Skip to main content

Humans of Surgery

humans-of-surgery.png

What's it like to be an administrative assistant when your whole job revolves around trying to get insurance companies to pay for surgery? What's it like to be an African American surgical resident in a field where black men are scarce? What's it like to finally achieve your professional goals and then struggle to get pregnant?


In the summer of 2017, the UC San Diego Department of Surgery began an unusual project — to interview and photograph staff, faculty and trainees in the Department of Surgery and capture the oft-untold stories of what it is like to work in surgery. Drawing inspiration from the popular Humans of New York social media posts, these Instagram posts became Humans of Surgery.

Today, we are pleased to share Humans of Surgery — the book — a compilation that sheds light on some of the private hopes, struggles, and ambiguities of working in medicine, through the stories of people in the Department of Surgery at UC San Diego.

View Humans of Surgery (PDF)