Completing a General Surgery Residency

Written By: Rachael Kaine

What Does a General Surgery Residency Cover?

In order to become a licensed and practicing surgeon, it is necessary to complete a general surgery residency, which will provide you with the knowledge and ability to diagnose, prepare, operate on, care for post-op and potentially manage any complications for patients. This residency is an opportunity to focus on understanding and embracing the physiology and anatomy of the human body, plus wound healing, intensive care and immunology, among other things. This type of program is the final step into obtaining the license to perform surgical procedures of many types, and a surgery residency DC is highly recommended by many different currently licensed professionals.

What to Expect from a General Surgery Residency

During a general surgery residency Georgetown, you’ll be prepared to deal with and contribute to many different medical situations. The entire program is created and run with the idea that every situation - from classes to procedures to patient interactions - is a learning experience for the residents, giving them a chance to improve their skills and abilities each moment that they are on campus or in a medical facility. This isn’t about simply producing surgeons with proven skills, but about creating confident leaders and reliable professionals with a great deal to give back to the medical community as well as the communities that they operate within.

The graduates of the general surgery residency Georgetown program are highly sought after in the medical field, partially due to the fact that the training is so extensive that many residents will have already completed work and procedures that are often designated for fellowship programs - meaning that graduates of this program are often capable of advanced diagnostic skills and procedural performance. Though this might seem daunting to those thinking of applying, this has the potential to cut back on additional learning time and trouble if the decision is made to pursue a fellowship either through the same organization or with a different one.

This is a highly competitive field, and the residency program only accepts five individuals each year, meaning that the groups will be small, with an emphasis placed on individual progress and learning. The ultimate goal is to train those who will be tasked with becoming the country’s future surgical leaders - in essence, producing graduates that other surgeons would feel comfortable allowing to perform procedures on their family and other loved ones. This level of trust and skill says a great deal about the general surgery residency program’s expectations, as well as the past success rate and participant quality.

Staying Focused During an Internal Medicine Residency

Written By: Rachael Kaine

Struggling Through Your Internal Medicine Residency?

Years of medical school should have prepared you for sleepless nights, heavy workloads and disgruntled or stubborn patients. Even though this is true, the time you spend in a residency is going to be unlike anything you’ve experienced before, as it is meant to be the final step before allowing you to practice on your own as a licensed medical professional. The stress, anxiety and desire to be done and free to practice are natural feelings, but there’s really nothing that can be done in order to make the time go by faster except to understand that your internal medicine residency will, in fact come to an end, leaving you with the experience and preparation that you need to be a successful medical practitioner.

Things to Remember During an Internal Medicine Residency

- Stay focused by allowing yourself some “me” time. This might sound like common sense, but many residents are consumed by the need to study and work so that they can stay ahead of their assignments, forgetting to take a necessary break. This break time can be something as simple as treating yourself to a nap in the middle of the day when possible, or taking yourself out for a nice meal - even buying yourself a small gift like a new pair of shoes or a coat that you’ve had your eye on. Appreciate the small things, and take some time to give yourself a breather in order to step away from your busy schedule.

- Make the most of your surroundings. Some people will be able to reset and recharge by giving themselves an hour or two a week to take in the city or area that their residency is located in. An internal medicine residency program Baltimore offers residents the chance to explore the coast, visit the nation’s capital and experience beautiful scenery and a plethora of different types of people. Since your residency program will take multiple years, becoming familiar and comfortable with your surroundings is a great way to relax and make the program feel less like a chore and more like actual life.

- It’s ok to ask questions; you’re never going to be truly on your own. During an internal medicine residency Baltimore, you’ll be given the opportunity to work on your own and make decisions,but there’s always going to be a senior resident or an actual hospital employee’s watchful eye on you. This gives you a chance to become confident in your skills, but at the same time, gives you a reference point if you need it. Asking questions is the only way to learn, and it’s better if you get clarification rather than make a mistake, which takes a great deal of pressure off of you.

