Surviving Neurosurgery: Vignettes of Resilience is a practical guide to the inner workings of the lives of neurosurgeons, healthcare partners, and patients. To this end, this text serves as a first-hand documentary of the unique challenges faced as one progresses through their career. It is a snapshot in time capturing the experiences of both patients and providers. The text is divided into seven parts that run the gamut of a neurosurgeons career symbolic of the seven years of neurosurgical training. These narratives include, but are not limited to, residency challenges, surgical nuances, research and funding, embracing humanity, patient experiences, and overcoming hurdles along the journey. Chapters share the wisdom and experiences of over 100 authors consisting of patients, trainees, advanced practice providers, and attending neurosurgeons.
The Black Box a Privilege and a Calling.- The Two As of Neurosurgery:
A Subinterns Experience.- Into the Zone of Action: Neurosurgical
Sub-internship.- The Right Stuff : What Program Directors Look for in
Residency Applicants.- SO WE BEAT ON, BOATS AGAINST THE CURRENT: OVERCOMING
CHALLENGES TO MATCH.- Behind the Curtain: Residency Interviews.- Living in
Two Worlds: Dual Degree.- Matching plus one.- Lessons for New Interns.- Chief
Year Story: Day 2,946.- Hail Mary: Surviving Call as a Junior Resident.-
Preparing for the written boards.- A Knot in the Heart: Junior Resident
Experience.- Stoking the Fire: Consult Story.- The Maserati: Choosing the
Ideal Mentor.- To Washington and Back: My Thoughts on Healthcare Activism.- A
Bridge, but No River: The Fellow-ish Experience.- Becoming the Theologian and
the Priest : Advice for Residents.- A Stroke of Change: Changes in my
Practice.- My Greatest Mentor.- Advancing Academically in Neurosurgery:
Harnessing the Sweet Spot While Minimizing the Sweat Spot.- Life Beyond
Neurosurgery.- A New Job: A Steep Learning Curve.- Negotiating Your Way to a
Fulfilling Neurosurgery Career: Clinical Contract.- Negotiating a Research
Contract.- Surviving Medicaid, Medicare, Private Payors, Billing and
Collections in 2020.- How to Choose a Team .- Advice to recent residency
graduates.- Neurosurgical Leadership: Altruism and Aequanimitas.- Directing a
Neurosurgery Residency Training Program.- Lessons from Leadership from a
Society President.- AANS/CNS Washington Committee: Ensuring Neurosurgery
Survival.- Team Management Lessons from Establishing a Neurointerventional
Service.- PArtner in Neurological Surgery.- Cost-Cutting Without
Quality-Cutting.- Neurosurgery Across the Globe.- Lessons Learned: Life in
Neurosurgery.- Global Neurosurgery: how best to be involved.- Preparing for
the Oral Board Exam.- Challenges of Coding and Reimbursement.- Sponsor for
Trainees.- The Neuroendovascular Surgery Odyssey.- My Worst Complication.-
Judgment, Teams and Hands: Beyond Technical Skills in the Operating Room.-
Supporting Future Generations of Neurosurgeons: Passing the torch.- The
tail of the intraneural ganglion cyst: My most fascinating case.- Morbidity
and Mortality.- Preparing for the OR: From the Lab to the OR.- Intraoperative
Teamwork: Two-Surgeon Model.- Gaining Competence in Neurological Surgery: Is
it enough? .- A Critical Portion of the Case Occurs in the Clinic.- Why I
chose to be a neurosurgeon.- A Subspecialty at a Glance: Endovascular
Neurosurgery.- No Longer Gentleman Hands: Choosing Spine Surgery.- The
Modern-Day Skull Base Surgeon.- Choosing Neurosurgical-Oncology.- From Cajal
to Talairach: A journey to Epilepsy Surgery.- Choosing Pediatric
neurosurgery.- A Focus on Stereotactic Radiosurgery in Neurosurgery.- Bench
and Bedside: The Path to Becoming a Physician-Scientist.- Private practice.-
Choosing a Subspecialty Which is Both Practical and Useful.- Neurotrauma:
Endlessly Rewarding.- Rewiring the Peripheral Nervous System.- Research Year
Story.- The MD/PhD and the Neurosurgeon/Neuroscientist.- How to Give a Great
Presentation.- The Job of Editor-in-Chief of a Neurosurgery Journal.-
Neurosurgery and the Pursuit of Fundamental Neuroscience.- "How to Get
Research Funding (AKA, How to Successfully Bang Your Head Against the
Wall)".- A Podcast for Neurosurgeons: Conception, Creation, Continuation.-
AANS Neurosurgeon: Creativity outside of the operating room.- Getting started
in research: Testimonial from a Late Bloomer.-- The Keys to starting your
research laboratory.- Technophilia and Neurosurgery.- How to Conduct
Meaningful Research: How Not To Reinvent Just Another Wheel.- Work Life
Balance: Preserving soul and sanity.- Having Children During Residency.- The
@Graffeo 10 Commandments for #NSGY Twitter.- Public Service in Neurosurgery.-
Diversity in Neurosurgery.- Military Neurosurgery.- Thriving in a Two Surgeon
Household.- Surviving a Malpractice Lawsuit.- Engagement and Leadership in
Organized Neurosurgery.- BEING A WOMAN IN A MALE-DOMINATED FIELD.- In the
Eyes of Chiari .- Mindfulness, and Coping with the Inevitable Tragedies of
Neurosurgery.- How to Build a Successful Academic Innovation Program and Why
Innovation Should be a Core Neurosurgical Competency.- Art of Neurosurgery:
The Commissure.- Mission Trips: How Outreach Changed My Life.- The Family is
an Extension of the Patient.- A Personal Journey.- Switching Programs.-
Applying to Neurosurgery: DOs and DO Nots .- Changing Neurosurgery
Programs.- The only way to survive falling out of an airplane is to go limp.-
Flipping Burgers Due to Career Burnout.- So You Didnt Match.- Overcoming
Frustration: Grind My Gears, Butter My Bread.- Chasing the American Dream.
Nitin Agarwal, M.D.
Washington University School of Medicine
Department of Neurological Surgery
St. Louis, MO
USA
Vamsi Reddy, MD
UT Southwestern Medical Center
Department of Neurological Surgery
Dallas, TX
USA
