Money, Lifestyle, or Prestige???

[NaughtyGirl]

Every medical specialty is missing one of the BIG three. Money, lifestyle, or prestige.

For example.

Dermatology has Lifestyle, some money, but zero prestige.
Radiology has money, some lifestyle, but zero prestige.
Surgery has Prestige, some money, but zero lifestyle.
Internal medicine has no prestige, no money, and no lifestyle.


If you had to rank. Money, lifestyle, and Prestige. How would it go?

Would you rather make $500,000+ with zero prestige and zero free time. Or make $150,000+ M-F with no call.

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[NaughtyGirl]

What complicates the matter even more is that fact that there is an inverse relationship between highly litigenous specialties and salary.

Ever notice that the physicians that make the most money such as radiologists and orthopedic physicians are in the top three in terms of lawsuits?

Also, what about the fact the happiest physicians in every study are the pediatricians, ID physicians, and PMR physicians. These physicians are in the low end.


Money does not equal happiness.

 

[spicedmanna]

You forgot the most important quality of a specialty: how much you enjoy doing it. For instance, you couldn't pay me enough to be a pathologist or radiologist. Yet, at this point in the game, I'd be perfectly happy doing FP for $150K per year, M-F, with no call, because I enjoy it.

 

[Dwindlin]

You forgot the most important quality of a specialty: how much you enjoy doing it. For instance, you couldn't pay me enough to be a pathologist or radiologist. Yet, at this point in the game, I'd be perfectly happy doing FP for $150K per year, M-F, with no call, because I enjoy it.

 

[surag]

this thread needs to be moved. moderator please move to pre allo.

this is an annoying thread that has come up time and time again. seriously...if you do a simple search, its like a 100 of these.

even if you want to do one now because its modern or because its recent it'll reflect the same old same old. someone talks about money prestige someone says that what you like is more important. lifestyle is another one. bla bla bla

 

[studentologist]

Public-portrayed sexiness of a specialty, or prestige, probably won't influence how much I enjoy a specialty.

 

[ShyRem]

I'd rather be happy without any of the three than any of those three without happiness. Money doesn't mean much if you're not happy.

 

[WellWornLad]

Ridiculous.

 

[Blesbok]

Orthopaedics.

Fun as crap
Decent lifestyle compared to gen surg
Prestigious
Good money

 

[FlowRate]

Lifestyle,
Money,
Prestige

Being a doctor is enough prestige as is, but I'd rather enjoy my life (including my specialty) and make enough money to enjoy that life. Being a neurosurgeon would not interest me based on prestige itself.

 

[Janovec]

Lifestyle is the only thing worth considering of the three. Everyone would like more money but working 80 to 100 hour weeks tends to put things in perspective really quickly. I'd much prefer more free time, even if it means I earn less.

Of course, none of those three compare to actually liking what you do. No amount of money is going to make you like looking at rashes if you hate derm or staring into eyes if you hate ophthal. You need to do something that you genuinely like or it will always feel like torture.

 

[Saluki]

I think dermatology has plenty of prestige....

 

[Ableton]

I think dermatology has plenty of prestige....

Probably only within the medical community. But to the average person, cutting people open is seen as a lot more prestigious than popping pimples.

 

[Saluki]

Probably only within the medical community. But to the average person, cutting people open is seen as a lot more prestigious than popping pimples.

I guess so, but outside of the medical community, isn't being a doctor enough prestige?

 

[Captain Fantastic]

Lifestyle is the only thing worth considering of the three. Everyone would like more money but working 80 to 100 hour weeks tends to put things in perspective really quickly. I'd much prefer more free time, even if it means I earn less.

Of course, none of those three compare to actually liking what you do. No amount of money is going to make you like looking at rashes if you hate derm or staring into eyes if you hate ophthal. You need to do something that you genuinely like or it will always feel like torture.

Tru dat!

 

[Doctor Thriller]

I agree with do what you enjoy the most and you will never work a day in your life. However, if you care what others think of you that much and want all three (money, lifestyle, prestige) I would say being an ophthalmologist would come closest.

 

[ILikeFood]

I got into the med school business to get free food from pharm reps.

 

[bcat85]

You forgot the most important quality of a specialty: how much you enjoy doing it. For instance, you couldn't pay me enough to be a pathologist or radiologist. Yet, at this point in the game, I'd be perfectly happy doing FP for $150K per year, M-F, with no call, because I enjoy it.

Well said, pick what you like and think you can handle the lifestyle of.

 

[EBI831]

i second moving this to pre-allo b/c its rather naive. first off, i find fault in saying that internal medicine has no money, no lifestyle and no prestige. uhhh what about cards and GI....lots of money and prestige. And, the greatest error is to talk about medicine as a whole and surgery as a whole. General sugery has no prestige to some people and the money and lifestyle aren't so great either. A person can be revered in any field based on how great they are and how much they've achieved. Lifestyle...you can be an ENT and live worse than a family med doc etc who lives in somewhere with low living costs and works a few days a week....lifestyle is relative. As for money, once again with enough motivation in a lot of fields you can make good money...I've seen ads for doctors in the NEJM etc that advertise heme-onc and GI and cards salaries that are way higher than ENT, ortho, and derm. Basically, it's all relative.

