How to Get Board Certification to Become a Plastic Surgeon

The American Board of Plastic Surgery (ABPS) is one of the 24 specialty boards of the American Board of Medical Specialties. Attaining your board certification will show your patients that you have undergone additional training and have proven a high skill level through passing both written and oral examination. This can be quite a rigorous process, but is worthwhile to pursue. Being board certified can both benefit your career and assure your patients of your qualifications.

Instructions

Becoming Board Certified

1. Complete prerequisite requirements: ABPS offers two educational models. The first, the independent model, requires general surgery residency requirements to be completed before entering into the plastic surgery residency program. The second, the integrated model, provides both general surgery and plastic surgery residency in one program. Once the residency requirements are fulfilled, the Evaluation of Training Form is completed. Mail this completed form, a copy of your medical school diploma and the review fee to the board office where it will be reviewed for completeness and ensure all requirements are fulfilled. This review process will take approximately 6 to 8 weeks and a board confirmation will be issued once the requirements are met.

2. Take the written exam: The written exam covers 10 major topics of plastic surgery, including surgery on the head and neck, trunk and breasts. This exam is computer based and is offered through Prometric testing centers. The test will consist of 400 multiple choice questions split into four blocks of 100 questions. Test takers are allowed 1 hour and 40 minutes for each 100 question block, for a total testing time of six hours and 40 minutes. A tutorial for the written exam can be downloaded from the PBPS website.

3. Take the oral exam: Before the oral exam, you will be required to document all cases you have completed for a 9-month period and provide that data to the board. This caseload must include a minimum of 50 operative cases and meet the minimum requirements for categories of practice and anatomical regions. Of the data submitted, the board will select five cases on which you will be required to complete case reports. You will be required to be present for 21/2 for the exam. These will include practice sessions and three 45-minute exam sessions (to be conducted by two examiners). During the exam you will defend your treatment plans, execution and ethical and economic issues for each of the cases. You will be rated on four aspects; diagnosis/planning, management/treatment, complications/outcome and clinical judgment/limitations. In each of these sections, you will receive separate grades for safety, ethics and case report preparation.

4. Maintain your certification: Once you have attained your board certification, you will be required to complete specified continuing education to maintain your certification. This will include measurement of such things as patient care, medical knowledge and professionalism.

Resources

• The American Board of Plastic Surgery