1. General Surgery as Career
Dr. Jonathan Fong
Surgical Registrar

2. How to select a career pathway
Current pressure to pick a pathway
Competition
Requirements
Non-optimized rotations/years/jobs
Decision is made on many factors
Difficulty to get on program
Benefits/difficulties on the program
Work/life/difficulties as a consultant
Balancing own priorities in life vs sacrifices needed to pursue career pathway
Perspective changes based on your experiences, current needs
What is the most boring, worst, common pathology you have to deal with – can you do that for the rest of your career?

3. Why Effort vs Reward Where/what do you want to be in 10 years time
Who do want to be there with
What do you want to compromise along the way

4. How did I end up in General Surgery

5. How did I end up in General Surgery
Medical Student
President of the Surgical Society of Austin
Mentors
Prof Ewing, Ms Stelmach
Rotations
(Almost all here at TNH!)
Surgery vs Radiology (Didn’t want to die from radiation)
General Surgery vs Other surgical specialties
Broad opportunity in GS
Didn’t understand orthopaedics, plastics
Didn’t have much exposure to urology, vascular, ENT, neurosurgery
Competition in other surgical specialties
Considered number of years, effort, I would need to spend to get in

6. How did I end up in General Surgery
Residency
Non-accredited Registrar
3 years
Accredited Registrar
4 years
Onto training
Completed training
Plenty of courses, diploma, conferences, research along the way

7. Pros and Cons of GS Pros Cons Independent working lifestyle Private
Public
Combination
Theatre
A lot of work
Pathology
Your patients are your patients
Multitude of post training options
Subspecialist training
Research
Academia
Metropolitan
Regional
Country
Lots of money spent on training
Sacrifice of time for other life objectives for work
A long time to train, many hurdles along the way

8. Lifestyle of GS Current Registrar Lifestyle My Hopeful Lifestyle
Little time outside of work
Start early, end late
Weekends = on call, ward rounds
Many hours spent with self education, research, audit, pre-planning, following up
My Hopeful Lifestyle
Public work
Private work

9. What would I do differently?
Little I would do differently
Everyone has a particular approach to their life/work
Risk averse, prioritise work/patients over commitments
There is no one perfect way to approach a career
You need to consider your own capabilities, your strengths and weaknesses
Everything requires a compromise
Compromise on your strengths, protect your weaknesses

10. Who to talk to for more details on surgical training?
General Surgeons Australia
Peers
Registrars
Fellows
Junior Consultants
Senior Consultants
RACS