Anyone else narrowing down the career possibilities?

[katrinadams9]

So far here's where I stand

Hell no: surgery, psychiatry, neurology

Maybe: Ob/gyn, IM

Seriously considering: EM, FP, EM/IM, EM/FP

 

[Mayhem]

Yay! Procrastination time!

Hell No: ObGyn, Path, Radiology, Paeds

Maybe: FP, IM, EM, Anaesthesiology

Seriously considering: Surgery and of late Psych and Neurology (weird, but there's a brain fetish growing)

Like to pretend I'm seriously considering but not bright enough: Neurosurgery

 

[eirinn152]

Hell no: Surgery, psych, FP

Maybe: Anesthesia, IM, Peds, OB, neuro

Serious: Radiology

 

[LurkNoMore]

Maybe Anesthesia
Didn't like IM, Peds, Neuro, Surgery, OB/GYN................. I may be in trouble... someone please talk me in to something that isn't on my huge list of no's!!!!!

BTW what did you not like about surgery? (since you did like OB it must have been something other than being in the OR and the hours)

 

[Pinner Doc]

EM, I think? All this time I thought I'd be a pediatrician, but I've held pretty happily onto the idea of EM for the past four weeks (and that's good for me!). I'll let y'all know come autumn.

 

[katrinadams9]

Maybe Anesthesia
Didn't like IM, Peds, Neuro, Surgery, OB/GYN................. I may be in trouble... someone please talk me in to something that isn't on my huge list of no's!!!!!

BTW what did you not like about surgery? (since you did like OB it must have been something other than being in the OR and the hours)

I liked Labor and Delivery. Hated gyn. So I guess the two should balance each other out and I would be indifferent... but I had a great experience on the rotation as a whole. Good residents, good attendings.

 

[thewebthsp]

No: Surgery, Neuro, EM, Peds, Psych

Maybe: Path, Rad Onc

Probably: IM

 

[raidermedic]

Definate no: Psychiatry, Peds, OBGYN

Still kicking around although unlikely: Surgery, IM (rapidly falling to the definately no category), EM

Most likely: FP or Anesthesia

IM was high on my list when I first entered school. But from what I've seen it's just too formal and structured for me. I'm sure I could do it but I would also probably be the one resident the attendings would constantly bitch about.

 

[LurkNoMore]

katrina, that is odd, the only part of ob/gyn I really enjoyed was the gyn, and then I didn't like L and D at all... he he, funny how things go, best of luck!

 

[efex101]

Hell no: ob/gyn (due to the super malignant nature of the l&d area loved gyn and gyn surg), anesthesia, radiology

Maybe: surg, fm, psych

Seriously considering: IM

 

[QuinnB]

Hell no: Psychiatry, Ob/gyn, family, anesthesia, ophthy, gen surg, rads

Maybe: IM/peds, neurosurg

Seriously considering: IM, ENT, derm

 

[Tiki]

Hell no-OB, Peds, Family, Optho, Psych, Anesthesia, Surgery, EM

Maybe--IM, Radiology

Seriously considering--Pathology, Neurology

 

[nutcancer]

Hell no -- PEDIATRICS, FAMILY MEDICINE, PSYCHIATRY, OBGYN

Maybe -- Surgery

Seriously considering -- IM subspecialty, radiology

 

[Gem134]

NO! NO!!: Peds/FM/OB-GYN/Psych

Maybe: ......

Absolutely: .......

So then, my answer to the OP is no, I am not narrowing down the posibilities and I am facing a blank wall known as indecision and despair.


How about this list:

If I was smarter and had a better application and a super board score:

Neurosurgery
Radiology
Radiation Oncology
Derm

 

[thewebthsp]

If you really want to do derm, i'm sure you couldmake it happen...

I'm distantly thinking Rad Onc, but I'd think I'd need to take a year off to do rad onc research...

Probably not though.

 

[tr]

Hell no: Surgical subspecialties. OB-Gyn.

Bearable for a month but not for a lifetime: Peds, Neuro

Fun but I can't take the lifestyle: General Surgery

Would be interested if I hadn't found my dream specialty: Medicine definitely, possibly Primary Care

Perfection in a neat little box: Psychiatry

 

[Hard24Get]

Hell no: Psychiatry, Anesthesia, Radiology, Pathology, Derm/Optho

Bearable for a month but not for a lifetime: Peds, IM

Would be interested in a slightly different universe: Surgery, ob/gyn, neuro

Think I'm in love with: EM, Critical care

It's a shame, b/c the psych and neuro basic science/pathology fascinate me...

