Yes, family practice can be harder than people think. I mean cardiology just deals with the heart. OMG how boring
Never know what is going to walk in the door: you have to know your medicine, your gen surgery, your ortho, your endocrine, your derm, your neuro, your cardio, EM, Peds, (OB if you want). Know what is urgent, emergent, or can wait. Plus the versatility can't be beat and you can practice how you want.
So funny when I was on nephrology in residency (now those guys are wicked smart in what they do) the guy was like, "what's the heart? A pump, nothing more. Now the kidney is just perfection".
I hear you. At the same time, I love cardiology stuff, just b/c as a nurse I have worked with it and loved it--save the politics that abound in both adult and pediatric world of cards. But even in recovering, thankfully, the majority of OHS pts--even in the critical post-op hours, it can get pretty boring--and then you find yourself wanting those poor train-wreck post-ops--and then you get burnt from dealing with them and you want a break back to the straight up easy, titrate gtts down, wean from vent, etc patients. I think that is why I liked actually working more with kids in this way. Much more unpredictability and much less assembly line--get them in and move them out. Yea, mostly, cardiac defect kids don't work that way--even with some simple stuff they can do in the cath lab. Tricky little guys. That keeps you on your toes. Plus, yea. Peds kids many times have genetic issues affecting other systems--and cards ends up being only one factor.
Nephro. OMG, one of the coolest docs (female too--mattered to me as a role model) was this awesome nephrology physician I worked with a long time ago. I mean she was incredible--and she loved to teach. If I knew where she was today, I'd jump to shadow with her, just b/c of her knowledge and her caring and overall skills as a physician. It's been so long since I worked with her, I wouldn't know where to start to find her--b/c first I'd have to rack my brain remembering her name. She also moved like nobody's business--and was a whirlwind to keep up with--so when she came through the units--it was all patient-focus. She was very personable, but so busy, she really didn't have a lot of time to shoot the breeze with anyone. She was on staff at several hospitals and was always crazy--crazy like many surgeons--busy. Now I will be trying to remember her name for the rest of the day.
And people underestimate how hard GI stuff can be. I mean there is so much there, and you really have to look at so much stuff many times--beyond the straight GERD. Easy to get confused about what's what with certain patients. A great GI physician is literally worth his/her weight in gold and then some. But I say this, b/c in ICUs, my exposure has been a lot with the sickest of sick patients.
OB/GYN wouldn't be bad, but those docs don't get much of a break well past residency and beyond--maybe a few years before they retire, they go PT and/or only see GYN patients--but their life is not at all what I would call a "lifestyle" field of medicine. It's actually interesting--and those that combine endocrine with it--some of those people are geniuses in my book.
In nursing clinical rotations, years ago, I loved all of it, and did my best to get as much out of each area as possible. Of course you really don't learn a heck of a lot, comparatively speaking, until you graduate and move into FT clinical work.
Although I am pretty well set on PC, I plan on sucking all I can out of each rotation if I get accepted into MS. (I know pe0ple tell me not to be set on PC, but I have my reasons.) My biggest concern is actually in having a good percentage of peds cases. That's what is troubling me about FM--even in many rural areas.
