Actually having been one me and many of my colleagues disagree. The pinnacle of our physical performance was our final year of residency. Our judgement and knowledge improve with time but not our physical performance.
Juiced on caffeine we don't shake or we would never drink caffeine. Many of us eschewed it. We worked under magnification.
As for too tired, our movements were reduced to a precision dorsal horn reflex, that was the point of the brutal hours. Enjoy weekends? We knew we would retire early, surgery is for the young.
That is precisely what I look for in a surgeon if I'm lucky enough to choose and this time I am. You see in trauma there is no choice, your ambulance or life flight is directed to the appropriate resident, with an open OR, by your MICN (god bless those RNs). So both my son and dog will get the best chance. Hopefully they'll both be lucky. In the final analysis lucky is always better than good.
