I’m currently interested in pursuing surgery and have been trying to get involved in projects during my SSC period. I contacted both a vascular surgeon and a colorectal surgeon asking whether I could do a project under their specialties. Both initially said they would be happy to supervise me and mentioned the possibility of publishing my audit findings. However, when I later tried to discuss project ideas and next steps, both completely stopped replying.
I eventually found an ENT surgeon to work with. He told me it should be possible to expand the project by collecting more data from different health boards and potentially publish a paper from it. I completed the project and even made a poster presentation from the work. I emailed him saying I was interested in continuing the project and collecting more data, but he also stopped responding.
I genuinely do understand that consultants are extremely busy, and I would completely respect it if someone simply said they did not have the time or capacity to supervise further work. What I find difficult is when people make promises or encourage you to pursue something, only to disappear afterward without any communication. As a medical student, it is honestly quite discouraging and feels unprofessional.
Has anyone else had similar experiences?