FAQs
1) Are you the same as Baylor Student Surgical Society?
As much as we like them, no. Surgical Corps is a nonprofit corporation aimed at providing hands on training for students that act as first assists to surgeons/resident/fellows during surgical training courses. Our first official employer is Methodist Hospital and you will be paid accordingly through them for training sessions in which you participate.
2) Do I really have to like surgery to join?
No. We are not requiring that you want to be a surgeon, nor that you even like surgery. You can simply use us as a great exposure tool to figure out if surgery plays to your interests or not. You can also just come to learn some cool procedures and adapt somewhat to the surgical environment prior to the surgery clinical rotations.
3) What are you requiring to be involved?
We are asking for particular qualifications for involvement in our program — the EMIG Blue Card or equivalent extensive experience shadowing surgeries, scrubbing in on surgery, working as an EMT, etc. There is space for explanation on our registration form.
4) What is EMIG? What is the Blue Card?
This will be answered fully in an information session given by EMIG itself, but the short version is that EMIG is the Emergency Medicine Interest Group. EMIG runs a program through Ben Taub Hospital Emergency Center (BTEC) that allows you the opportunity to interact within the EC environment and pick up invaluable skills before you begin clinical rotations — these include performing blood draws, placing IVs, administering EKGs. Additional opportunities within cadaver skills labs through EMIG help you learn how to suture, intubate and place chest tubes. The Blue Card is a form that BTEC Work Study and Volunteer Program requires students to fill out. It documents your ability to do unassisted blood draws, IV placements, and EKG administrations. For your information the first Fall 2010 EMIG meeting is this Thursday, August 19th at noon in McMillian. To get involved in the BTEC Work Study Program there will be an additional training meeting on Tuesday, August 24th at 4PM in Kleberg Auditorium. For additional information about the BTEC Work Study Program contact btecworkstudy@gmail.com.
5) How do I know if I’ve been accepted into your awesome group?
We will be sifting through the online registration forms on a weekly basis and sending confirmation emails to those people who are good to go.
6) Do I need to be involved right now? Can I join later?
Yes, we are an awesome group, but most importantly is that we will be around!… forever… that’s the plan. There is ZERO pressure to be involved this instant, and you can join at any point you feel your time/physical and mental abilities/sanity permit. All the student groups sound really cool and surely you would love to join all of them (cough cough… especially ours..), but be realistic in determining how much free time you have and don’t get weighed down with too much in the beginning. If you just can’t wait to hop on board, expect the EMIG Blue Card to take until around November to finish after which point you are free to join us anytime you like.
7) What exactly is the time commitment?
We are not requiring any number of hours at any point in your involvement with our group! If you feel you have time to be involved, that’s great! If you want to get going with the group and then take a couple of months off, that’s great too! The bottom line is that the group is essentially available to you when you feel you’re up to it. The surgical interest for the training courses are assigned by our institutional partners such as Methodist and we will request students via email in a first come first serve fashion. If you are interested, then you can sign up. And if not, you can skip that course and wait for the next one.
8) Cool! I’m excited to get involved. What should I do now?
STEP 1: Register on our website http://surgicalcorps.com. Do this even if you’re not yet fully qualified to join. It will get you on our email list and provide you with information for the courses and progress of the organization.
STEP 2: Get your EMIG Blue Card. More info on how to start this process will be given when EMIG holds their first general interest meeting. Once the above two things are finished you proceed to the following two steps.
STEP 3: Depending on the institutional partner offering opportunities to Surgical Corps members, you will go through their hiring process to get onto their payroll.
STEP 4: Wait for the emails as we get notice from our institutional partners for available courses.
9) It all sounds so great… you learn some cool surgeries, you get to meet leading TMC surgeons and establish contacts, you’re not requiring a minimum number of hours, AND you get paid… what’s the catch?
There isn’t one! Methodist, as our first partner, is excited for this program to be instituted as it alleviates staffing issues on their end. Normally, any number of employees need to be pulled from full time responsibilities to provide assistants for physicians paying to attend the training courses. Surgical Corps, however, provides the solution by providing dedicated medical students who will be trained in this role and be available on a per diem basis. The scenario is win/win: they save money and administration hassle, we get very nice exposure into the field, AND we get paid. It couldn’t possibly get better than that.
