any regrets?

[abcxyz0123]

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I was just wondering if anybody in here has regretted choosing EM, or even choosing medical school in the first place. I looked at a similar thread under "general residency issues", and the posts are pretty depressing. Am I just happening to read the opinions of residents who expected way too much before med school? Are they the type of people who could never be satisfied in the first place?

 

[NinerNiner999]

The BEST suggestion I can give you is to honestly (and I mean honestly) follow each intern around during your third year clerkships. Work the same hours, witness the same interactions, and try to make yourself their complete shadow. Then, imagine 10 times the workload and an insurmountable number of pages.

I guess my point is that there is no way to ever compare anything you learn in school with what its like to practice. The unfortunate thing is that by the time you REALLY experience what you signed up for, you are already done with school and carrying 100K plus in debt. I can' speak for life after residency, but this field is no joke - and very time consuming.

Would I do it again? In a heartbeat.

 

[jannakins]

I am not super qualified to be answering the question of choosing EM again since I will starting my intern year in June, but let me just say that every day during my recent internal medicine sub-internship I was thanking God for emergency medicine! The 5 hours of rounding, the painful admissions, call...knowing that I was going to be an EM doc at the end of residency helped me get through the day. 😍

j'kins

 

[USCDiver]

Those rotations..Medicine, MICU, Cards, etc are what we call 'Career Affirming Rotations"

 

[WilcoWorld]

It is my sincere opinion that no one in his or her right mind would go into medicine...fortunately for me I'm a bit crazy.

From a pragmatic perspective medicine is probably a bad choice, but there is a lot more to my happieness then what can be rationally weighed on either side of a pro vs. con list. When I was doing my EM rotations I frequently would laugh out loud to myself in delight at how lucky I am to be able to have a job that I truly enjoy doing. Admitedly, I don't start really doing medicine for another month & a half, and I may be singing a different tune halfway through internship or at around 40 years of age, but I doubt it, and I'm usually quite good at predicting worst case scenarios.

 

[southerndoc]

Those rotations..Medicine, MICU, Cards, etc are what we call 'Career Affirming Rotations"

Amen brother!

 

[waterski232002]

I come from a little different perspective in the EM world. I actually liked my medicine rotation and ICU months. On the other hand, I agree with WilcoWorld that I am still amazed that I will eventually get paid >200k to practice medicine. I too, found myself laughing in the hospital at how lucky I am to just see patients and write notes and orders. The aspect I hate most about medicine is worrying about insurance reimbursement, billing, and the other business aspects of care. Thank god I'm in EM where it is greatly minimized. I get paid to see patient's and I get my money will magically get deposited into my bank account.

Personally, I don't think medicine is that difficult--THE TRAINING ITSELF IS DIFFICULT and VERY LONG. IMO the hardest part of medical school was the first 3 years where everything is new and you're basically learning a foreign language. I mean, I was MISERABLE my first 2 years of med school. But I honestly believe that the more you learn in medicine, the easier it becomes to learn more faster. What we do is serious stuff and I am pleased to have the opportunity to do it (and get paid for it as well).

 

[bartleby]

I was just wondering if anybody in here has regretted choosing EM, or even choosing medical school in the first place. I looked at a similar thread under "general residency issues", and the posts are pretty depressing. Am I just happening to read the opinions of residents who expected way too much before med school? Are they the type of people who could never be satisfied in the first place?

At the ass-end of EM residency, looking back over the whole experience, I think that it was worth it. I thought the toughest part of the whole deal was med school. The basic science years are a grind in which it's all too easy to forget why you're bothering, and in clerkships you often find yourself being window dressing. In residency, however, you get to spread your wings and start to fly. You show up, work hard, and take good care of your patients... that's the bottom line. It can be exhausting, but also extremely rewarding. You'll have plenty of bad days (that's life, isn't it?), but _damn_ do you feel good when some little old lady squeezes your hand, looks into your eyes, and tells you that you're the nicest, most wonderful doctor she's every had take care of her.

There are a lot of type A personalities in medicine who have spent too much time burying themselves in the library and too little time looking within themselves to find out what they really want out of life in the first place. If you want money, you should be in Wall Street, not in a hospital. If you want a job which will let you feel that, when all is said and done at the end of your life, the world was a slightly better place for your having been in it, then there are few jobs which can beat being a physician. The world is often such a cold, difficult, and painful place, and we get to be the "good guys" who try to make things a little bit better.

 

[beyond all hope]

Especially in EM, in which each day is a whole new suprise.

Yesterday was an awesome day. Evaluated a bunch of trauma, got to flirt with some hot patients (which NEVER happens at my hospital), broke an SVT and got my boy set up for ablation, caught an ascending cholangitis early, splinted, tapped a joint. Found the use for rectal in altered mental status (found drugs in his butt).

I've had days that SUCKED. Hopeless social cases requiring endless work for no reward, arguing with consultants over admissions, missing diagnoses (I missed a pneumonia the other day. With rales. How can you miss that?), arguing with neurotic patients and family. Chasing after lazy nurses to get tests done.

Overall, getting towards the tail end of residency, I think it's starting to become worth it. I don't regret not becoming a cardiologist or neurosurgeon. They work their tails off and deserve every penny of their incredible salaries. I do work in a free clinic with an FP and I see how her patients LOVE her and she LOVES them. I miss that about primary care, and you'll never really get that in EM.

 

[roja]

Ditto much of what is said here.


I don't have any regrets. I consider myself phenomenally lucky to work in a field that I love adn that even after my worst day, I still think, I really love what I do.