Exploring a Career in Surgery

Surgery is a great speciality to explore! This article will go through life as a general surgeon and how to become one.

Life as a surgeon

As a general surgeon, you can perform surgeries such as breast, abdominal, skin, and thorax surgeries. You can do elective surgeries, which are planned or you can do emergency surgeries on patients who are in urgent need of care. Another type of surgery you can do is a laparoscopic surgery, also called keyhole surgery, where you perform surgery in the abdomen through a small hole and a camera.

Skills you will need

• Excellent manual dexterity and hand-eye coordination skills
• Excellent communication skills
• Team work skills
• Problem solving skills
• Excellent organisational skills

How to become a surgeon

Firstly, you will need to go to medical school. You can prepare for you entry to medical school using the Future Doc 1 ON 1 Mentoring scheme! To apply to medical school, you will need:

• Good A-level grades (usually including an A in Chemistry)
• Good GCSE grades
• To do the medical school admissions test called the UCAT
• A personal statement
• To apply to medical school using UCAS
• To do an interview

Some medical schools offer contextual offers or widening participation schemes where you can get into medical school with lower grade requirements. A few even offer guaranteed interviews, such as the University of Bristol and the University of Nottingham if you take part in their summer schools!

If you have done a degree already and you are not coming straight from college or sixth-form, you can enrol on the postgraduate medical school course for 4 years. Check out this post to learn more about graduate entry medicine!

After medical school, you will need to do foundation training as a junior doctor for 2 years in a hospital. You will have placements in different specialities. You will then need to apply for speciality training, which is a minimum of 8 years.

Pay as a General Surgeon

As a foundation doctor, you will start earning between £32,398 to £37,303. During your specialty training, this will increase to at least £43,923. As a consultant, you will earn between £93,666 and £126,281.

Written by Naa-Dromoh Quarshie