Greetings! Welcome to the website of the Department of Surgery at the Saint Barnabas Medical Center. Congratulations on your choice of surgery as a career! You are about to embark on the greatest journey you will ever take. Over the next year (or 5 years) you will learn more about yourself that you could have ever imagined. You will learn to face your greatest fears, manage tremendous sorrow in yourself and others, and experience the greatest highs. In one day (often in one hour) you will view yourself as the harbinger of death and the giver of life. Through this myriad of experiences and emotions you will emerge stronger, brighter, and proud of your efforts and your career choice.
As a Department of Surgery in a major tertiary referral center we feel uniquely positioned to offer you the best in surgical education. This is our promise -- if you provide the effort, focus and energy, we will provide the environment, mentoring, and experience.
Training in General Surgery is not about becoming a surgeon; it is a quest to become the consummate physician and human being. To accomplish this requires you to develop life long habits now. The first and most important habit is one of learning and self-education. The surgeon, doctor, and colleague you become will be directly related to the amount you read. Similarly, though there are those who succeed because of political skills, in medicine education remains the mother of leadership, and often the sine qua non for advancement. There is no short cut to reading. There are no cliff notes or Kaplan course, in the end you must read to succeed.
Learning in surgery, while clearly impossible without reading, is different than other medical disciplines. We are a technical discipline at the core, and you will be called upon to master varied and difficult skills. To many this will be the easy part; to others this will be what separates the wheat from the chaff. In the end, you will find your own way to succeed – it is all in the perseverance and the doing. I think this Chinese proverb sums it up well, “When I see I forget. When I hear I remember. When I do I understand.”
The third, and perhaps the most important habit you should strive to develop is that of compassion and humility to all you encounter. These skills, particularly humility, are often at odds with the typical surgical ego, but worth the effort. These skills, if sincere, will allow you to develop trusting and deep relationships with your colleagues (which may last a lifetime), your patients and their families.
In the end, success in surgery, as in much of life, is a solo event. You will encounter many mentors and teachers along the way who will inspire you, and many who may not. You will take from the good, and reject the bad. Each will touch the way you practice medicine. In the end, we are here for you. We have but one goal, to send you out to care for patients proud of whom you have become. We hope that when the door closes, and the patient says, “What do you think doctor”, you will be able to respond humbly and compassionately with great wisdom and skill.
We believe we have assembled a world-class faculty, and designed a comprehensive basic science and clinical curriculum to help you meet your goals of surgical excellence. We invite you to take your surgical journey with us.
Your success is ours. Let us know how we can help you achieve!" |
