Most “exciting” surgical specialty

[Polly Peptide, BSN, MSN, RN, APRN]

In your experience, what is the most exciting, action-packed specialty?

I think I’ve gotten over the hump in my Periop program and am finding my groove. However I notice that I most enjoy myself when there is a lot going on in the room. I am one who likes to be busy - opening things to the field, retrieving items from wherever, charting, problem-solving, drawing up and dispensing meds, you name it. While it’s nutty when there are tons of reps handing you things, I guess I like the pace.

We are about to have to choose a specialty to train in (beyond learning general) and I am curious - what tends to be the most action-packed for you?

[FurBabyMom, MSN, RN]

I think this will probably depend on facility. A surgery center's ortho cases may not be the same as a community hospital or a teaching hospital. Likewise, life in a trauma center may not be the same thing.

I have done enough cases on all of our service lines to know there is not one that is consistently more exciting than another. Have done emergencies with all of our services. Have done plenty of emergencies with 5 minutes or less notice (again - level 1 trauma center but most of those are inpatients who were rapid response calls or code calls).

[ctsurgeryscrubrn]

I scrub Cardiothoracic and also take call on our Level-1 Trauma service. They are both ‘exciting’, but I think Level-1 Trauma is probably where you get the most amount of adrenaline. Nothing gets my blood rushing like hearing over the intercom that we have an L1 “Direct-to-OR” (we call them DTOs) with active CPR going on with an ETA of 5 min out.