Well, my surgical attitude has improved. I was feeling pretty frustrated during my early weeks here at Fairbanks Memorial as a MS3 surgery student. Now, with the rotation almost done I am feeling the love! A big part of any rotation is figuring out the personalities of those teaching you. Some are good teachers, some are full of crap, some have good intentions but are poor teachers and some people really just like to abuse you to alleviate their own toxicity. I have settled on three excellent surgeons here to focus my time with and I have been learning a lot. Doing much more cutting, suturing and surgical decision making. In addition, after we got the dictation thing straightened out and I just jumped in and started managing my patients they realized I was sorta useful I think. Now I am handling most the surgical notes and follow-up on my patients with the surge
on's reading over my notes to dot the i's and cross the t's but ny and large my managment plans seem to be okay.
Of the three surgeons I am trying to work with, the crusty old cowboy of the mix seems to be the most fun. His main form of entertainment is trying to get your hackles up and run around making mischief for everyone. You just simply have to give him as hard a time about being a crusty old curmudgeon as he gives you and he suddenly laughs and slaps you on the back. He just likes a good fight I think! He is also of the "old school" when it comes to teaching. He believes that you learn by doing, hands-on with patients and that books are there to fill in the details, they are not a substitute for putting your hands on a patient. I think we both believe that the purpose of reading is to answer a question, not to fill your head with useless trivia that you might need one day. That is like memorizing the encyclopedia
Britannica in case someone asks you about the native food sources of the three toed sloth in the winter. I really like this form of education so we get along great. He has me doing many aspects of the hernia operations that come along and as my skills grow he expands the lessons.
On the opposite end is the high testosterone surgeon. 
He is all about rapid fire Surgical Recall sorta pimping. He came from a program that felt you should know be able to recite the surgery from memory, give a 60 minute lecture every possible non-surgical way of treating something before you got close to that patient with a knife. He keeps my nose in the books more than I would on my own and it is good for my learning. He allows a modest amount of hands-on time but really pushes the books if you want to be "in the game". And yes, he used to fly fighter jet aircraft... (seriously)
The last surgeon is a nice blend of the two. He never gets too rushed, but moves along at a nice clip. He trusts you to basic skills in the OR like closing and different suturing skills and he asks a modest amount of fair but specific questions. He has also been the best with the MD/patient relationship of which surgeon's are not exactly famous for. He follows up on notes and post-op patients with diligence and prefers to make sure that all aspects of a patient under his care are taken care of before sending them off their PCP.
So, as I wrap up this surgical rotation I did hear one comment from a surgeon that the other student and myself were doing "honors level" clinical work which is great to hear. The exam for this rotation is notoriously difficult so the real test if the final exam. If you get honors on the clinical grade but only pass or high pass on your final you end up with a "high pass" course grade. To get honors you need honors on it all and I have never been a medical trivial pursuit champ which is what is often needed. By the way, do you know the location of the ducts of Luschka? How about the spiral valves of Heister? Exactly... me either. (well, I do know!) High Pass, here I come!