Choosing a Cardiology Fellowship

Written By: Rachael Kaine

What is a Cardiology Fellowship?

The only difference between a cardiology fellowship and other fellowships is that cardiology focuses on the heart’s function within the body. Though many people think that a residency program is the final step in the medical school marathon, those who wish to continue on into a specialty field must complete a fellowship program after their residency. During this time spent in a fellowship, you’ll be acting as either an attending or consulting physician, but always under direct supervision. Treatments, appointments and, even in some cases, procedures will be performed, giving fellows more hands on experience in their specialty field, ensuring that they’re properly prepared to do the real thing without supervision once the fellowship has been completed. While this is truly the final step in becoming a cardiology specialist in a specific field of the profession, there are further learning possibilities if you choose to participate in them, as well as continued learning requirements that you must complete in order to stay on top of changes in the field, both in terms of knowledge and available options.

Why a Cardiology Fellowship?

Like with all fields of medicine, there are different specialty areas that can be focused on during a cardiology fellowship Georgetown. Each organization that offers a fellowship program places emphasis on different parts of the field, allowing participants to choose which areas they want to focus on. For a cardiology fellowship, many people choose to practice general cardiology, but there are other options like surgery, cardiovascular perfusion, transplant and anesthesia fellowships.

Each of these options give you a chance to choose your own path; the years of medical school before your fellowship will prepare you with all of the general skills you’ll need to become a successful medical professional, but the final years of the fellowship will solidify your skills and abilities. Cardiology is a respected and necessary field, and having as many qualified professionals as possible ready and willing to assist patients is absolutely necessary.

Cardiology fellowship DC programs are designed to give participants a chance to experience everything that they’ll have to deal with during their careers like lab work, hands on patient experiences, procedure completion, and patient consultation, just to name a few. These clinical rotations will take place over the course of just about two years, giving you ample time to become more comfortable with the procedures and practices you’ll be performing. The idea of this type of program is to provide you with all of the tools you’ll need to become the best you can be, providing quality and necessary health care to any patient that walks through the doors of your office, no matter what their condition or medical needs.

Advice for Emergency Medicine Residency Applicants

Written By: Rachael Kaine

Getting Into Emergency Medicine Residency Programs

The first step in completing an emergency medicine residency is finding out more about the programs that are offered at various facilities around the country. In order to do so, there are multiple places that you can look. Brochures, websites (http://www.medstarhealth.org/), visiting campuses - all of these are options, but one of the most useful is going online and finding reviews and experiences that have been shared by past participants on message boards, blogs and even in some cases medical professional networking sites. This will give you a better idea what you should prepare for before you begin your studies, and give you a chance to make as informed a decision as is possible.

After selecting the programs that you want to apply to, you should begin to get your application together. This includes getting a photograph taken to include with the packet, filling in all required information in an appropriate manner and writing a personal statement. This application is the first contact that you will have with your potential residency program, making it absolutely necessary to take a good amount of time ensuring that it is as perfect as it can be. With your application to an EM residency Washington DC, you’ll also need to include letters of recommendation from the faculty members that you have worked closely with in the past - an emphasis placed on using emergency medicine personnel if you have any.

Interviewing for an Emergency Medicine Residency Program

After you have chosen the programs and have been asked to interview with one or more of them, you’ll need to prepare for these first face to face encounters. Many people recommend scheduling the interview for the program that you’d like to get into the most last; this way, you’ll have the prior experience of interviewing out of the way and and be more prepared and comfortable with whatever it is that they will ask. This is useful, because despite interviewing in many different places, a lot of the questions will be similar, giving you time to carefully construct and think about your answers a little more each time they are asked.

Many applicants make a huge mistake and interview at too few locations. Not only does this limit the likelihood of getting into a program, but it also makes it more possible that you will make fewer initial connections. There is a huge difference between getting into a third or fourth choice program and not getting accepted at all, so that’s important to consider when thinking the application process through. This is an incredibly competitive field, so waiting a year and applying again is not always a viable option for an emergency medicine residency program Washington DC.