Transplant surgeon formation: vocation, incentives, between old and new surgeon generations

The training of the transplant surgeon is one of the most difficult paths in medicine. The transplant surgeon must be trained as a general and a vascular surgeon; he has to be skilled and upgraded in transplant surgical technique; he has to decide the suitability of the donor and of the organs as well as the immunosuppressive therapy for each recipient; he must know the intensive care unit, hepatology, and nephrology. The transplant surgeon has to deal with surgical, infectious, and metabolic complications after organ transplantation. Thus, clinical formation of the transplant surgeon is multifactorial and always upgraded. However, transplants never happen in the morning; retrivals are more likely to be in the night (especially the holidays ones). "Weekend" is a word not frequently used by transplant surgeons. Moreover, when the transplant procedure happens, the normal activity of the ward and of the outpatient clinic were have to be done. The transplant surgeon must have a sort of "vocation" for such a job. Organ harvesting setting is a good proof of adaptability, always during nighttime, often in small hospitals with operating room nurses unfamiliar with the procedure, sometimes waiting for some colleagues or delaying the surgery. This vocation is enhanced by enthusiasm, but incentives are necessary to feed this love. Incentives should be professional and economic; transplant surgeons should be allowed to make clinical decisions, to choose the surgical technique of transplantation, to control the decision process. Lastly, due to the "total on call," the surgeon should profit from a right salary avoiding extramural activities.