School Student
What's surgery like?
Dr Ammar Natalwala
Academic Foundation Trainee
I think my interest in surgery initially developed within the first couple of years of medical school training where we were taught human anatomy. I was inspired not only by my anatomy demonstrator who was adept at using anatomical models and specimens to explain certain concepts, but also by the surgeons that I shadowed during my surgical rotations in the clinical years. I was able to appreciate the clinical relevance of what I had learnt and scrubbing in to watch operations in theatre, even whilst simply holding a retractor, was fascinating and made me feel as if I was part of the team.
At medical school, I was fortunate enough to be elected as the President of the University of Birmingham Surgical Society. This was a great opportunity to promote interest in surgery amongst fellow medical students, and develop links with other Surgical Societies across the UK via the Medical Student Liaison Committee at the Royal College of Surgeons of England. I would recommend all students that are interested in a surgical career to attend events organised by their respective Surgical Societies in order to gain further insight into this field.
After completing six year of undergraduate training, which included an intercalated BSc degree in Neurosciences, I accepted a two-year Academic Foundation training post in Neurosurgery at Southampton General Hospital where I am currently working today. I feel that working as a junior doctor is very rewarding when treating patients and the opportunity to combine teaching and academic research with clinical work is an additional bonus.
In my opinion, knowing what you want to specialise in early on is very useful and being enthusiastic and generally keeping yourself competitive in terms of your CV, amongst other things, is essential for a career in surgery.
