Neurosurgical Training Pathway Summary
The road to becoming a neurosurgeon is a long one which takes several years of rigorous study and loads of hands-on training. A unique journey, this path involves requisite training in medicine and often a one or even two-year fellowship, each phase designed to create the needed know-how to both access and work on the most complex circuitry of life; including but not necessarily limited to the brain; spinal cord; and peripheral nerves.
Duration of Medical School
First, you will need to earn a medical degree from an accredited medical school (this generally takes four years). On this occasion, students address a huge number of subjects - from basic sciences to clinical medicine - which build the necessary knowledge base for further assessment in surgical training.
Lengthy Residency Training
Neurosurgical ResidencyFollowing medical school, those who have chosen to become a neurosurgeon must then enter into their Neurosurgical Residency program - one that is infamously long and arduous. Usually these programs are at least seven years long. You come to work in a neurosurgical residency, and get significant surgical skills through your training under the tutelage of experienced neurosurgeons. Training covers diagnostics from physical to the most invasive and features complex surgeries, including rotations in neurology, either in critical care or neuropathology.
Potential for a Second year Fellowship
After neurosurgeons finish their residency, some get advanced training in a fellowship. Fellowships are one to three years depending on the subspecialty. This may be in the form of pediatric neurosurgery, spine surgery, cerebrovascular surgery or something bearable. The advanced training follows the 'super-specialisation' model, focusing on a subspecialty in neurosurgery.
Total Commitment Time
That brings the total to between 14 and 17 years after high school before a person can become a practicing neurosurgeon. This is four years of college, four years of med school, seven years of residency and however more fellowship makes your trained time.
Challenges and Rewards
The journey to becoming a brain surgeon is one of the longest and most grueling in medicine, but also one of the most fulfilling. Living with the brain One of the most high impact experiences for many patients is to benefit from an excellent surgeon-neurosurgeons deal with very complex conditions that are at best severely debilitating, but more often have a high probability of causing loss of life.
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In summary, training to become a neurosurgeon is a labor-intensive and all-consuming enterprise, but the technical skillset one develops and the profound difference one can make in patients' lives provide ample justification for its imposition on this developmental odyssey.