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Ann Thorac Surg 2002;74:3-12
© 2002 The Society of Thoracic Surgeons

Presidential address

Unity and participation: embracing counterintuitive survival skills

Mark B. Orringer, MD*a

a University of Michigan Medical Center, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA

* Address reprint requests to Dr Orringer, General Thoracic Surgery, University of Michigan Medical Center, 1500 E. Medical Center Drive, 2120 Taubman Center, Box 0344, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA
e-mail: morrin@umich.edu

Presented at the Thirty-eighth Annual Meeting of The Society of Thoracic Surgeons, Fort Lauderdale, FL, Jan 28–30, 2002.

The first 300 words of the full text of this article appear below.


   Introduction
 

The insight one gains at the helm of this dynamic organization is enormous. The Society of Thoracic Surgeons has been aptly characterized "the face of our specialty" in this country and throughout the world. The topic of this address reflects what I believe is among the most critical tasks before us: greater unity within the specialty and more active participation by each of us in the organizational, socioeconomic, and political issues facing us. Unfortunately, for a variety of reasons to which we can all relate, such unity and participation are not intuitive to cardiothoracic surgeons, and embracing these survival skills is an enormous challenge.

In recent months, we have witnessed the United States military relentlessly pursuing the Taliban and Al Qaeda in the war against terrorism. There is an analogy between the armed forces and cardiothoracic surgeons. We are the Special Forces of the medical profession; tough, hardened, dedicated, competitive—absolutely committed to winning for our patients (Fig 1). But in the new millennium, how our traditional thoracic surgical culture has been transmitted during our long years of residency, and how we learn as residents to respond to external stresses, may not be serving us well.


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  		Fig 1. The modern cardiothoracic surgeon-the "Special Forces" of the surgical profession—resplendent with headlight, syringe, cardiac cannula, scalpel, sternal saw and vascular clamp: tough, hardened, dedicated, and competitive.

 
After 7–9 years of residency, we have mastered the "foxhole mentality"; we have learned to dig in and keep our heads down until the "noise" overhead has passed (Fig 2). Every rotation has its end, and harsh, unappreciative faculty are left behind; and if one can just "suck it up" and "tough it out," this too shall pass. An outstanding recent graduate of our Michigan Thoracic Surgery Residency completed his general surgery residency at one of the . . . [Full Text of this Article]




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