money spent on training Sacrifice of time for other life objectives for work A long time to train, many hurdles along the way

Lifestyle of GS Current Registrar Lifestyle My Hopeful Lifestyle Little time outside of work Start early, end late Weekends = on call, ward rounds Many hours spent with self education, research, audit, pre-planning, following up My Hopeful Lifestyle Public work Private work

What would I do differently? Little I would do differently Everyone has a particular approach to their life/work Risk averse, prioritise work/patients over commitments There is no one perfect way to approach a career You need to consider your own capabilities, your strengths and weaknesses Everything requires a compromise Compromise on your strengths, protect your weaknesses

Who to talk to for more details on surgical training? General Surgeons Australia www.generalsurgeons.com.au Peers Registrars Fellows Junior Consultants Senior Consultants RACS www.surgeons.org