 

[THP]

I don't know why everyone hates ob/gyn so much. Its what i'm doing. I thought it was awesome.

 

[Mayhem]

Well for me Obs was the deal breaker. There was nothing the least bit interesting about it to me. Plus the labour ward was the most depressing place I went to at the hospital, which is saying something since there's a room full of dead bodies in the basement. Still that's just me. Gyn was tolerable only because of the surgery but not tolerable enough that I'd spend another second on the labour ward. I'm glad you love it though.

 

[tr]

I don't know why everyone hates ob/gyn so much. Its what i'm doing. I thought it was awesome.

Well, as someone else who is going into a universally hated specialty (psychiatry) I don't want to rain on your parade too heavily b/c I know it is a drag when people do that.

But I'll try and explain what I hated about ob. Gyn wasn't so bad, looking at cooter all day didn't thrill me but at least there was a little more variety. L&D just killed me, I hated every moment.

1) Lots of doing but very little thinking. I love having to reason through the diagnosis and best treatment of a complicated patient. The differentials on Ob were extremely limited, and the whole thing just seemed too procedural and cookbook to hold my interest at all.

2) Mind-numbingly repetitive. (One vaginal delivery was reasonably interesting, as was one C-section. More than that I didn't need to see. It wasn't like they were very different from each other.)

3) Way too much waiting around.

4) To be frank, I was just ooked out by the smell and all the blood and stuff.

It is cool that you like it though. Lord knows we will always need Obs.

 

[Shodddy18]

For me it is between EM and OBGYN...

Yes I know they are very different, but I loved both of them.

Its going to be a tough decision...

 

[katrinadams9]

For me it is between EM and OBGYN...

Yes I know they are very different, but I loved both of them.

Its going to be a tough decision...

I'm in the same boat as of right now. But I haven't had internal medicine yet either.... Peds is definitely off my list.

 

[PowderHound]

Hell No: OB-GYN, Psych

Liked the rotation, not good for me as a career: Surgery, Peds

Loved: Family Medicine

the Frontrunners: EM and FP

Still possible/rotations I have left: IM and anesthesia

 

[Taciturngosamer]

Would rather loose all my teeth and be kicked out of school: IM ( all the rounding and meaningless pontification about what it could be if x lab value was just a little different)

Heck no: Peds, OB/GYN, FP, Anaesthesia, Radiology

Cool, but not quite right: EM

Joy, Happiness, and Love: General Surgery

 

[AbuJadenDO]

For me it is between EM and OBGYN...

Yes I know they are very different, but I loved both of them.

Its going to be a tough decision...

YOU MEAN I'M NOT THE ONLY ONE CAUGHT UP IN THIS DILEMMA!???
of the dozens and dozens of people who begged me to get over this idea of going into OB, there are only a couple that actually thought ob would be a good idea and this whole thing is driving me nuts.

can one of you just make up my mind for me?

 

[tomatoattack]

Fate worse than death: OB/GYN, FM, Gen Surg

Clinic, clinic, clinic, kill me: derm

I really don't know what they do: rad onc

Life outside of hospital = does not exist: neurosurg, cardiac surg

Interesting but internally groaning about COPD/heart failure: IM

Wake me up please, because I just fell asleep again: Radiology, anesthesia

Fun, but would it last, I dont know: EM

Home Run, sign me up: ortho, urology, ENT

Mostest favoritist: ortho!

 

[Hard24Get]

can one of you just make up my mind for me?

Follow your heart! Heal women and bring forth the next generation! Go into Ob/gyn!

Of course, my advice has nothing to do with my interest in EM

Seriously, you just have to decide if you want all cooch or just a generous percentage of cooch... Can you live with only thinking of female issues, or will you miss the folks with chest pain and acute abdomens? I feel 2 very special electives coming on...

 

[Hard24Get]

the Frontrunners: EM and FP

And FP vs EM is just whether you enjoy "check-ups" and the dreaded "well-child" visits, or just the problem visits.

