Surgeons do not know it all!

I know this statement is going to shock you. But it's true. Surgeons do not know at all!

Even if you have just finished your fellowship with a bunch of extra fellowship years and training and you think you're at your peak knowledge, you haven't yet had the gift of experience. Practicing for 10 or 20 years is a whole other layer to your knowledge base. It's actually a game changer, even though the Jung usually think it's overrated. Things you learn from your mentors are not always the right things. Sometimes they get outdated pretty quickly.

Staying on top of your career means always reading the journals, attending regular meetings, knowing when to try something new or when to wait. Sometimes the drug reps are not always looking for anything other than a sale. And that brings me to my next point. Most surgeons as they progress through their careers, find a nice little niche. I myself have stopped doing hand surgery, except for skin cancer, hair restoration, rhinoplasty, although I still reconstruct the nose for skin cancer. I probably did over 200 rhinoplasties but it just didn’t appeal to me any longer so I stopped regularly doing them back in 2006.

My point is sometimes your specialty ends up going in a direction you didn't even plan. But I think the key is to know what you're good at and what to refer out. What gets you excited, and what seems kind of boring for uninteresting? Sometimes you do cases with other colleagues, and there's nothing wrong with that. Collaboration is very helpful and gets the best result for the patient sometimes.

Sometimes though surgeons egos get the best of them and they don’t ask for help or they don’t call other experts when they should.

Make sure you find a surgeon with enough humility to call in other experts!

Dr. Sam Speron