 

[turkeyjerky]

I guess so, but outside of the medical community, isn't being a doctor enough prestige?

Most people in the same tax bracket look down at doctors as trained monkeys. Most people in a lower bracket think doctors are overpaid trained monkeys.



Physicians do have a lot of prestige among one demographic, though: pre-med's!

 

[reedman]

$150,000+ M-F with no call.

I have other interests besides medicine, and that is more than enough money for me.

 

[Howard7]

couple points...the lay people consider surgery and ER docs as the most prestigiuos. Derm by the laypeople are not consideredprestigious. Ortho is good but malpractice is only 2nd worse to Ob. Plus lifestyle is not so great. Most trauma includes broken bones. Most bang fir medical education loans is radiology but it probably has the worst prestige of them all. People say choose what you like but that is rather naive. you can never truly know until you are a resident or intern in that specialty with responsibility. As for Cards and GI. Yes Cards has prestige and money but lifestyle is worse than surgery out of residency. Bottomline, it is a mattter if lyck for most of us if we find the best soecialty for US. We all have weaknesses. Pick a specialty that you enjoy reading the literature and fills that void for yourself ie money prestige or lifestyle.

 

[Dral]

If you tell someone you're derm versus surgery...surgery invokes more prestige. However, every other commercial you see in mags and on TV has the 'Dermatologist recommended' or 'Top dermatologists say...'

That goes a long way, despite the obvious point the the field is being commercialized.

Short of polling the general population about their perceptions, and combining that with avg salary per hour worked, it's really just a subjective choice...the choice being what makes gets you up in the morning (or keeps you up all night long). That sounds sordid, lol.

 

[mediocriskid]

who cares. if you're doing medicine for the possibility of a comfortable lifestyle or to stroke a fragile ego- you're in it for the wrong reasons. I always shake my head when i see a classmate use the "I'm a med student pick up line" (i'm assuming to insinuate that hooking up with them could be lucrative or a silent admission that they have no life) or even how some of them interact with people at school. seriously saying hello to someone won't hurt.

 

[MilkmanAl]

I don't see anything wrong with doing medicine for a good lifestyle aside from the fact that it's a very inconvenient way to achieve that goal. You're guaranteed a good salary, so if you can swing decent hours, you're set.

As for the original question, I'd rather have all 3.

 

[ronmillsey]

Every medical specialty is missing one of the BIG three. Money, lifestyle, or prestige.

For example.

Dermatology has Lifestyle, some money, but zero prestige.
Radiology has money, some lifestyle, but zero prestige.
Surgery has Prestige, some money, but zero lifestyle.
Internal medicine has no prestige, no money, and no lifestyle.


If you had to rank. Money, lifestyle, and Prestige. How would it go?

Would you rather make $500,000+ with zero prestige and zero free time. Or make $150,000+ M-F with no call.

and my response is... i like you're name

 

[RGMSU]

If you're entering medicine for money, lifestyle, or prestige, you will probably be disappointed when you see the reality versus the trumped-up TV version of being a physician. There aren't a whole lot of FM jobs that are no call - there are a few outpatient only jobs out there, but not as common as traditional inpatient/outpatient mix. If you do accept inpatient assigment, you will get paged over and over every time one of yours shows up to the ER. It's usually pretty hard work for 150k a year. Internal medicine has no money? Have you ever heard of cardiologists? Ditto the dude who said choose a specialty because you're willing to do it every day for the rest of your life. More likely than not, you will find that medical school, residency, and actual practice consume way more of your life than you think it will. If you're looking for money, lifestyle, or prestige get into dentistry, law, business, etc. If you want to work like crazy to serve your patients, get into med. That's the way it really is, all the unrealistic posts on here aside. Most of you folks who think 150k a year is appropriate compensation for a physician probably haven't ever tried to pay any loans back or run a household with serious expenses (eg, more than one person in it). 150k doesn't last long under these conditions - trust me. Prestige is a joke, a travesty. What is prestigious to one is junk to another. Lifestyle in medicine is a fallacy. By the time you get through with medical school and residency, you won't remember what having a normal life was like. Getting into med for money is crazy. Medicare is about to go broke, and we're about to all be working exclusively for either insurance companies or the government, neither of which pay more than they absolutely have to. Orthopedics has a decent lifestyle - is that another joke on here? They get paged for every car accident in town all night long.

 

[Howard7]

Completely disagree with RGMSU. The medical landscape has changed. With the incredible emergence of Hospitalists taking admissions from the ED physicians and the studies that show hospitalists are more cost effective (i.e. hospitals are a business model) by increasing patient turn around time out of the hospital.

Therefore the days of inpatient and outpatient primary care is DONE. You can become a hospitalist via family medicine or internal medicine or you become an outpatient specialist.

There is a strict dichotomy now.

Furthermore, the outpatient family medicine folks do not have call that require coming in for admissions. The call that they do have are phone call for "sniffles", "fever" etc. Thus the decision point is whether to send the patient to the ER. These phone consultation calls depend on size of the group.