Anyways, I suggest we all enjoy Panda Bear's take on specialty choices:
http://pandabearmd.com/blog/category/specialty-selection/

 

[supereagles]

Fate worse than death: OB/GYN, FM, Gen Surg

Clinic, clinic, clinic, kill me: derm

I really don't know what they do: rad onc

Life outside of hospital = does not exist: neurosurg, cardiac surg

Interesting but internally groaning about COPD/heart failure: IM

Wake me up please, because I just fell asleep again: Radiology, anesthesia

Fun, but would it last, I dont know: EM

Home Run, sign me up: ortho, urology, ENT

Mostest favoritist: ortho!

Right on

 

[tkatchev]

I'm getting a sense that there is much dislike of Peds. For those of you who wrote you definitely did not like peds, can you elaborate as to why?

 

[tkatchev]

Duplicate

 

[roja]

I was goign to do peds rheum all through med school. Got to peds rotation and hated every minute of it. Clinic is mind numbingly boring. NICU is terrifying and depressing., Inpt peds is horrifying. I realized I hated taking care of kids and would become a miserable bag of mess if I did it.

Spent one day in the ED and was hooked.

 

[Hard24Get]

I'm getting a sense that there is much dislike of Peds. For those of you who wrote you definitely did not like peds, can you elaborate as to why?

I think most of us don't like Peds for the same reason Roja didn't choose it. The clinic was mostly well-child or neurotic parents with well-children visits, which made it boring for me. Though intervening on kid's health is critical, I can only do box-checking and prevention for so long. Yet, when kids are sick, such as in inpt or NICU, it is really heart-wrenching - what did they do to deserve it? . While that's true in IM as well, a good proportion of sickies at least made some bad choices along the way. Also, peds is very IM-like in terms of rounding and BS to be dealth with - neither are my cup of tea but much respect to those doing it. In the end, it is all personality, so don't be offended, Peds lovers!

 

[AmoryBlaine]

I think most of us don't like Peds for the same reason Roja didn't choose it. The clinic was mostly well-child or neurotic parents with well-children visits, which made it boring for me. Though intervening on kid's health is critical, I can only do box-checking and prevention for so long. Yet, when kids are sick, such as in inpt or NICU, it is really heart-wrenching - what did they do to deserve it? . While that's true in IM as well, a good proportion of sickies at least made some bad choices along the way. Also, peds is very IM-like in terms of rounding and BS to be dealth with - neither are my cup of tea but much respect to those doing it. In the end, it is all personality, so don't be offended, Peds lovers!

Eh, maybe. I once again maintain that people set up false dichotomies with the "BS and rounding" aspects of IM and Peds. Rounding on inpatients usually takes along time b/c the pts are complicated, not b/c people just like to round.

I think the number one reason for a Peds --> Something else career change is the following: most pre-meds and M1/2s equate an interest in kids with an interest in Peds. When they do Peds they find out that you can love children and detest taking care of their medical problems.

Plus they pee on you.

 

[nutcancer]

plus you make less than a plumber as a general pediatrician

what a waste of time

as you can tell, i detested my peds rotation

 

[tkatchev]

plus you make less than a plumber as a general pediatrician

what a waste of time

as you can tell, i detested my peds rotation

Plumbers makes 100k + ?

 

[Hard24Get]

Eh, maybe. I once again maintain that people set up false dichotomies with the "BS and rounding" aspects of IM and Peds. Rounding on inpatients usually takes along time b/c the pts are complicated, not b/c people just like to round.

I don't mind rounds that take long b/c of complicated pts. For instance, I liked ICU rounds even though they took 5+ hrs. But in my experience on IM rotations and with some Peds attendings, rounds took long because the attending would bring up minutaie and pimp at length, even tell old stories. That is BS b/c we have consults to call, etc; whereas he/she has nothing better to do. This would happen with the majority of the attendings I had, which I guess made me biased. Sorry to offend if you had a better experience than myself or the others who complain.

 

[AmoryBlaine]

I don't mind rounds that take long b/c of complicated pts. For instance, I liked ICU rounds even though they took 5+ hrs. But in my experience on IM rotations and with some Peds attendings, rounds took long because the attending would bring up minutaie and pimp at length, even tell old stories. That is BS b/c we have consults to call, etc; whereas he/she has nothing better to do. This would happen with the majority of the attendings I had, which I guess made me biased. Sorry to offend if you had a better experience than myself or the others who complain.

