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< CLICK to download pdfWelcome to your General Surgery Experience!
It is our pleasure to provide you with the 123’s of General Surgery: A Concise Clerkship Manual for Medical Students. This manual has been created by medical students for medical students but extensively reviewed by established General Surgery physicians with whom you will be working during your core rotation. This manual will outline the key issues, controversies, and current practice for each topic in a concise manner. Dr. Jory Simpson, MD, MEd, FRCSC |
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Foreword
Welcome to your surgical rotation!
Over the next 3 weeks you’ll have the opportunity to discover all aspects of surgical care – from seeing patients in the emergency department, to caring for them in the operating room, and ultimately following up on them in clinic. Whether or not you’re interested in a surgical career, know that you will never experience anything like surgery clerkship again. You may see the same diseases and procedures as a resident and, potentially, as a staff surgeon, but never as you saw them the first time.
Exciting as that is, we know that surgery clerkship has a (sometimes valid) reputation for being physically and emotionally challenging. At its worst, the hours are long, the pace is fast, and the cases are tragic. Clerkship is a series of adjustment periods, and we all remember feeling like we were in the way and had no idea what to do.
We created this guide to help prepare you for the trials of surgery clerkship. We hope to make you feel confident, understand your role within the team, identify common pitfalls and how to avoid them, optimize your learning, and ensure your experience is as enjoyable as possible.
To accomplish these aims, this guide provides on-the-ground guidance for your general surgery rotation tailored to the Toronto experience. It is the product of the experiences of recently graduated medical students, senior residents, and staff surgeons who asked themselves, ‘What do I wish I knew on day one of my surgical clerkship?’ It is meant to be nothing but practical.
This guide does not replace Toronto Notes, First Aid for the Surgery Clerkship, Surgical Recall, UptoDate, or your favourite surgery podcast. We hope that by reading this guide you will be prepared to handle the routine uncertainties (‘how do I round?’) so you’re better able to focus on the learning objectives of your rotation (‘what are the indications for a trauma laparotomy?’). We want you to feel well-equipped to become a high-performing, valued member of the surgical team right from the beginning of your rotation. Not least of all, we hope to help you enjoy yourself on surgery!
This guide will be a living document that undergoes continuous revision based on your needs. We would be grateful if you reached out with feedback.
Have a great rotation!
- The TOSURG team
Over the next 3 weeks you’ll have the opportunity to discover all aspects of surgical care – from seeing patients in the emergency department, to caring for them in the operating room, and ultimately following up on them in clinic. Whether or not you’re interested in a surgical career, know that you will never experience anything like surgery clerkship again. You may see the same diseases and procedures as a resident and, potentially, as a staff surgeon, but never as you saw them the first time.
Exciting as that is, we know that surgery clerkship has a (sometimes valid) reputation for being physically and emotionally challenging. At its worst, the hours are long, the pace is fast, and the cases are tragic. Clerkship is a series of adjustment periods, and we all remember feeling like we were in the way and had no idea what to do.
We created this guide to help prepare you for the trials of surgery clerkship. We hope to make you feel confident, understand your role within the team, identify common pitfalls and how to avoid them, optimize your learning, and ensure your experience is as enjoyable as possible.
To accomplish these aims, this guide provides on-the-ground guidance for your general surgery rotation tailored to the Toronto experience. It is the product of the experiences of recently graduated medical students, senior residents, and staff surgeons who asked themselves, ‘What do I wish I knew on day one of my surgical clerkship?’ It is meant to be nothing but practical.
This guide does not replace Toronto Notes, First Aid for the Surgery Clerkship, Surgical Recall, UptoDate, or your favourite surgery podcast. We hope that by reading this guide you will be prepared to handle the routine uncertainties (‘how do I round?’) so you’re better able to focus on the learning objectives of your rotation (‘what are the indications for a trauma laparotomy?’). We want you to feel well-equipped to become a high-performing, valued member of the surgical team right from the beginning of your rotation. Not least of all, we hope to help you enjoy yourself on surgery!
This guide will be a living document that undergoes continuous revision based on your needs. We would be grateful if you reached out with feedback.
Have a great rotation!
- The TOSURG team
Project Leads
Simon Laplante GS MIS fellow
Colin Sue-Chue-Lam GS resident
Faculty Lead
Dr Jory Simpson Division Head General Surgery, SMH
Editors
Matthew Castelo GS resident
Mattan Lustgarten GS resident
Bailey Russell GS resident
Ben Li resident
Live neither in the past nor in the future, but let each day’s work absorb your entire energies, and satisfy your widest ambition.
William Osler. Aequanimitas ‘After 25 years.’ 1914:213
William Osler. Aequanimitas ‘After 25 years.’ 1914:213
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