What is a Trauma Surgeon?
Surgeons are physicians who specialize in treating injuries, deformities and disease by using invasive procedures. Trauma Surgeons treat critically injured patients who arrive in the hospital emergency room at a designated regional trauma center. They must work quickly and efficiently to save the patient’s life. Trauma Surgeons use all of the sciences and mathematics to evaluate a patient’s situation and provide treatment. They use surgical instruments and high tech equipment to do their job. Communication skills are very important to coordinate and direct the trauma team. They also need to be able to speak to family members about their loved ones who are traumatically injured. Trauma surgeons work long, irregular hours.
Real People Profile
| Name: | Dr. Raymond P. Bynoe |
| Workplace: | Palmetto Health Richland |
| Education: | Doctor of medicine, Medical University of South Carolina |
| Favorite Subject(s) in School: |
Chemistry |
| First Real Job: | Surgery resident |
| Dream Job: | Baseball player |
| Interests: | Fishing |
Real People Q&A
Advice for students interested in my job:
Follow through with your dreams. Do not let anyone discourage you from becoming a physician.
What subjects in school will students need to do my job?
Chemistry, biology, mathematics
What I like most about my job?
The biggest thing is the healing process that goes on with individuals. In the course of the day-to-day activities we try to get people well. I guess that's the best thing. People get better. First thing they say to you when they leave the hospital or when they see you in the office is thank you and that makes it all worthwhile. When someone says thank you for taking care of me, you feel good about yourself and what you try to accomplish in life. It's that life issue. Communicating with the families and the patients. That's the most important thing. Get people well. Seeing them smile and seeing the families smile. Some days we don't do that. We're not able to do that and some people die. That's probably the saddest part of the job. Some people think that if somebody died, you actually get used to that, but you never do. It's always a failure from our perspective. You wonder, what could I have done differently and 99 percent of the time there isn't something that you could have done differently, but you just look for ways to help them get better and help them get out of the hospital.
What is the biggest challenge in my job?
The biggest challenge is trying to get people interested in medicine. For me, that's the key, to get younger folks interested in going into medicine. Not all to be doctors but in some form of the medical field. The second challenge is to get younger kids to understand that as you go through life that there's some things that we can do to prevent you from seeing me at two o'clock in the morning or at midnight because of some traumatic event. The third challenge is talking to the families of those individuals who did not make it through that traumatic event. That's difficult. Many days I'll go home and hug my kids and they'll say, "Why are you hugging me daddy?" and it's because of the fact that I'm just glad you're here. You never know when that time might come and you will be traumatically injured and someone won't be able to take care of you. Trying to balance my life, my professional life and my family life, that's probably the fourth biggest thing. Keeping all that in perspective.
How do you get a job like mine?
Never let anyone stop your dream. That's number one. If you dream that you want to do something, that's what you need to do. This was a dream of mine that came about when my mother was sick and ill. I didn't want to see other people suffer so this was my dream, and there were many folks that kept encouraging me to follow through with my dream. There were folks that told me, "I don't think you should do that. I don't think you can do that," but it was in my own heart that I wanted to do this. Don't ever let anyone discourage you from doing something that you want to do. It's hard work but everything in life is hard work. Make sure you find folks that give you positive reinforcement. Watch out for the potholes in life and keep working hard.