Nah, I wasn't offended. I just think that the stereotype of IM rounds is alot more style than substance. Sure we all had the one attending who really liked to discuss each pt in detail, but that's what IM is for. I think it is presumptuous for 3rd year medical students to say that "rounds should be shorter" when your service is carrying 12 train-wrecks with 5 comorbidities apiece. I know that Panda likes to rag on potassium, but old K+ is a pretty complicated 'lyte.

You just can't do a 30 second plan on some of these medicine pts...

 

[Mayhem]

I'm getting a sense that there is much dislike of Peds. For those of you who wrote you definitely did not like peds, can you elaborate as to why?

Well I wasn't into kids to begin with but well-child clinic kills your soul. There's only so many times I can plot a growth curve before I run screaming. Plus, it annoys me how mothers take pride in creating a scene because their 2 month old sneezed twice in the last hour yet grandpa could cough up a lung and they'd never take him to the hospital. I didn't mind the inpatient part but if i had to do peds again I'd never leave the ER.

 

[ESPNdeportes]

The biggest thing for me this year has been realizing how much more I like inpatient rather than outpatient medicine. And I came in thinking I wanted to do the opposite. Now I'm thinking of doing critical care, either in medicine or peds.

Its no knock on oupatient medicine at all. If anything, I have the upmost respect for the really good outpatient physicians. I think sometimes people think outpatient/primary care is "easy," but you're responsible for a LOT and there are always lots of loose ends to take care of.

 

[nutcancer]

i'm curious if there are any males considering general peds. i'm curious what makes you go into a field with very little pay and very little respect. ya'll must not have any egos, which is a great thing really.

 

[oldbearprofessor]

i'm curious if there are any males considering general peds. i'm curious what makes you go into a field with very little pay and very little respect. ya'll must not have any egos, which is a great thing really.

We get to hug and cuddle our patients. Makes it worthwhile while being disrespected by the world.

and eating noodles for dinner every night.

 

[Tone2002]

We get to hug and cuddle our patients. Makes it worthwhile while being disrespected by the world.

and eating noodles for dinner every night.

LOL

I wonder what he has to say about male ob-gyn doctors.

 

[nutcancer]

i like and respect male obgyns

i was just wondering why people (males in particular) would go through intense medical training to do general pediatrics, making 90k and being at the lowest rung on the medical hierarchy. its a fair question. it must be that ego means very little to them. if that's the case, that's very admirable.

 

[Blue Dog]

i was just wondering why people (males in particular) would go through intense medical training to do general pediatrics

Probably because they like taking care of kids.

Just a wild guess...

 

[Pinner Doc]

So I was pretty set on EM, but I am currently out of the city (that's NYC) and doing a FP rotation in Concord, NH and having the time of my life. I love that I get to do Peds, and Gyn, and Psych... and everything. And the small-town feel. And preventative medicine... it meshes well with my plan-ahead Type A personality.

So it looks like it's going to come down to EM and FP. Our school doesn't have EM as a core 3rd year rotation, so I'll do sub-I's in both... and go from there!

It's hard to justify the significant pay cut and the longer hours as a FP vs. an ER doc... but as I'm told, I should do what I love, and the money will come.

Thoughts?

 

[Blue Dog]

I'm told, I should do what I love, and the money will come.

More like, if you do what you love, the money won't matter so much.

 

[ESPNdeportes]

i was just wondering why people (males in particular) would go through intense medical training to do general pediatrics, making 90k and being at the lowest rung on the medical hierarchy. its a fair question. it must be that ego means very little to them. if that's the case, that's very admirable.

Man, am I glad I don't have your outlook on things

 

[oldbearprofessor]

i was just wondering why people (males in particular) would go through intense medical training to do general pediatrics, making 90k and being at the lowest rung on the medical hierarchy. its a fair question.

Okay, since you asked: Here's OBP's top reasons for (males in particular) doing a pedi residency and being the least respected, lowest ranking docs around

3. We like being peed on, thrown up on and having those rascally little kids trash our office.

2. We love driving old Subaru's and eating leftovers

and number 1..

Have you ever seen the nurses and dietitians in a Children's Hospital?

 

[Mayhem]

It's hard to justify the significant pay cut and the longer hours as a FP vs. an ER doc... but as I'm told, I should do what I love, and the money will come.

Thoughts?

Do what you like. It's unlikely that you're going to starve to death in FM and if you like what you're doing then the hours won't feel as long. Of course, this is a decision for next year after you do that EM Sub-I. Then you'll have a better idea of which one is for you.