What advice do you have for medical students going into plastic surgery who do not have a home program?

Check out my blog post on matching without a home program!

How should I pick my sub-Is or away rotations for plastic surgery?

I made a video for insta with advice for picking away rotations!

What should I read to prepare for cases as a plastic surgery medical student or sub-I?

These are what I think are the best resources for medical students and sub-Is to start with for preparing for cases. Not an exhaustive list--there are tons of great resources out there--but when you feel overwhelmed or lost you should come back to these:

Hand: www.orthobullets.com for quick and dirty, AO Surgery Reference for a deeper dive https://surgeryreference.aofoundation.org/

Face: AO has face too, both trauma and peds craniofacial. It is just the best!

Flaps: www.microsurgeon.org. this is all of the basic info you need for basically every flap you might see. know this info before you scrub.

For everything else, pick good textbook and always start with that. I like either Janis's Essentials of Plastic Surgery or Grabb & Smith's Plastic Surgery

What to take it to the next level? Try an operative atlas. These tend to have much more specific detail about the steps of an operation, with lots of pictures and practical tips. I really like Kevin Chung's Operative Techniques in Plastic Surgery 

What advice do you have for how to behave as a sub-I, or what sub-Is and med students can do to make a good impression?

3 things that I’ve noticed that all of our very best and most successful plastic surgery sub-Is have in common: 

1. They help the residents. This is the biggest thing you can do to show that you are a team player and that you know how to anticipate. and though the attendings may be the ones who. Make the rank list in the end, they really do listen to the residents 

1. Know when to be quiet aka know how to read the room. Some obvious times I can tell you when you probably shouldn’t be talking are during induction, and anytime you’re operating on a patient who is awake, best just to let your attending take the lead on conversation. But just try to be aware of what is going on with the patient and the team, and if things seem tense, your best first move is to stay quiet so the team can focus on the patient

1. Be professional. Remember that as a sub-I, you are a guest in what is essentially a residency family. You may hear people making fun of other residents, but that doesn’t mean that it’s ok for you to do that. You may hear dirty jokes, but that doesn’t mean it’s ok for you to tell a dirty joke, it’s going to be perceived differently because of your position. and for the same reason you should avoid saying anything negative about other programs or other faculty members even if you hear someone else talking negatively - every minute of your sub-I is a job interview, and you want to come across as professional and positive, even to the oldest and most curmudgeonly surgeon on the team. 

Check out my insta videos for more details on how to be the best sub-I you can be: how to prepare for your plastics sub-I, sub-I tips, more sub-I tips, and even more sub-I tips.

What should I have in my pocket as a plastic surgery med student or sub-I?

5 things every med student and sub-I should have in their pocket for their plastic surgery rotation!

✍️ a pen: for you, and to lend to your resident/attending when they forget theirs 

📓 a notebook: if you take notes on your phone, it will look like you’re not paying attention. Write things down on paper!

✂️ trauma shears: plastics has a lot of dressings! Be prepared when the attending/resident says “anybody have scissors?”

🖊️ a marking pen: these can be tricky to track down when you need one to mark a patient on rounds! If you have one, you’ve just solved a problem for your team 😎 

🍫 a snack: plastic surgery days can get crazy…eat when you can and don’t forget to take care of yourself 🤗 

How do I chart check and pre-round for my plastic surgery rotation?

Check out my pre-rounding video on instagram.

What study tips do you have for interns?

Studying intern year is almost impossible but here are 3 different strategies that I think work well:

1. Keep an article in your pocket: Go to the CME section of the top journal in your field. Print out an article. Put it in your pocket with your list. Try to read a few paragraphs throughout the day whenever you have a few minutes. Even if it takes you a week to read one article, an article a week is a whole lot more than nothing. 

2. Do 2 questions per day: Maybe you’re somebody who learns best from questions. get a copy of last year’s version of your inservice exam or ABSITE or whatever, print it out, and put it by your bed. Each night right before you go to sleep do two questions. JUST. TWO. and read the explanations. Before bed is an optimal time in terms of memory consolidation, and if you just do two questions a day you’ll probably actually remember them. If you hate paper you could do an Anki deck and set a reminder alarm, whatever works for you, but two questions a night five nights a week, that’s 40 questions a month which is honestly huge.

3. Make a textbook spreadsheet: This is an advanced tip: try making a textbook spreadsheet. Reading a whole textbook is a great way to lay a foundation for all of the knowledge you’re going to gain in residency, and it helps you avoid the trap of only reading about your favorite topics. Make a spreadsheet to use as a checklist to keep track of chapters as you read them, and do some math to figure out how many chapters you need to read a week to finish the textbook in a year. You can even set a lil formula to count down for you how many chapters you have left to go. Keeping track in this way made it easier for me to skip around and read different chapters based on what fit with the rotation I was on. This is a daunting task (and not something I actually did til pgy-2 year!), but I think it really helped me stay organized and motivated, and set me up for success in the years that followed. 

How do you write a strong CV and personal statement for your residency application?

Check out my tips for personal statements and tips for CV/resume on instagram.