Bang for buck speciality

Started by poker
This forum made possible through the generous support of SDN members, donors, and sponsors. Thank you.
P

poker

Full Member
10+ Year Member
Advertisement - Members don't see this ad
what do u think is the most bang for buck specialty with all things considered?

I.e.:
Pay per hour
Length of residency
job hours
stress
less patient contact
time off
etc............

Derm
Radio
Anesthesiology
ER
optho
etc................


what do u guys rate as ur top perceived bang for buck profession
 
That particular idiom ("bang for the buck") is used to gauge the value of something. As you don't pay money to work as a doctor (obligatory Obama/socialism/end of the world jokes not withstanding), and as I have no idea what "bang" would mean in this context, I'm just going to assume you want to know what specialty pays the most. Answer: spine surgeon.

Next!
 
WellWornLad said:
That particular idiom ("bang for the buck") is used to gauge the value of something. As you don't pay money to work as a doctor (obligatory Obama/socialism/end of the world jokes not withstanding), and as I have no idea what "bang" would mean in this context, I'm just going to assume you want to know what specialty pays the most. Answer: spine surgeon.

Next!
Click to expand...

wrong, look at what i have listed

i have used "bang for buck " as a colloquialism, you can equate time to money in this situation
 
Advertisement - Members don't see this ad
poker said:
wrong, look at what i have listed

i have used "bang for buck " as a colloquialism, you can equate time to money in this situation
Click to expand...

I think you mean "bang AND buck," which kinda makes the whole idiom useless as "buck" becomes just another "bang" to add to your list. So maybe you can just shorten it to "what speciality has the most bang."

Should "bang" become the next "bling," I hereby stake my claim as trendsetter.
 
yaah said:
Does substituting "u" for "you" really save that much time?
Click to expand...


I agree. I have a cousin who is a college professor at a well known liberal arts college. He cringes at the appalling quality of many of the essays that his students submit. Writing well is becoming a lost art, apparently.
 
Last edited:
Advertisement - Members don't see this ad
Law2Doc said:
Agreed. This kind of abbreviation is fine for high school kids texting each other in homeroom, but has no place on a pre-professional board.
Click to expand...

Even then its annoying as all get-out. I can't believe that some students actually submit papers to their high school teachers using some of this lingo because they neglected to change it. 😱

Do derm and have fun dealing with said teenagers since you already share the shorthand together. I kid, I kid. Everyone knows the lifestyle specialties, but I don't think anyone should enter this profession seeking them out because they'll make more money in less time that way.
 
Law2Doc said:
Agreed. This kind of abbreviation is fine for high school kids texting each other in homeroom, but has no place on a pre-professional board.
Click to expand...


gawd U guyz itz the F-ing internet/ LAWL: :laugh::laugh:

now the question is: is capitalizing the U defecate (defeat*) the whole purpose?

but any how, ya i think derm is the way to go, but i think Anesthesia and ER are runner ups, esp for those who are not derm competitive. ER and GAS are pretty obtainable to almost everyone.

taking amount of studying req in med skeeewl for derm and optho scores makes the bang / buck / bling factOR much lower. My opnion. This thus puts ER and Gas above

I am suprised that no one has mentioned anything about Radiooo-Holiday

David
 
poker said:
gawd U guyz itz the F-ing internet/ LAWL: :laugh::laugh:

now the question is: is capitalizing the U defecate (defeat*) the whole purpose?

but any how, ya i think derm is the way to go, but i think Anesthesia and ER are runner ups, esp for those who are not derm competitive. ER and GAS are pretty obtainable to almost everyone.

taking amount of studying req in med skeeewl for derm and optho scores makes the bang / buck / bling factOR much lower. My opnion. This thus puts ER and Gas above

I am suprised that no one has mentioned anything about Radiooo-Holiday

David
Click to expand...
Nothing is bling about working with nasty ass skin lesions all day. 👎
 
Advertisement - Members don't see this ad
ChubbyChaser said:
Derm, Ophtho, and Path I would think...as long as you genuinely enjoy them...otherwise they would suck.
Click to expand...

nobody genuinely enjoys that crap. shaving off moles? why do you have to be so smart to do that? to me it's a waste of talent. they should feel bad about themselves.
 
WellWornLad said:
That particular idiom ("bang for the buck") is used to gauge the value of something. As you don't pay money to work as a doctor (obligatory Obama/socialism/end of the world jokes not withstanding), and as I have no idea what "bang" would mean in this context, I'm just going to assume you want to know what specialty pays the most. Answer: spine surgeon.

Next!
Click to expand...

Bang for buck can easily be expanded to a measure of investment versus return. If we're going to get overly literal with the phrase, then I suggest your majesty alert the literary empires to your new demand that the phrase be banned from any context not including explosives...

Now we're left only with the troubling issue of how to define a return in this instance. I nominate money. You can buy whatever else you need. It may be sweaty, Philipino, and leave after you finish - but you can buy it.
 
Last edited:
poker said:
that was a terrible attempt at a joke.

ur posting privileges should be revoked.

now that is funny. :laugh:
Click to expand...

I thought it was crudely funny. WTF is up with everyone busting chops in here?

