Turns out, it may not matter.
According to a recent study from the Archives of Surgery, when it comes to trauma surgery, the mortality rate of trauma causes handled by “novice” surgeons – those just out of residency – did not differ appreciably from those handled by more experienced doctors.
As reported by ABC News (under the somewhat melodramatic headline, “In the ER, Baby-Faced Doc Is No Death Sentence”), whether the hospital is organized, or not, plays a more important role.
Jay Doucet, a surgeon cited in the piece, compares the findings to fighter pilot performance, saying, “”Let’s say you have a highly trained fighter pilot, but you send him against a tough enemy, flying an obsolete aircraft in a disorganized air force … what outcomes can you expect? Organized trauma centers in an organized trauma system save lives.”
But, hopefully, you’ll never need a trauma surgeon at all.
Related posts:
- Is trauma surgery a viable specialty?
- A trauma story
- FPs doing trauma surgery?
- The aggressive Army surgeon
- How the general surgeon shortage affects patients
- Despite the best efforts of doctors, here’s how some trauma patients die
- Major blunt force trauma
{ 5 comments }
If the new graduates are as good as experienced ones….that means we are doing a great job in our training programs!
I guess the reduced resident hours are not a detriment to training as some old timers claim.
Trauma is such a regimented, algorithmic specialty nowadays that there really shouldn’t be any difference who your trauma surgeon is. If anything, the younger attendings would presumably be more up to date on the latest in the surgical literature. Nothing surprising here.
Over the years, I have seen articles that say older doctors are worse, younger doctors are worse, etc. I think this just illustrates there is more consistency in all of our treatments, which is good. Thanks for the post!
Dr. Kelly Sennholz
Denver Colorado
I know a somewhat elderly ER doc.
At first Doctor D was a bit terrified of Old Doc’s care. He didn’t follow the evidence-based protocals Doctor D had been taught. But old doc’s outcomes appear to be just as good as docs that practice more evidence based medicine.
My explanation is that old doc’s decades of experience compensate for his otherwise outdated practices. Old doc actually does solid work, and Doctor D listens to him more than he used to–trying to pick up some clinical pearls.
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