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Is it hard being a surgeon?

#surgery #surgeon #medicine #healthcare #hospital-and-healthcare

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Jason’s Answer

It is very hard, one of the highest stress professions out there. In addition to the long road to becoming a surgeon (~4 years undergrand, ~4 years medical school, and then ~3-7 years residency), you will face immense pressure from everyone around you. As a surgeon you often will be directly responsible for changing patients' lives; the hospital you work for will constantly ask you (because surgeons are quite rare) to come in, sometimes in the dead of night, the time spent working means you will often be too busy to spend time with family and friends. Not to mention you will have to worry about seemingly unusual things like insurance because sometimes patients' relatives will try to sue you for unsuccessful surgeries (if our U.S. culture isn't strange enough). It takes an incredible fortitude and grit to go through all of this, and maybe even then I am not giving surgeons enough credit.
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Richard’s Answer

Becoming a surgeon is difficult.

In the US, to apply to medical school, you need a bachelor's degree. Any 4-year university should suffice.
You will need to get good grades in college in order to apply for medical school. At the medical school I attended, the average GPA is reported to be 3.85, so even one or two B's can hurt your chances of acceptance.

During college study for and complete the MCAT. Devote an entire summer to studying for the MCAT and consider paying for a prep course if you can afford it. Excellent MCAT scores are required for acceptance to medical school.

Medical school takes 4 years to complete.

After medical school surgeons complete a grueling 5 year residency for additional training. These are sometimes followed by an additional year or two of fellowship subspecialty training.

Once in practice, life can be easier if the surgeon chooses a less demanding practice, but that means lower income and usually less interesting cases.
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Rachel’s Answer

In order to become a surgeon, you will need to excel in your pre-med classes, have a GPA of at least a 3.5 and be accepted to medical school. After 4 years of medical school and being accepted into a residency, you will need to be hard-working, have the endurance to tolerate an 80 hour work week and have the willingness to learn new information every day.

Yes, the job is difficult, but well worth the sacrifice.
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