A General Surgeon's Diary

The daily duties of a general surgeon include consulting and managing their hospital patients on a daily basis and sometimes even twice a day where necessary. General surgeons may also have patients admitted in the surgical ICU and these patients will also be seen 1-2 times a day. A trauma surgeon may be consulted when managing these patients.

Laboratory tests and special investigations ordered by a surgeon will also have to be followed up in order to discuss any abnormalities with the patient. Further management can then be discussed with the patient and subsequently initiated.

Monday

Mondays are usually reserved as an administrative day to organize aspects such as when meetings with surgical reps and the hospital management need to take place. This day is also used to see what elective procedures have been booked on which days of the week.

Another important issue that needs to be looked at is making sure that the mornings after being on call (seeing emergency cases after hours) aren't too busy for the surgeon. The days that the surgeon is on call will depend on the availability of other surgeons and also how they choose to rotate. For this example, we shall assume the doctor is on call on a Thursday night.

After ward rounds have been completed, the doctor will start consulting patients for the day and he/she will either manage them conservatively or decide whether any further surgical intervention is needed. These patients will then be scheduled for elective surgery on the assigned surgical days. If emergency surgery is needed, then the patient will be booked for the operating theatre and the surgeon will attend to them accordingly.

Tuesday

Tuesdays are usually reserved as full surgical days where the surgeon is performing procedures the entire day. This day can be quite long, depending on how busy the list is, and the specialist can be in the operating theatre for a substantial amount of time. Emergency cases can also come in, but if there are other colleagues available then they will help handle the workload.

The morning may consist of performing major abdominal surgeries such as cholecystectomies (gallbladder removal) and hiatus hernia repairs. The afternoon may consist of performing procedures such as breast lumpectomies, abdominal hernia repairs and vascular surgeries. During the day the general surgeon may also have to perform emergency procedures such as appendectomies, repair of perforations in the stomach and removal of a segment of the colon if there's a perforation involved.

Wednesday

Wednesday mornings also tend to be reserved for performing surgical procedures similar to those mentioned already. 

If the surgeon is involved with the academic programme of the surgical department, the afternoon will then be reserved for attending meetings and also for training of under- and postgraduate students. Private general surgeons may use the afternoon for consulting further with patients, working on research articles or performing other administrative tasks. 

Thursday

Thursdays can be similar to Wednesdays as the morning may also involve consulting patients or performing surgeries, and the afternoon may be utilised for the same purpose as already mentioned. These afternoons can be interchanged or used exclusively, depending on the surgeon, as one day for academic purposes or training and the other day for consulting with patients.

If the surgeon is on call this night then they will usually be consulting with patients and will then stay close to the hospital for emergency cases. The doctor will be called by primary healthcare workers and casualty doctors to see patients in the emergency room of the hospital when needed.

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Friday

This morning will usually start later since the doctor was on call, or if they are still busy in theatre with a patient. When the doctor is ready, he/she will consult with their hospital patients and then their outpatients in their rooms. 

The afternoon will be used to resolve any pending administrative issues and they will then end their work week.

If the surgeon is on call for the weekend, then they will be responsible for the surgical patients in the hospital and will take instructions from their colleagues. If they are not on call, then they will hand over the management of their patients to their colleague who will be working the weekend.