A registrar contract is awarded for four years in the first instance but this is often extended by a year to ensure adequate training, and consideration is being given to increasing registrar training in neurosurgery to five years nationally. All registrars at UCT are expected to complete the exams set by the College of Neurosurgeons of South Africa, as well as complete a research dissertation for the degree MMed Neurosurgery.
Registrars rotate through the three Groote Schuur Hospital neurosurgical firms, neurocritical care and paediatric neurosurgery. Special three-month rotations for research or clinical neuroscience may be arranged. Following completion of exams and basic registrar training, there may be an option to stay on for an additional year of subspecialty training, assuming the role of Chief Registrar.
Although only South African citizens and permanent residents may be appointed to funded registrar posts, we welcome trainees from other African countries who are funded independently.
Depending on training capacity, we take on additional trainees from elsewhere in Africa who have committed to returning home to develop neurosurgery in their own countries. A number of alumni have already returned home to provide much-needed services to their countries, and have been able to publish their experience in leading journals.
One of our long-term goals is to help build expertise in various regions to support the establishment of world-class training centres in those parts of our continent. One of our graduates, Dr Emmanuel Wegoye , recently returned to Uganda where he is one of two fellowship-certified neurosurgeons offering neurosurgical care.
Uganda itself has a population of 31 million, of which 15 million are children under the age of 15 years. You absolutely cannot be sloppy about your own health, because doing so could affect your patient's health. A scientific study can be interpreted to say anything you want it to say.
Here's a good example: A recently published study said 30 percent of men who played contact sports would develop a form of dementia in adulthood. That conclusion was all over the media , but when you actually read the paper, it turned out that they were asymptomatic from this form of dementia, meaning it's not clear that they had dementia at all. As a scientist and a clinician, I have to read the data from other people's research myself and draw my own conclusion to inform my practice.
Neurosurgery is heavily male-dominated, so don't expect to always have mentors who look like you. Finding female mentors in neurosurgery can be tough. Only about 6 percent of all board-certified neurosurgeons in the country are women, and in academia, it's even fewer. Some of the women ahead of me have provided me with great mentorship, but I've also had fantastic male mentors. The best mentors are people who have a vested interest in your success — often, the people who hired you — and if you emulate the behavior of people you admire, you will succeed.
Often, you'll have to make a choice between being a surgeon and doing research. I've been very lucky to work in a hospital system that values my work as a researcher, so I'm able to work in a clinical setting three days a week and work on research two days a week.
It's a fantastic arrangement, and we just started one of the largest brain studies in the country. That said, it's becoming less common for hospitals to allow their neurosurgeons to work on research, since it's more economical for a hospital to have them operating all the time. Try a bunch of different things before you commit to a specialty. It's very common now to choose a subspecialty of neurosurgery during residency. This could be focusing on something like cerebrovascular surgery, spine surgery, neurotrauma, or pediatric neurosurgery.
When I first started out, I planned on doing pediatric neurosurgery, but then I had a kid of my own and realized I was not emotionally capable of doing it. It was too upsetting to see a negative outcome with a child.
So now I specialize in trauma, and I'm much happier. There's no "good time" to have a kid. After medical school, you have seven years of residency and then one or two additional years of fellowship before you can even become a neurosurgeon. I had a baby when I was a resident, and it was really hard, even with an extraordinarily supportive family. I was working about hours a week during my pregnancy. When I gave birth, I took 12 weeks off and when I returned, I was senior enough to cut down my hours to a very leisurely 90 hours a week.
The aspiring neurosurgeon can elect to complete a fellowship to develop a specialty in a particular area. All neurosurgeons, regardless of where they are in their career, are encouraged to continue education long after school ends to stay current on new products, procedures and methods. This amount can include bonuses, profit shares and commissions. In the U. All in all, it can take 12 years or more to become a neurosurgeon, which includes the completion of schooling, residencies and fellowships.
However, most agree that it's worth the investment in time, knowledge and money for such a rewarding career. Deb Ng is a freelance writer and published author with over 17 years of experience in creating content for the web. Prior to her freelance career, she worked for over 12 years in traditional print publishing. Specializing in job search techniques, Deb also founded a blog and job board to assist freelancers and telecommuters in landing their dream jobs.
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