How to become A Neurosurgeon

The brain is the organ of destiny and holds within its humming mechanism secrets that will determine the future of the human race. Only the Neurosurgeon dares to improve upon five billion years of evolution in a few hours.

• Brain Surgeon

What do Neurosurgeons do?

A Neurosurgeon would typically need to:

• Diagnose and situationally opt to surgically treat disorders of the central and peripheral nervous system (the brain, spinal cord, and peripheral nerves) - congenital anomalies, trauma, tumors, vascular disorders, cranial or spinal infections, or stroke
• Correct deformities and treat diseases of the spinal cord such as degenerative spine disorder and scoliosis
• Perform pediatric neurosurgery and radiosurgery - the targeted use of radiation to treat tumors
• Use surgery to relieve hydrocephalus - the abnormal build-up of cerebrospinal fluid in the brain
• Join forces with surgeons and nurses in the operating theater as well as other medical professionals to provide comprehensive care to patients with complex neurological disorders
• Order tests to find evidence of tissue scarring, clots, and tumors; accurately interpret the results of X-rays, magnetic resonance imaging, CT scans, and PET scans to diagnose neural conditions and determine treatment options
• Stay sensitive to the needs of a diverse group of patients afflicted with neural disorders
• Serve on boards and hospital committees; provide training to medical students or staff members and supervise medical technicians or surgical nurses

Neurosurgeons divide their time between the sterile and controlled environment of an operating theater and their consulting room where they attend appointments to meet with patients and their families. Within private practice, you must also set time aside to meet with your staff. Travel may be needed locally or to other cities to attend medical conferences.

The dress code for consultations or educational activities would be business casual or business formal as may be required by the medical facility you work for. A white coat may be worn in the consulting room. Scrubs, typically provided by the medical facility you work for, are worn in the operating rooms, the ICU, or between operative cases. Protective eyewear prevents the risk of exposure to patient body fluids especially in the operating room and during bedside procedures.

Neurosurgeons often perform multiple procedures in a single day, ranging from simple outpatient treatments to complex brain surgeries. Starting the day early, frequently between 5.30 a.m. and 7 a.m., a Neurosurgeon can go on to work 50-60 hours a week, and it would not be unusual for some to chalk up more than 80 hours of work.

Medical facilities in the public and private sectors employ Neurosurgeons. They may also work in academic research.

Neurosurgeons are generally employed by:

• Hospitals
• Clinics
• Universities & Medical Schools/Colleges
• Teaching Hospitals

Neurosurgeons may take up membership of relevant local, regional, or international associations. On a global level, they may join the International Association of Neuroscience (IAN), a non-profit professional association for research and development in the fields of neuroscience, neurology & neurosurgery. Members share and encourage intellectual development and resources through networking and collaboration, conferences, projects, publications, academic awards, and scholarships. The World Federation of Neurology brings together associations and societies from around the world to work towards improving brain health.

• Emotional discomfort of witnessing incredibly sick patients suffer or delivering bad news to a patient’s family
• Physical stamina and mental focus essential to perform lengthy surgeries, some lasting more than twelve hours
• Maintaining acute hand-eye coordination and a steady hand while using advanced instruments and working in small spaces using technical maneuvers
• Accurately interpreting X-rays and images to diagnose neural conditions and determine treatment options
• Awareness that the wrong move while working with the body’s nerves and spinal column can cause paralysis or permanent brain damage
• Serving the demands of the job calls for long and irregular hours, emergency calls, and a packed schedule which is often inflexible
• Need for a lengthy and competitive educational track
• Potential personal sacrifices in terms of relationships, family, and hobbies

Experience gained during high school and undergraduate courses will give medical school applicants an edge during admissions. Voluntary work at a hospital, community service, and research proves their work ethic and dedication to the medical field, helps them build a network, and prepares them for their chosen career. Job shadowing programs, which universities may help in organizing, allow students to follow Neurosurgeons throughout a workday to learn what to expect in this career.

Typically, a Doctor of Medicine (MD) wishful of pursuing a career in Neurosurgery, needs to complete a one-year internship followed by a six- to eight-year neurological residency. Interns must practice within the confines of their training program which teaches them valuable skills in managing patients. During residency, aspiring surgeons acquire hands-on practice under the competent mentorship of licensed Neurosurgeons.

Some locations require potential Neurosurgeons to complete two years of foundation programs which may allow them access to an eight-year select course that includes training, placements and exams at the basic, intermediate and advanced stages. A completion certificate and portfolio of experience comprising formal teaching, leadership, management, research and audit will fetch you a place on the specialist register and make you eligible for consultant posts.

