Anyone initially interested in ortho lose interest in the field?

[PeterUbers]

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I'm an M4 that has recently lost interest in ortho .. was pretty die hard my first few years...

this happen anyone else (it wasn't b/c of my grades/boards/recs either).

THanks

 

[doc05]

inasmuch as you're probably just started getting ortho exposure, it's not that big a deal. you've still got some time to decide.

 

[edmadison]

I was in your situation and ended up doing pediatrics. The main reasons for my change were that I didn't like the interaction of the 'Pods with their patients. I rotated in three different hospitals doing ortho and they were all the same. All they wanted to do was cut. They spent very little time actually talking to patients. Routinely they would call fromt the OR to talk to families after surgery rather than talk to them in person. Any patients developing even the most simple complications were turfed to medicine. The straw that broke the camel's back? It was when I heard an attending say during rounds, "I wish Mr. Smith would develop an arrythmia so we can get him off our service." Disgusting. I can understand a post-call resident saying this, but an attending?!

In the end, I wanted to be a doctor not just a technician. I like talking to patients, I like reassuring them, and I like doing all of medicine, not just a small subset.

Ed

 

[longwoodguy]

ever heard the expression, FOOBA? Stands for:

Found On Ortho Barely Alive

seriously though, i used to be gung-ho ortho, but realized eventually that it just wasn't for me. i like the field but also enjoy being a bit more 'rounded' if you will. anyway, i decided on EM which has a significant ortho component - just, without the killer eternal residency, etc. 😀

 

[Boomer]

What about "Orthopedically stable"?

As an attending once said, "Hey, they can be running a code on my patient, but I can take one look and sign off because he's 'orthopedically stable.'"

That said, my main drawback with ortho was the hours....not just in residency because all residencies suck.....plus, I lost all desire to be in the OR all the time....now, I'm in IM, and thinking of Interventional Cards.....maybe procedures and the like aren't all that bad, eh?

 

[PeterUbers]

To all of you who were kind enough to respond:

I cannot thank you enough. I was sincerely relieved to read these replies and know that I am not alone. I felt like I am throwing away all that I've worked towards for ortho, but for what? I did not feel like a doctor on any ortho service, all medical problems WERE turfed to medicine, and there was very little meaningful patient contact and no continuity.

I am considering urology now, and internal medicine for all the reasons that orthopedics sucks, thank you again for replying!

 

[killahB]

i was deciding between ortho and ent, and i went with ent, for reasons similar to yours. i liked medicine too much to have to forget all of it. in the other surgical subspecialties, one needs to know a fair bit of medicine i feel.
that being said ortho is a great field, where your patients make dramatic functional improvements. i guess its not for everyone though, me included.

 

[doc05]

dude - if you're considering urology you better get things moving...early match and all.

 

[novacek88]

I was initially interested in ortho as well. I discoverd that many of the stereotypes associated with ortho are true. It is essentially biocarpentry with little patient interaction and consultation including post-op. I think a major impediment to my disliking ortho was I felt I didn't fit in with the clique. Sure, ortho residents are very fun loving people. They are outgoing and laidback. At the same time, they seem to be sports obsessed meatheads. I love sports too and played them all my life including the contact sports like football but I'm done with that part of my life. I don't feel like I need to relive my high school days by aspiring to work on athletes (every ortho's dream).

I think you have to be born an orthopedic surgeon. Some people just have the personality for it. You can tell who those people are because you can't see them doing anything else. I definitely was not one of those people. You can tell who the ortho people are early on in MS1 because they love anatomy and cutting. I'm more of a medicine person and I don't see the consultation as something tedious which many ortho people do tend to feel is rather boring.

As far as intelligence, ortho people are some of the brightest residents around. I won't put them down and say they don't know their medicine because they do. It's just that they love to cut and if you aren't into that, you will be very unhappy as a "pod" I cliqued more with the med/ped people.

I think people are initially attracted to ortho because of the money associated with it. Ortho residents are also some of the most benign residents you will meet during surgery rotations as opposed to bitter general surgery residents. Ortho residents seem pretty happy despite being overworked like most other surgery esidents. And like Boomer said, the OR didn't fascinate me after a while. I couldn't see myself being stuck to the OR my entire life.

 

[VienneseWaltz]

I felt I didn't fit in with the clique.

... You can tell who the ortho people are early on in MS1 because they love anatomy and cutting.

I would say that you can predict the future SURGEONS this way (maybe--a good friend hated anatomy but is now OB/GYN intern with thoughts about gyn surg), but the key predicting ortho is your earlier comment--it IS a clique, and if you don't fit, you don't fit ... that's what I learned this summer.