Surgeon Career Information

Video Transcript

"As far as suggestions for anybody who would be interested in medicine, again, I reiterate you have to have a real desire to be able to want to serve your fellow man as a physician, because it requires significant self discipline and sacrifice. I was thirty-four years of age when I started. I have a son who is in residency training who is going to be thirty-nine when he finishes. He's got five children. So, tips are to always strive to excel in every way in your academics. To become well-rounded, and to find some joy in the journey. There's a lot of opportunities to do things, and I think it would be too bad if you finished with this interview and you thought that it was all feet to the grindstone, and there wasn't any joy or happiness. There's a lot of good things that take place during the training time. I think that people that are wanting to get into medical school are best qualified when they can have something that makes them different than anybody else. There will be probably a stack of three hundred papers that have people with a GPA of 3.8, and what they'll look at is what you've done that's made a difference. Have you done something in the way of humanitarian services? Have you been exposed to certain things that other people haven't been exposed to? Have you been participating in something that makes you somewhat unique? That would be the best thing that would qualify you to make it easier for you to get into medical school. As far as the stress of a surgeon, I think if you're well trained, and you have a real concern for excellence, and staying current with all of the advances, that you'll always be able to take care of the challenges that are--that confront you."