Tips and resources if you are thinking about surgery in your first and second year of medical school.
1. Get involved in your school’s surgical interest groups: Your local SIG is a fantastic resource. Suturing and knot tying workshops are useful for developing basic surgical skills. Additionally, faculty are typically present at each meeting which allows for networking and potential shadowing opportunities in the future.
2. Learning how to knot tie before your clinical rotation
3. Find a research mentor in surgery: It is never too early to start researching in medical school! Both clinical and basic science research opportunities exist in surgical fields, and faculty are typically excited to have eager students working on their projects.
4. Shadow a surgeon: Reach out to the department you are interested in
5. Connect with medical students applying into surgery: You can connect with a 4th year medical student at your medical school and talk to them about their journey to surgery.
Resources
The Undifferentiated Medical Student: This podcast is not surgery specific but if you are just beginning medical school and you are trying to figure out what to do this is a great podcast to check out. You can hear all about different surgical subspecialties as well.
National Surgery Interest Group 