Aspiring Neurosurgeons must earn a medical degree such as Doctor of Medicine (MD), Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine (DO), or Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS). They may tailor their program to include advanced classes in medical diagnostics, clinical research, surgical practice, and disease management. They may optimize their rotations to examine and treat patients at a teaching hospital under the direct supervision of experienced Neurosurgeons.

Depending on your location, you may enter medical school as an undergraduate after high school or after acquiring an accredited bachelor’s degree focusing on advanced biological sciences or including stipulated pre-med courses like microbiology, biochemistry, and human anatomy.

Medical schools are notorious for being selective in their admission procedures, using grades from earlier qualifications as well as a standardized admission test to screen and rank applicants. Experts recommend that hopeful students begin preparing for the test during the junior year of their high school or undergraduate program.

A thorough grounding in all science subjects at the secondary level will give you a basic understanding of how the human body works as well as how it reacts to chemicals and various forces. Comprehensive knowledge of mathematics will prepare you for the next academic level and help you calculate dosages of medicine, read graphs, and understand trends in a patient’s recovery.

Some places may offer college credits and waive introductory college courses to prospective Neurosurgeons who take advanced science classes at the secondary level. Fluency in one or more languages will give them an edge in an increasingly global mission of universal well-being.

Neurosurgeons must acquire a license to legally practice their profession. The terms of licensure may vary depending on their location. A state license or a medical registration & license from a national regulatory body serve to protect the patients while allowing the physician to treat patients and prescribe medicines. These demonstrate the currency of knowledge and skills through regular checks and revalidation.

On completing medical school, promising Neurosurgeons can apply for licensing at the end of the first year of their residency program, through their state's medical board. They need to submit an application, pay the requisite fees, and submit test scores as well as school transcripts.

Voluntary certification by a nationwide board in a specialty serves as an independent evaluation of a Neurosurgeon’s experience, knowledge, and skills. It typically requires passing the relevant exam and fulfilling other educational and practicum requirements.

A country’s medical register sets ethical standards and lists doctors along with the type of registration they hold as well as their training and other relevant information that makes patients feel confident in the quality of care they will receive.

On completing medical school, you will need to obtain a provisional registration in order to receive a license to begin your first foundation year working in training posts. Going into the second foundation year in an approved training program will need full registration with a license to allow unsupervised medical public or private practice. This will depend on your earning a certificate of experience at the end of the first year.

Some countries may also have procedures set out or may be in the process of reforms to allow international candidates to acquire licensure and registration through standardized assessment, to grant them legal rights to practice while protecting the safety of patients.

By and large, Neurosurgeons follow one of two paths: academic or private practice. Most academic Neurosurgeons work at university-affiliated medical centers and are responsible for seeing patients in the clinic, operating, and teaching residents, fellows, and medical students. Academics involve active research participation, either as the principal investigator of a laboratory or as a collaborator, in either bench-based research, clinical research, engineering or innovations work.

Private practice Neurosurgeons often work for small to mid-sized group practices and have operating privileges at one or several hospitals, where they see their own patients. Optional career paths include the biotechnology, pharmaceutical and medical device industries as well as finance, military and government services.

Individuals who have excellent hand dexterity and hand-eye coordination and can cope with the physical and intellectual demands of the profession have the best job prospects.

Neurosurgeons need to train and learn throughout their careers to stay current on complex technologies and medical breakthroughs. Continuing education happens through participation in annual meetings and conferences, classes and seminars held by medical schools and professional organizations, through research and through study of scientific journals.

Continuing education also allows for license renewal and board certification. A fellowship in super specialities like neuro-oncology, neurovascular surgery, pediatric neurosurgery, skull base surgery, spinal surgery, traumatology and functional neurosurgery (surgical management of intractable pain, epilepsy and movement disorders) generally entails further education.

Neurosurgical Interventions

Intervention by a neurosurgeon can be surgical but is most often non-surgical and is determined by the patient’s condition or injury and general health. Such problems may be the result of abnormal development from birth (congenital), from aging or “wear and tear” (degenerative), traumatic from a definite injury, infectious, or neoplastic from a tumour.

Issues tackled by Neurosurgeons

Tumours involving the brain, spinal cord, nerves, skull or the spine. These may be a primary growth from the local tissues themselves or a metastatic spread from a cancer in another part of the body.

