Orthopedic Residency with Dr. Collins

Hot Lights, Cold Steel: Life, Death and Sleepless Nights in a Surgeon's First Years by Michael J. Collins, MD is his personal story of residency at the Mayo Clinic.

Anyone who really wants to know what orthopedic residency demands of mind, body and talent needs to read this book from cover to cover. Dr. Collins is superb at being blunt with his audience, dispelling myths about the life of an orthopedic resident, and showing hard work does payoff.

In Hot Lights, Cold Steel, you will find a surgeon who starts off clueless, but rises to the challenge of becoming chief resident in his final year. Many people have misconceptions of physicians living a very glamorous life but the real thing includes: an insufficient income, moonlighting at rural hospitals, sleep deprivation, minimal time for a growing family, and driving junker cars.

Who Should Read

If you are interested in an orthopedic residency then this book is essential. Premeds who are thinking about any surgical specialty should also seriously consider reading Dr. Collins book because it will open your eyes to the challenges which surgery poses, such as the dilemma of having a young boy's leg injured by a farm tractor and having to decide whether: Risk the boy's life to save his leg, or amputate immediately.

One crucial aspect to get out of this work is to enjoy the journey of medicine and where it will take you in life. Even the author is shocked at the life which he can lead after completing his orthopedic residency. He learns staying true to his passion, going the extra mile and enduring will pay off handsomely after the completion of his residency at Mayo. As a premedical student please think upon these words from Michael Collins, MD:

We start here, and we go there. But it's not that simple, is it? Our paths may be circuitous or direct. We may gaze excitedly ahead, or cast our eyes regretfully behind. Until we reach our destination it exists only in our minds. It is what we have imagined it to be. And yet we tend to neglect the journey, which is real, in favor of the destination, which is not.

For too long I neglected this journey. It was an obstacle to be overcome, an ordeal to be endured; for I had never chosen the journey, I had chosen the destination. But now that the journey has ended, I have discovered that here isn't so important after all. I find myself looking back with particular fondness for how I got here.