WHAT THE BLEEP?
General Surgery is a speciality that is gradually losing its meaning as it is now divided into further sub-specialities: upper GI, colorectal, vascular, breast and hepatobiliary, however all surgeons need skills in general surgery to manage the on-calls.
PERSONALITY
-
Good hand eye co-ordination
-
Good team worker with leadership qualities
-
Confident in emergencies
-
Calm and decisive
AVERAGE WEEK
An average day would start at 7.30am to catch up on admin, 8am ward round to review and make management plans for your patients. 9am you will review elective patients and start clinic at 10am, and have afternoon elective surgical list 2-6pm. The week will also include MDT meetings, teaching sessions, and on-call duties.
BEST BITS
The most enjoyable bits depend on each sub speciality.
-
Making a real difference to patient's lives from a procedure is highly rewarding.
-
The variety of procedures, techniques, patients and presentations makes every day different.
CHALLENGES
​
-
Weighing up the high risk patients are often the ones which will benefit most from the operation.
-
Serious complications as a direct result of the operation you carried out.
WHAT THE FACT?
-
It is considered the first 'operation' carried out historically was trepanation which involved drilling a hole into the back of the skull to the dura which people would use to treat many health problems include conditions that would cause high intracranial pressure. There is evidence to show that this was used from as old as 14,000 years ago.
-
In 2013/14 there were 44 per cent more operations completed by the NHS compared to 2003/04, with an increase from 6.712m to 9.672m.