Doctor & Surgeon Stereotypes (by Specialty)

Plastic surgeons are sleazeballs, neurosurgeons have massive egos, and orthopedic surgeons are dumb bros. Unless you've gone through medical school, you probably believe the stereotypes and have a distorted perception of the personality types of each surgical specialty. Some stereotypes are true, but most are not. This is the truth about each specialty. Dr. Jubbal, MedSchoolInsiders.com. Going through medical school, I recall being surprised on multiple occasions how the stereotypes of certain specialties differed from reality. I have cross referenced this list and received input from several physician colleagues to make this list as accurate as possible. But bear in mind, this is our opinion, and if your experiences differ, let me know down in the comments. How do you know if there is a neurosurgeon in the room? Easy, they'll have already told you. The stereotype of neurosurgeons is that they have a massive god complex, they're hugely egotistical, and neurosurgery is incredibly delicate and nuanced. All three of these are mostly false. Sure, you're bound to find egotistical personalities in any specialty, but I would not actually place neurosurgery higher on the list than any other surgical specialty. The level of ego seems quite comparable between all of them. The stereotype that is true is that neurosurgeons are some of the hardest working people in the hospital. They work the most challenging and demanding hours, and their lifestyle is nothing to be envious of. As the saying goes, neurosurgeons make the most money, but they have no time to spend it. Neurosurgeons have some of the most hilarious and dynamic personalities of any specialty. It makes perfect sense. Neurosurgery patients have terrible outcomes. Think about it, do healthy people ever need brain surgery? To deal with such tragedy on a regular basis and stay sane, healthy coping mechanisms are a must. Healthy defense mechanisms include altruism, sublimation, anticipation, and humor. Some of the funniest personalities I came across in medicine were on my neurosurgery rotation. Surprisingly, neurosurgery is not nearly as nuanced or meticulous as most people think. This is actually a big reason I opted for plastic surgery instead. I go over how I decided between neurosurgery, orthopedic surgery, and plastic surgery on my vlog channel. Link to that video is in the description below. When removing a brain tumor, there often isn't a super clear cut demarcation between tumor and healthy tissue. In spine surgery, there is a lot of elbow grease and less precision than you would think. While certain aspects are highly meticulous, as a whole, I was surprised how crude neurosurgery could be. Speaking of crude, most people think of orthopedic surgery. When you think ortho, you probably think of bros, bench presses, and no medical management skills. And that's, well, mostly true. But within orthopedic surgery, there are some much more nuanced subspecializations, like hand, that require more precision and elegance. It's not all bros, either. While the specialty is dominated by men, many of whom have an affinity for picking up heavy things and putting them back down, I've come across several kickass female orthopedic surgeons. Just because they don't bench as much doesn't mean they cannot impress you with their strength. In terms of medical management skills, or lack thereof, I've heard tales about how orthopedic surgeons forgot basic management or even what a hemoglobin A1c is. I have not seen this myself, but I cannot say that plastic surgery would be much better. When people think plastic surgery, they think cosmetics. Nose jobs, breast implants, things like that. While aesthetics does make up a sizable portion of plastic surgery, there is so much more to it than just that. Within plastic surgery, there's craniofacial, where you fix things like cleft lip and cleft palate, or hand, which is what I was initially focused on, or microsurgery, where you move tissues around the body and reconnect blood vessels or nerves with the help of microscopes. Face transplants, hand transplants, complex reconstructions, it is the closest thing we have in medicine to science fiction. In terms of personality, most people think of plastic surgeons as slimy or money-minded. As the joke goes, you can hide $100 from a neurosurgeon by giving it to his kid, you can hide $100 from a hospitalist by putting it underneath the dressings, but you cannot hide $100 from a plastic surgeon. Sure, plastic surgery attracts some with those priorities, but many pursue plastic surgery for reconstruction, which actually does not pay very well, relatively speaking. Plastic surgeons do tend to be more neurotic and have more obsessive compulsive tendencies, which makes sense, since it is such a meticulous field. While they are a cool group of people, there are no neurosurgeons or urologists. Urology is the specialty focusing on the male reproductive system. If you like dick jokes, these are your people. I don't really have much more to say about them. OBGYN stands for obstetrics and gynecology. Obstetrics focuses on pregnancy and delivering babies, and gynecology is to women what urology is to men. The stereotype I've heard is that OBGYN is not real surgery or that they are a miserable group of people. Look, cesarean sections are not quite surgery in the same way that urology, plastics, neurosurge, orthopedic surgery, general surgery, or any other type of surgery is, well, surgery. Cesarean sections are incredibly crude, closure techniques are not conducive to favorable scarring, and it is a bloody battlefield in there. On multiple occasions, I was concerned that I would get stuck by a flying needle or scalpel. But just because obstetrics is like that does not mean that gynecology is not real surgery. During my time on OBGYN, I was lucky to see some awesome laparoscopic cases. And regarding the stereotype of OBGYN docs being miserable, I think they're a nice group of people. They're just sleep deprived because they have a very challenging and unpredictable lifestyle. Several decades ago, prior to the subspecialization of various types of surgery, general surgery was actually general. It was quite broad. But since then, general surgery has focused on surgical interventions of the gastrointestinal and endocrine systems. For this reason, I've heard two damaging stereotypes of this specialty. First, because GENSURGE is compensated less than other surgical specialties, it's the easiest surgical specialty to get into, and it deals with a lot more nausea-inducing pathologies, I've heard other medical students or doctors suggest that general surgery is for people who could not get into a more competitive, and therefore, quote unquote, better surgical specialty. Second, given the often malignant culture and challenging lifestyle, general surgeons are known as masochists, meaning they love the pain and suffering. Now do some applicants opt for GENSURGE because they couldn't get into something else? Sure. But many also pursue general surgery because they are undecided on a surgical subspecialty, or because general surgery is the avenue through which you train for other specialties like cardiothoracic or vascular surgery. Apart from neurosurgeons, general surgeons are actually some of the most medically inclined, as they are taking care of sick patients in the surgical ICU, whereas their plastic surgery and orthopedic surgery colleagues usually aren't nearly as involved in difficult medical management. While the average general surgeon may not have the nuance and precision in the operating room compared to a plastic surgeon, I consider it impressive to both operate and manage challenging medical issues. In terms of personality, a consistent theme I've seen amongst many general surgeons is being thrill-seekers or being quite adventurous. And that is a wrap. What other specialties do you want me to cover? Let me know down in the description below. If you enjoyed this video, you may also like my content on Instagram at kevinjubbalmd and at Med School Insiders. I'm thinking about doing a video on the non-surgical specialties like cardiology, internal medicine, pediatrics, etc. I need to gauge interest, so let me know if you want to see that with a comment down below. Thank you all so much for watching. If you liked the video, let me know with a thumbs up, and if you weren't a fan, I don't mind if you leave a thumbs down. Make sure you're subscribed with the notification bell enabled so you don't miss any future uploads, and I will see you guys in that next one.