The perils of an orthopedic graduate

You have just cleared your postgraduate examination in Orthopedics. Moreover, the journey has been tough.

You have filtered through the toughest of competitions, made the grade, and passed the mother of all examinations and you can now proudly say that you are a qualified orthopedic surgery Welcome to the next level-overqualified, under employed, and confused It is a sea on uncertainty – you are no longer a student. There is no more set curriculum to follow. No one to tell you what to do you are the boss now – but with no specific work to do From huge sense of achievement, we all instantly move to a phase of diffidence  and-There is a lack of clarity on how to move forward. MS Ortho, what now?

The options available can be quite easily characterized –

1. Take up the available public Hospital teaching post. This move is toward entering academics, but could also mean procrastinating
2. Sub-specialization – go look for available training options to further your career. Choosing the specialty that you will marry for life, and, in turn, divorce permanently all other options can be confusing and daunting for some. Other postgraduates, who are very sure of what they want, can find it very hard to find the appropriate training center and mentor
3. Start practice as a general orthopod – your meter will be down, and your wheels will start turning immediately, with the collateral risk of ending up being a “small fish in a big pond.”
Fortunately, orthopedics are running specialty and most start doing well in practice pretty early
4. Join dads practice-for the lucky few orthokids, though many from this group still choose to specialize
5. Leave the country and figure out what next-at least there is a promise of a job, a steady income, a new lifestyle. All of which is indeed an attractive prospect for the fresh postgraduate.

Creating a more organized system for orthopedic postgraduates to help deciding their careers moves and lending the best possible option becomes responsibility of our academic societies It would be absolutely wonderful for these young orthopedic surgeons If all these options could be presented systematically, at counseling sessions – including listing the available resources and methods to get there, and using senior practicing oracademic surgeons as mentors and counselors Videos of our channel would agree that it is time to make this move to help create a fantastic generation of orthopods.