General Surgery Residency: What to Expect

Written By: Sharon Cretsinger

All medical residencies tend to be rigorous and possibly exhausting.  This is usually not a surprise, or a much a deterrent, for individuals who have already completed college and medical school.   General surgery residency DC may vary a bit between facilities, but there are some aspects of general surgery residency that are fairly consistent across programs.

A Typical Day in General Surgery Residency DC

General surgeons invariably put in very long days at the hospitals where they practice.  The same is true of individuals completing a Georgetown surgery residency.  A typical day may start as early as 5:30 am.  Residents will accompany mentoring physicians on morning rounds each day, which means seeing patients who are scheduled for surgery, or who are post surgery.  It is important for general surgical residents to learn how to appropriately prepare patients for surgery, and how to notice possible issues in follow-up visits.

Residents will spend some time observing actual surgeries when they are scheduled.  Mentoring physicians will explain the surgical procedures to the residents as they are performed.  This is, of course, a very important part of any surgery residency Georgetown.

Other activities that may take up the resident's day include various conferences that explore the procedures and related issues for specific kinds of surgery.  There may be surgery clinics, other conferences on topics like emergency room or trauma surgery, and meetings with mentoring physicians or hospital administrators.  General surgeons have to be well-informed on new and developing procedures and standards of care.

In the late afternoon, around 4:30 pm, residents can expect to begin evening rounds.  This means that all of the surgical patients assigned to a mentor physician's caseload will need to be seen again for pre- or post- surgery evaluation.  These rounds will carry on until each patient has been seen and any issues with their care have been addressed.  Taking this into consideration, it is easy to see how an individual participating in a surgery residency DC could put in a twelve to fourteen hour day.