If you’re interested to know who makes the most in the healthcare industry, then look up the brain surgeon salary on the internet. These doctors get the highest financial remuneration among all the other specializations.
Without a doubt, the field of neurosurgery is both demanding and stressful. A neurosurgeon should always be precise in his surgeries because one small twitch can cause debilitating damage to the patient’s brain. That’s why they are rewarded handsomely because the work they do is not easy and the inherent risks are high.
How to Become a Neurosurgeon
If you’re interested to become a brain surgeon, you need to be able to accomplish these steps:
- Earn a Bachelors degree — preferably a pre-medical degree like BS Medical Technology. Make sure your Grade Point Average (GPA) does not fall below 3.5.
- Take the Medical College Admission Test, or MCAT, and do well on it.
- Enter Medical School. You need to show you did well with your undergraduate studies and with your MCAT scores. The more prestigious medical schools are very selective and demand a high GPA and MCAT score.
- Earn your Doctor of Medicine degree. You will now have the “M.D.” suffix affixed to your name.
- Take more certification exams like the FSMB and the NBME certification. The FSMB stands for Federal State Medical Board, while the NBME stands for National Board of Medical Examiners. You need to pass both exams to be able to practice medicine in your state and in the country.
- Apply for an internship in a neurology department of a hospital.
- After completing your internship in2 years, you will proceed with becoming a resident doctor. Residency in most hospitals may take up to 8 years.
- You become a Neurosurgeon once you complete residency requirements and you pass the Neurosurgeon licensing exam administered by the State.
What a Neurosurgeon Does
A Neurosurgeon first evaluates and runs diagnostic tests on a patient. He needs to be able to accurately pinpoint the root cause of the disease by checking the symptoms and the test results. Being a surgeon, he can treat the disease by performing invasive methods such as open-brain surgery. If the disease is not severe, the neurosurgeon may opt for less aggressive treatments like therapy or medication.
The common diseases treated by a Neurosurgeon are: brain tumors, head trauma, neurovascular diseases, cranial base diseases, Pituitary tumors and other neurologic disorders. And not only does the neurosurgeon operate on the brain, he also does surgery on the spinal cord, the veins and the nerves.
For a Neurosurgeon to be successful, he has to have sharp analytical and problem solving skills. He also needs to develop people skills because he will be treating patients with serious diseases. Furthermore, the neurosurgeon should have nerves of steel and a steady hand. Brain surgery is a very delicate procedure. The surgeon should be able to deal with all the stress while making pin-point accurate incisions.
Neurosurgeon Salary and Career Outlook
To become a neurosurgeon, you have to invest a lot of time and resources. Medical school can get expensive, plus you need to buy several medical text books and medical equipment. The bad news is that Neurosurgeons don’t make a lot of money at first. Entry level brain surgeons earn $43,000 annually. This amount is small when you consider the investment for medical school alone.
But the good news is there is great potential to earn bigger once a Neurosurgeon gain more experience. For a brain surgeon who passed the licensing exam and has at least 6-8 years of experience, their annual pay jumps up to more than $106,000 a year. For the truly in-demand neurosurgeons, they can earn up to $730,000 annually. There are even reports of Neurosurgeons making up to $1,050,000 a year.
The field is expected to grow 28% to 2020 (according to the National Labor Statistics). This growth is fueled by the growing healthcare industry. It is not surprising that with all the demands and the degree of difficulty the job entails, the brain surgeon salary is very high.
If you’re considering a career in Neurosurgery, expect to go through a lot of hurdles in medical school and in your residency training. But once you become a full-fledged brain surgeon, you get the chance to earn a lot of money while doing a very interesting job.
Do you like this article? This article is shared by CollegeRag.net — the central hub of information about college, courses and programs, scholarships, career, and everything about the life of a college student.