Main Responsibilities Of A Neurosurgery Resident At Vanderbilt Medical Center
As a neurosurgery resident at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, a typical day begins around 5:00 AM with patient rounds and reporting to senior residents, followed by operating room duties assigned by service ("spine, tumor, functional, or cerebrovascular"). The day involves a constant balance between operating and checking on patients, relying on nurse practitioners and physician assistants for floor coverage while in the OR, before concluding with a final patient review around 6:00-7:00 PM.
Patient Care, Surgical Procedures, Teamwork, Time Management, On-call Responsibilities
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Kwadwo (Kojo) Sarpong
Resident Physician - Neurosurgery
Vanderbilt University Medical Center
Emory University
Georgetown University School of Medicine, M.D.
Biology & Related Sciences
Healthcare, Medical & Wellness, Nonprofit, Foundations & Grantmaking
Medical
Honors Student, Scholarship Recipient, Pell Grant Recipient, Took Out Loans, Immigrant, Worked 20+ Hours in School, Transfer Student, First Generation College Student
Video Highlights
1. Neurosurgery residents have demanding schedules, often starting around 5:00 AM with patient rounds and team meetings.
2. Residents present patient findings to senior residents (PGY 6 and 7) and attending faculty.
3. The work involves a balance between operating room duties (cases assigned by specialty) and floor responsibilities, with support from nurse practitioners and physician assistants for non-emergent floor duties.
Transcript
What are your main responsibilities within your current role?
As a neurosurgery resident, you don't get a lot of free time. You go in very early in the morning, around 5:00 AM, to round on all your patients. You then meet with your team to discuss every patient.
As a junior resident, you report what you found on the floor to the senior residents, the PGY-six and PGY-seven. You go through patients, some teaching, and images. After that, you meet with the attendings, the faculty members, to discuss their patients.
You'll say things like, "Patient X, Y, Z is doing fine. They had a diet, they've been doing great, they're good to go home." The attending will then either agree or disagree.
After that, you go into the OR. Each day you are assigned cases. For instance, if you're on spine service, you'll do spine cases. If you're on tumor service, you'll do tumor cases, and if you're on the functional or cerebrovascular service, you'll do those cases.
Periodically, you'll go back and forth between the OR and the floor to check on emergencies. You have excellent nurse practitioners and physician assistants who take care of floor duties while you are operating. If something emergent happens, you can scrub out and go address it.
Around 6:00 or 7:00 PM, you can run the list again, going over all the patients to ensure nothing is missed. If there's nothing happening, you are likely free to go home. That basically sums up my entire day.
Advizer Personal Links
Instagram: @i_am_nanakojo
LinkedIn: Kwadwo Sarpong