Bottomline, there are many outpatient family medicine practices because of the emergence of the hospitalists. Of course, a good doctor will still come to the hospital to see his/her patients.

Outpatient medicine is now a lifestyle specialty. The only downside are the paperwork. But you can hire a nurse or a pa to do that for you.

 

[RGMSU]

Well, we're not really disagreeing, because I said that the exception was outpatient jobs. However, in the region where I am, inpatient/outpatient mix for both internists and FPs is still the norm rather than the exception, so I wouldn't say that the mixed practice is "done" just yet. In Texas, you can search physician employment options in FP and find about 1 or 2 out of 50 that is outpatient only. You can find more internist positions that are hospitalist only in the same geographic region, maybe 1 out of 2.

 

[FatPigeon]

Imaging cardiologists have all three...

 

[Janovec]

By the way, y'all know that we can't measure prestige right? It's one of those eye in the beholder things. Just because I think Dermatology is the isht doesn't mean that the rest of the world thinks so.

 

[RGMSU]

What's hot today isn't necessarily hot tomorrow. Thirty years ago anesthesiology was not considered nearly as desirable as it is today. Getting into a specialty because it seems to be the best thing since peach cobbler now doesn't mean it will be later in your career. Very shallow way to choose a specialty.

 

[Dr McSteamy]

i rank it-

#1 money- enough to provide for #2 lifestyle

I can give 2 ****s about prestige. I'm not here to impress anyone.

 

[MOHS_01]

Silly rabbits...

Money cannot come sans the sacrifice of lifestyle. Prestige is a difficult outcome to measure... but one could use envy as a proxy; in which case it is ******ed to assume that derm has no prestige as everyone is apparently envious. Derm actually affords better "prestige" than it does lifestyle or money; as a high throughput specialty that actually requires interaction with often crazy patients in order to generate the revenues required to enjoy "the big bucks", the lifestyle is not all that fun. Call can be managed in most specialties if that is an important aspect for anyone.

 

[DOCTORSAIB]

I agree with do what you enjoy the most and you will never work a day in your life. However, if you care what others think of you that much and want all three (money, lifestyle, prestige) I would say being an ophthalmologist would come closest.

 

[GH253]

I hate doctors who don't want to work. This is a career for careerists. I'm most interested in radiology, but ironically, the biggest turnoff is the supposed "lifestyle." I'd rather work 60-80 hour weeks.

 

[Dr McSteamy]

Silly rabbits...

Money cannot come sans the sacrifice of lifestyle. Prestige is a difficult outcome to measure... but one could use envy as a proxy; in which case it is ******ed to assume that derm has no prestige as everyone is apparently envious. Derm actually affords better "prestige" than it does lifestyle or money; as a high throughput specialty that actually requires interaction with often crazy patients in order to generate the revenues required to enjoy "the big bucks", the lifestyle is not all that fun. Call can be managed in most specialties if that is an important aspect for anyone.

i think i can have a pretty good lifestyle with $150,000 net pay, working 9 to 5 ?

of course, not in california though

 

[MOHS_01]

I hate doctors who don't want to work. This is a career for careerists. I'm most interested in radiology, but ironically, the biggest turnoff is the supposed "lifestyle." I'd rather work 60-80 hour weeks.

I work 60-80hrs/week, no **** -- and I have a "lifestyle" specialty....

 

[MOHS_01]

i think i can have a pretty good lifestyle with $150,000 net pay, working 9 to 5 ?

of course, not in california though

Sure you can... but you may find yourself surprised to learn that 150K does not go as far as one would think, especially if you have much in the way of student loans. Now if you mean 150k after taxes, then that changes things a little... but still don't plan on feeling "well off" if you have a grand or more a month in student loans and children to raise.

 

[RGMSU]

I hate doctors who don't want to work. This is a career for careerists. I'm most interested in radiology, but ironically, the biggest turnoff is the supposed "lifestyle." I'd rather work 60-80 hour weeks.

You might change your mind when you're fifty and still working 60-80 hour weeks, especially if you're not getting paid what you expected. Do you realize that 80 hours a week is almost 12 hours a day for 7 days a week? That gets old fast, bud, let me tell you.

 

[gluon999]

I hate doctors who don't want to work. This is a career for careerists. I'm most interested in radiology, but ironically, the biggest turnoff is the supposed "lifestyle." I'd rather work 60-80 hour weeks.

Biggest turnoff is lifestyle? haha, are you a pre-med?? The avg. rads works 57-58 hours a week. Trust me, by the time you are done with medical school and residency, the last thing you will want to do is work 60-80 hours a week.

 

[Stence51]

If you would be content with working 80 hour weeks then consider yourself a rare exception, because I think I'm correct in saying that an ever-growing majority greatly value having a decent lifestyle. 80 hours weeks will make it impossible to be any more than a negligent parent and spouse, so enjoy being lonely.

 

[resident108]

I hate doctors who don't want to work. This is a career for careerists. I'm most interested in radiology, but ironically, the biggest turnoff is the supposed "lifestyle." I'd rather work 60-80 hour weeks.

hah. you must still be a medical student.

 

[GH253]

I wouldn't let the OP touch me with a 10-foot pole.