Recent content by cpants

I think urology call can vary, but in most places not too terrible. My call pain sounds similar to DoctwoB. Helps to have a good relationship with the hospitalist service. True emergencies are rare, but kidney stones in the middle of the night are very common. You don't want to get bothered...

I think vast majority of specialties have little to no radiation exposure. High exposure: Radiology Ortho Vascular Interventional cards/neuro Urology GI if you do a lot of ERCP Low to no exposure: Everything else

Radiation exposure is high for many/most urologists. We use a lot of fluoroscopy for endoscopic surgery. I would guess we are the highest amongst surgeons aside from ortho and maybe vascular. The risk of cancers is low with proper technique and safety equipment.

You should not do TURPs. I find it very surprising there are general surgeons doing them. It is not a very easy operation technically, especially if you do not already have robust endourology skills. The complications could be severe -- bleeding, bladder perforations, TUR syndrome. Not to...

Echo above. I don't think you will be able to do endoscopic urology cases (ie. TURP, stone work) without a lot of extra technical training. Hydroceles, circumcisions, vasectomies, orchiectomy---could probably pick up without too much difficulty. I'm sure you could do a radical nephrectomy or...

A medical subspecialty is going to be 3 + 2 years, so really not that different in terms of length of training. Lifestyle and career longevity may be worse with general surgery. Might consider a surgical specialty like ENT, urology, or OB/GYN which could have advantages in terms of lifestyle...

Liability shelters will depend on what state you live in. Probably need to consult a local attorney for that. Definitely important to make sure the ownership of your practice is set up properly if you are in PP. Umbrella insurance is a no brainer and cheap. I pay $450/year for $3M of...

If you truly have the stars lined up to land a urology residency as an IMG, I would go all in on that. For you to now to try to similarly situate yourself to be competitive for a plastics residency would probably be impossible and you may end up with nothing. And like you said, if in 5 years...

I actually find the sterillium to be much more mild than avaguard. I find the most gentle is actually the old-fashioned povidone scrub brushes. Not a bad idea to get skin testing or just experiment with different gloves. If you could change out your gloves that would be an easy fix.

That's not terrible. I think you can submit additional letters after the application is in. Your OP implied you wouldn't get any rotations in through summer/fall but getting 2 in is ok.

You should work with your school to get rotations in the summer/early fall. Doing an away rotation later in year will not help you because applications go in in September and interview offers start right away. It is not just the letter that is important. Doing the away rotations allows you to...

I would definitely not consider a research year in your situation. It probably won't improve your application very much at all as research is not really a big deficit for you. What I would strongly advise is to try to do a third away rotation if possible. Your best chances at matching are...

Tough/impossible unless another program has an unexpected opening or expansion spot---maybe 1 or 2 spots a year I would guess. What is the reason you need to switch?

Sorry I've been out too long. Not sure how to judge without Step 1's which were the traditional first cutoff. Would suggest meeting with the program director for urology at your school who should be willing to give you a fair assessment of your chances and offer advice on where to seek away...

2.5wRVU per patient would be very high. Level 3 and 4 follow ups which will be vast majority of patients for most urologists are 1.3 and 1.9 wRVU respectively. Level 4 new patient is 2.6 wRVU. Even a cystoscopy is only worth 1.5 wRVU. Unless you are doing a lot of more complicated procedures...