Orthopaedic doctors or surgeons are professionals who specialize in treating the musculoskeletal system including muscles, tendons, ligaments, joints, and bones. This system is vital for everyday work and movement.
With more than 200 bones in the body, orthopaedics is a valuable specialty. Orthopaedic doctors help in the treatment of issues like arthritis, back or hip pain, dislocated joints, tendonitis etc. Because of the vastness of this field, most orthopaedic doctors sub-specialize, focusing on a specific area of treatment. Thus, there is the subspecialty of orthopaedic hand specialists.
Hand and wrist specialists attend to pathologies and injuries of the hand and wrist. They diagnose, treat, and prevent orthopaedic hand and wrist problems with precision.
Training
There are orthopaedic specialists who have trained locally in Australia and have devoted their careers to offer the best treatment and service to all patients. However, the path to becoming an orthopaedic surgeon is long and involves much dedication and sacrifice.
The first step is a medical school that is typically 4 to 6 years based on the university attended. In this stage, one learns the foundations of becoming a doctor and discovers their special interest in a particular field of medicine. For instance, a medical student may develop an interest in orthopaedic surgery.
After completing medical school, all new doctors must complete 2 years of general training as interns and residents, where they have the responsibility of taking care of patients daily, ordering tests, and gaining experience in the arena of emergency medicine, general medicine and surgery. In this residency, the junior doctors will serve various hospital posts, rotating every 10 to 12 weeks.
After completion of residency and internship, doctors function as unaccredited registrars who are not yet accredited by the AOA / RACS (Australian Orthopaedic Association / Royal Australasian College of Surgeons). In the role as an unaccredited registrar, doctors gain valuable experience in the foundations of treatment of a wide range of orthopaedic issues.
During this period, registrars can work long hours, up to 80 hours per week. They also train in surgical treatment, and move between hospitals belonging to various health districts on an annual basis to gain a wide range of training experience.
It is quite competitive to gain acceptance to orthopaedic training in Australia. It typically takes 4 to 6 years after graduation from medical school to gain sufficient experience and pre-training to be accepted into the program. The yearly intake of candidates across Australia is between 30 to 50 doctors.
Once they are admitted to an orthopaedic training program, registrars progress through training posts every 6-12 months. This amounts to a 5-year training program in which there is intense surgical and clinical training. The registrar who is accredited will typically move locations on a 6 monthly basis and gain experience in all facets of orthopaedic surgery. These include paediatric orthopaedics, tumour, ankle & foot, elbow & shoulder, arthroplasty, hand surgery, spine, knee and hip and trauma.
Accredited registrars typically work 80 hours a week. They maintain a surgical logbook. The majority of accredited registrars will have taken part in over 4000 surgeries by the culmination of training. There is a final exam (both clinical and written) for which registrars study for one year in preparation, even as they work a busy full time position.
Lastly, following completion of orthopaedic training in Australia, orthopaedic surgeons will pursue fellowships in their chosen sub-specialty areas. Such fellowship is extra training taken independently and lasts for 1 to 2 years. Thus, the journey to be an orthopaedic hand doctor takes nearly 10 to 15 years.
As an orthopaedic hand specialist, one needs the following main qualifications for membership in the Australian Hand Surgery Society:
- FRACS (Ortho or Plastics) or equivalent.
- Registration as a surgical specialist in Australia.
- Training in hand surgery.
- Minimum of 2 years surgical experience post-fellowship, in hand surgery.
- Document of experience in hand surgery.
- Summary of logbook experience.
In summary, this is the long and arduous path to become an orthopaedic hand specialist, but once you get there, the reward of seeing people improve under your care is well worth the effort!
