And yet, when I graduated med school, I could do basic stitches and things like a low-level excisional biopsy. I got better at this in residency (I'm a family d

And yet, when I graduated med school, I could do basic stitches and things like a low-level excisional biopsy. I got better at this in residency (I'm a family doc by training, and we have some surgical training), but we had to have those skills before we graduated. Every single student did, from radiologists to psychiatrists, and I even had a little sign off book for that purpose. If you're in a surgical residency and you can't do the basic tasks like suture a wound before you become a surgical intern, you're in trouble, because your first night on call you're going to be doing one. This guy isn't really exaggerating that this is a problem. Residency hones your skills; it doesn't build them.