What does a cardiac surgeon do on a day to day basis?
My name is Hector. I am a junior at Boston Collegiate Charter School. I was always intrigued by the medical field but I also want to pursue a career in Mixed Martial Arts. I am an undefeated fighter and currently the youngest, and top ranked teenager for Muay Thai in Boston if not Massachusetts. A succesful career in MMA seems more than possible but I also have an interest in becoming a doctor. I have all the information I need about becoming a fighter and little to none about becoming a doctor. I'd love to learn more about what exactly a cardiac surgeon does on an average day. #doctor #medicine #surgeon #cardiology #cardiac-surgeon #mixed-martial-arts
1 answer
Michelle Hoque
Michelle’s Answer
I am not a cardiac surgeon and it is kind of boring to just send you links about what a cardiac surgeon does. Personally, I like watching videos and shows regarding surgery but honestly general medicine was more interesting to me than surgery in both medical school and residency.
If you have not already, I suggest watching Surgeon Oz on the OWN network on Sunday nights. If you did not know this already, Dr. Oz is a cardio thoracic surgeon and on top of doing his daily tv talk show and doing surgical work, he started a weekly tv documentary series where you follow his day to day work in the operating room, office appointments with specific patients pre and post surgery, and the interactions between fellow surgeons, residents, and medical students regarding patients. I love watching this show as it is difficult to ever see any of this speciality surgeries in real life and have someone try to explain what they are doing unless you are a nurse or a surgical resident training for that specific speciality. In addition, I really like how Dr. Oz has such a holistic view towards his surgical patients as unfortunately it is very difficult to learn how to treat the patient as a whole person as many surgical training programs do not put much emphasis that area or think that other specialities should deal with that area (by that way I am not saying that all surgical programs are like that but these are just some personal experiences that I have had over the last few years).
When you get older, I suggest starting off by shadowing a nice general surgeon to see if you like surgery and then in med school start getting rotations/ clinical experiences with both surgeons and with you can with cardiac surgeons in your senior years in medical school. I know how hard it is to find doctors who are willing to shadow and you can also try shadowing a nice family doctor who can show you some of the basics of surgical areas used in family medicine and work your way from there.
Below is the link to the Surgeon Oz website
http://www.oprah.com/app/surgeon-oz.html
Thank You for the thorough advice. I will make sure to look at Surgeon OZ!
Hector