Blog
What MU-COM Alumni Say About the General Surgery Residency - Part 1
Nicole Kang, OMS-III '24 | July 12, 2022
In the interest of helping medical students interested in General Surgery, five MU-COM alumni in General Surgery residencies have answered commonly asked questions.
Why did you choose General Surgery?
 | Dr. Shadiow ‘19: “Before medical school, I was able to shadow surgeons and thought I would like general surgery. Then, the hands-on aspect of anatomy in medical school and rotation in my third year led me to the field of General Surgery. I was initially interested in OBGYN, but the rotation helped me to realize which field I was more interested in.” |
 | Dr. Schmidt '18: “I was already a little biased toward general surgery as my father is a general surgeon, so I always liked hearing about the cases he did and the problems he treated. However, I kept a pretty open mind during my clinical rotations as a third-year to see if anything else piqued my interest. Ultimately, I chose general surgery because I’ve always liked working with my hands and seeing the more immediate results that can occur when performing procedures and operations. I also liked that there was some continuity of care with your patients and that you could develop relationships with them. Additionally, as a general surgeon, you’re adept at managing complex medical problems and comorbidities for our surgical patients.” |
 | Dr. Hise '19: "I came into medical school with an interest in surgery, so I was already sort of heading towards this path from day one. But I think what ultimately made me decide to pursue general surgery was my third-year clerkship. I worked with a general surgeon north of Indianapolis. He was sort of an old-school surgeon in that he trained during a time when general surgeons really did everything. He also worked in a relatively small city, and he and his partners were the only surgeons in the area, so he had a large volume of patients and treated a lot of different things. He is an amazing surgeon who really cared for his patients. And since there were no residents, I was his first assist on all of his cases. So I got a lot of hands-on time and got to see a lot of cool stuff. From that point on I knew I wanted to be a surgeon." |
 | Dr. Pansuriya '20: “General surgery allows me to help patients from their initial diagnosis to discharge. It is a unique specialty because it gives you the tools to treat patients not only medically and surgically, but also to take care of the patients as a whole. In terms of the operating room, general surgeons are trained to deal with injuries/diseases from head to toe, which makes it all the more challenging and interesting." "After general surgery, there are multiple fellowships that are available that allow you to specialize in different parts of the body, allowing a broad scope of practice. Because this area requires the mastery of anatomy, physiology, critical care management, acute care surgery, and trauma, it allows me to help critically ill patients and treat a variety of different pathologies.” |
 | Dr. Banaschack ’17: “I enjoy the workflow, variety, and unpredictability. If you are quick and efficient, get your work done and patients tucked in you don’t have to sit around and wait for a shift to end. But with that, you can be pulled back in at any time. The gratification of helping the patient is fairly quick. The relationship with the patient is special, too.” |
In summary:
They have chosen the path of a general surgeon because they enjoyed having a quick turnaround of patients’ conditions, getting hands-on experience, and being able to treat the patient as a whole, as we have learned as an osteopath. Although many alumni already had an interest in general surgery prior to coming into the medical school, they said you’ll never really know how much you will like an area of medicine until the rotations begin, so keep your minds open!
About the author
Nicole Kang is currently a third-year medical student at Marian University College of Osteopathic Medicine (MU-COM). She is a proud Hoosier graduate of Indiana University Bloomington, where she gained valuable insight and experience with the Pediatric Diabetes Research team at Indiana University School of Medicine while earning a Bachelor of Science in Biology and a minor in Spanish. As a second-year medical student, Nicole found inspiration engaging with her local community to organize a Youth Medical Program at her church for middle school and high schoolers interested in medicine. Outside of studying, she enjoys making time to discover new restaurants and cafes to support in Indy and playing golf with her family.
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