Spinal problems resulting in neck or back pain, the pinching of nerves with resultant pain, numbness or weakness in the arms or legs. These conditions can result from ruptured or bulging disks, excessive overgrowth of arthritic bone, slippage of the vertebra, infections or fractures.

Peripheral nerve injuries or compression resulting in pain, numbness, weakness and wasting of the muscles in the face, arm, hand or leg. Conditions such as Carpal Tunnel syndrome are common when the nerve crossing the wrist is compressed or entrapped.

Neurovascular disorders such as strokes, brain hemorrhages, aneurysms, vascular malformations, traumatic or non-traumatic blood clots affecting the brain or spinal cord and carotid artery disease.

Brain disorders such as Parkinson’s disease, epilepsy, hydrocephalus or malformations involving the brain from birth.

Infections involving the brain and spinal cord, the fluid surrounding these structures or the spinal vertebra and disks.

Traumatic injuries to the brain, spinal cord, bones of the spine, nerves and skull.

Standardized Admission Tests for Medical School

Standardized tests allow medical schools to evaluate a candidate’s training and skill set. To achieve the highest possible score, use the assistance available to you, including. study materials, pre-tests, practice tests, and online and in-person tutoring. Remember, however, that test results factor into schools’ selection and admission process, and so do pre-med grades, volunteer experience, letters of recommendation, and demonstrated character.

Grunt Work

Neurosurgeons must also periodically tend to administrative work such as maintaining records, writing prescriptions, filling out paperwork, returning phone calls, responding to emails, and dictating case notes.

Neurosurgery laid Bare

A Neurosurgeon’s medical, diagnostic and surgical skills form the celebrated core of their work. Privy to successful brain surgeons are some singular facts about their chosen career. Neurosurgery is more art than science; ‘educated guesswork’ and variability in practice are the norm in the face of impractical clinical trials to establish the superiority of one methodology over the other.

What is a harrowing one-time experience for patients and their families is the nerve-racking routine of Neurosurgeons. Nearly every patient is a unique high-stakes case that generates tough questions like, “Will they live? Will they live a normal life as before? Will they carry out their daily activities independently and capably?” Successful Neurosurgeons don’t have fewer concerns. They have determined that nothing will stop them from doing what they deem best for their patient.

Delivering bad news is part and parcel of the job. In a microsecond, things can change for the worse. Telling people that their loved one will not be the same or will not make it is very difficult and draining. The good news? Positive outcomes outweigh the negative, by about ten to one.

A scientific study can be interpreted to say anything you want it to say. Neurosurgeons must carefully read data from other people’s research and draw choice conclusions to inform their practice.

You will often be called upon to choose between surgery and research although more hospitals prefer their Neurosurgeons focus on the more lucrative surgery.

You must take exceptionally good care of yourself to be vigilant and strong enough to withstand the responsibility of holding a fragile but supremely important human brain in your hands - one that comprises around just two percent of body weight while using around 20 percent of its energy.

Collaboration

Operating rooms may appear austere and isolated, but you are constantly working and communicating with a collaborative team which may include neurosurgery residents, a scrub nurse, and an anesthesiologist. The stronger the team, the lesser the chance of trivial errors with fatal consequences.

A Calling, Not Just a Career

The day you commit yourself to become a Neurosurgeon, you undertake a long-winding and rigorous educational journey demanding several levels of arduous examinations, licensing, internships and residencies. Neurosurgery is extremely challenging but, by the same coin, affords a high level of job satisfaction. It is a unique experience to witness the enormous gratitude in people’s eyes when you tell them that the operation went well. It is hardly surprising then that many Neurosurgeons consider their work a calling rather than just a career that helps them make a living.

An Evolving Discipline

With a formal inception in the early 1900s, Neurosurgery is a relatively new and constantly evolving field. Neurosurgeons need to make time-sensitive decisions on cases that are almost always unique in the way they present themselves. Neurosurgery is one of the most technologically complex surgical specialties, regularly incorporating new operating room technologies and high-tech surgical tools, such as medical drills and robotic arms.

Ancient Egyptian records dating back to 3000 BC., first used the word brain in their account of its anatomy - the Meninges (membranes protecting the brain and spinal cord) and cerebrospinal fluid.

All that anyone who wants to become a Neurosurgeon needs is a genuine love for humanity and the invincible courageous genius to treat patients through life-defining and life-altering procedures.

“It's the professional shame that hurts the most,' I said to him. I wheeled my bike as we walked along Fleet Street. 'Vanity really. As a neurosurgeon you have to come to terms with ruining people's lives and with making mistakes. But one still feels terrible about it and how much it will cost.”