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A Day in the Life of a Surgical Resident

Surgical resident Dr. Kristopher George is mentored
by Dr. Siegel and both are WSU graduates.

The day begins early for Oakwood Hospital and Medical Center’s group of surgical residents, interns and medical students. By 6:30 am, Wayne State University fourth-year surgical resident Kristopher George, MD, is leading the ensemble on patient rounds. Dr. George, an affable 29- year-old native of Lansing, Mich., wears the uniform: blue surgical scrubs, white lab coat and comfortable sneakers.

While the five students on the team are working their way through four years of medical school, the residents have already graduated and are in various stages of training depending on their chosen specialties. As the senior surgical resident, Dr. George is the mentor for the medical students who are spending the month at Oakwood, getting exposure to life as a surgeon.

As an affiliated WSU teaching hospital, Oakwood offers educational opportunities to physicians and students in training, explains Dr. Thomas Siegel, chief of surgery at Oakwood, assistant professor at WSU, and Dr. George’s assigned preceptor.

On a typical day, the group follows Dr. George, a leisure-time runner, as he bounds up and down stairs for early-morning status checks on patients whom the students have been assigned to follow. Each point in the day offers a learning opportunity for the young team. Gathering outside each patient’s room, they listen to the status report. Dr. George then poses a series of “what if” and “why” questions to stimulate further exploration of a case, condition, possible causes and complications, and treatment options.

Since he is in the fourth of his five years of residency training, Dr. George has the experience required to scrub in and assist Dr. Siegel on a parathyroid surgery. Because the parathyroid glands are small (about the size of a marble) and packed into a compact area in the neck, the surgery is delicate. During the 90-minute procedure, Dr. Siegel removes a tumorous parathyroid gland and tissue from the remaining glands for biopsy.

Once the surgery is complete, the complete group reconvenes for Dr. George’s lecture. Preparing them for an upcoming exam, he explains, “It’s one thing to read and regurgitate information on a multiple-choice exam. It’s another matter to put knowledge to practice when a patient is depending on you.”

The day continues with various members of the group observing and assisting in additional surgeries. During their rotations at Oakwood, the surgical students and residents experience a different pace than they typically do at the larger teaching hospitals of the Detroit Medical Center.

“This is an unusual time in my five years of residency,” Dr. George explains during a break. “At Oakwood, I have a light schedule of only about 50 hours a week. I get three meals a day and time to read textbooks. Once I’m back downtown, I’ll work 110 hours a week. I can pull two or three 36-hour shifts in a week, and have a lot more responsibility for patient care. Even weekends are work days, so it’s impossible to schedule leisure time, but I really enjoy what I do.”

Oakwood Hospital and Medical Center is one of six hospitals where Dr. George will train this year. “Never working with the same people for long keeps you new and fresh,” he said.

Following his final year of residency, Dr. George will go to a medical center where he will be matched for fellowship-level training in a surgical specialty. He’s considering cardiothoracic surgery and hopes someday to have a private practice.

Oakwood has been affiliated with WSU’s surgical residency program since July 1999. Plans are under consideration to expand the program to include pediatric and thoracic surgery.

“Ours is a popular rotation among WSU students,” said Dr. Siegel, who graduated from the WSU School of Medicine in 1977. “The medical education programs present a win-win situation all around. The students benefit from all they learn; our staff benefits through interaction with them and the challenging questions they pose; our patients receive extra attention and care, and as an institution, Oakwood benefits by maintaining our leadership role in medical education,” he said.

In Memoriam

Notes

Last call for Alumni Directory

Medical Alumni Reunion

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