Orthopedic Surgeon - Dr. Dave Ivance

Dr. Dave Ivance is a practicing orthopedic surgeon writing to us from Owatonna, MN.

I am an orthopedic surgeon. Half of my time is spent in surgery and half seeing patients in the office. I work about 50 hours a week. Call for me is different than most surgeons. I am on call every other day during the week – twice a week and every other Friday. So I am not on call the weekends. But if a fracture comes in on the weekends that needs to be fixed either my partner or I will usually go in and fix it. No holiday call either. I work for Mayo – specifically Mayo Clinic Health System Owatonna. Orthopedics is working with bone and joint problems and some other musculoskeletal problems. I fix many different fractures, do hip and knee replacement, fix rotator cuff tears in the shoulder, knee scopes, carpal tunnel release surgery etc. If I don’t know how to treat a certain problem, then I will call someone who has more experience in that area and ask them or send the person to them. My residency was five years. Many long days. Lots to learn. Hard work. Sometimes stressful but fun at the same time. You do sacrifice some of your personal life during residency. But in practice you can make things how you want it. You don’t have to work real long hours all the time. Some of that depends on where you choose to work. Most of family life and work life is how you choose to make it. Working less hours means making less money but would be better for your family.

I wanted to be doctor ever since grade school. My father was an orthopedic surgeon, so that influenced me. I knew what to expect as I went to work with my dad many times as a kid and knew what the lifestyle was like. No regrets about going into medicine. It’s a great profession. My advice is to take a wide variety of rotations during medical school to see what you might lie to go into. Also you may never get a chance to see those specialties again. Ask a lot of questions on your rotations. More than just the book stuff. Ask about their practice and things they like and don’t like about it. Traits I want in someone joining my practice are the same as for any job. Hard worker, reliable, easy to get along with, fun to be with, team player, honest, caring etc.

#RuralMedicine #Orthopedics #Surgery