Anyway, I think EM has to be the best. (this from someone that hasn't even begun medical school and has nothing more than shadowing experience = epic fail).
 
If stress is an issue, and I have a feeling that it will become an issue once we have families, aging parents, etc., the best bang for the buck will be the field you actually like.

I know that sounds really lame. But I have a friend who *loves* knowing what everyone else is thinking and feeling. Working in psych would give him a sense to shine. It has good hours and decent pay.

However, while I like people, I don't think I could understand a schizophrenic. In my case, going into psych would be considerably more stressful than internal medicine, even if the hours and pay were the same.
 
Law2Doc said:
Agreed. This kind of abbreviation is fine for high school kids texting each other in homeroom, but has no place on a pre-professional board.
Click to expand...

What really makes me angry is when people, while texting, substitute the word "tawk" for "talk." I mean come on!! Its the same number of characters! You don't save money with your carrier and don't save time with your T9 input. ** End of rant...
 
Advertisement - Members don't see this ad
DrJD said:
What really makes me angry is when people, while texting, substitute the word "tawk" for "talk." I mean come on!! Its the same number of characters! You don't save money with your carrier and don't save time with your T9 input. ** End of rant...
Click to expand...


Sorry old timer, but the correct notation to end the rant stream of input or any other stream of input is actually </rant> or </whateverthehellitisyouwanttoend>

It stems as a joke from html code. Many people myself included erroneously use just a / as if we were actually coding a programming language which is incorrect usage since all of this is just hypertext.

</5hitpicking>

By the way, I’m just messing around here man, so don’t take it personal.
 
Catholic Guilt said:
If stress is an issue, and I have a feeling that it will become an issue once we have families, aging parents, etc., the best bang for the buck will be the field you actually like.

I know that sounds really lame. But I have a friend who *loves* knowing what everyone else is thinking and feeling. Working in psych would give him a sense to shine. It has good hours and decent pay.

However, while I like people, I don't think I could understand a schizophrenic. In my case, going into psych would be considerably more stressful than internal medicine, even if the hours and pay were the same.
Click to expand...

As someone who graduated from a Catholic high school, I must say, the best kind of guilt, is Catholic guilt.
 
bad virus said:
Sorry old timer, but the correct notation to end the rant stream of input or any other stream of input is actually </rant> or </whateverthehellitisyouwanttoend>

It stems as a joke from html code. Many people myself included erroneously use just a / as if we were actually coding a programming language which is incorrect usage since all of this is just hypertext.

</5hitpicking>

By the way, I’m just messing around here man, so don’t take it personal.
Click to expand...


Haha, so should it be something like...

<rant> Blah blah blah, stupid text messagers who use "u", "tawk", "nite", etc.... </rant>

Got it now... Except for comedic effect, typically leaving out the first "<rant>" ya?
 
DrJD said:
Haha, so should it be something like...

<rant> Blah blah blah, stupid text messagers who use "u", "tawk", "nite", etc.... </rant>

Got it now... Except for comedic effect, typically leaving out the first "<rant>" ya?
Click to expand...

<yoda_voice> An amazingly quick learner you are</yoda_voice>

😀
 
I would just like to commend the good folk of SDN for hijacking yet another "best residency" thread. Sure, there will be another one, probably later this afternoon. And yes, I realize that this one battle represents only one drop in an endless sea of "$$$ w/o seeing patients or doing procedures?" threads, while next fall promises another nine months of "omg HP instead of H, can I still do emergency pediatric neurodermatopath?" Still, I salute the spirit of those who refuse to go quietly into the hackneyed night of terribly predictable SDN questions.
 
Pinkertinkle said:
I think dermpath got reamed hard this year by something like a 30% medicare reimb cut on their codes, and more is coming.
Click to expand...
Ouch!

Well then I am going to go for spine (ortho route). You can charge a seperate surgery for each level of fusion, even if they are all done at once.
 
Pathology and child psych always get left off this list... they get no respect... but will be getting much more $$$ than you.
 
Last edited:
sprinkibrio said:
Pathology and child psych always get left off this list... they get no respect... but will be getting much more $$$ than you.
Click to expand...

I don't get why pathology isn't a super competitive specialty. It seems to have the hours and the pay that all the others do in addition to the added "benefit" of only dealing with doctors and not patients.
 
Advertisement - Members don't see this ad
I still like patients. In fact, I think the day I no longer derive some level of enjoyment from treating patients (in general, I know I won't like certain people) will probably be the day where the end of my career is near at hand.

Then again, I tend to search for redeeming qualities within everybody I meet and find dealing with difficult people a challenge (in a good way). I have had a few encounters which were miserable, but I believe with more training, even those encounters will be worthwhile.

At this point in time, I'm looking at either FM or Psych. I could probably enjoy general Internal Medicine or Neurology as well, but prefer FM or Psych.
 
enjoydrywax said:
No insight as to why pathology isn't more competitive? I still can't figure it out.
Click to expand...

Because it draws the same type of personality as Radiology. But since it isn't compensated as well, Radiology is more popular/competitive since the majority of these types of people want to practice medicine this way and get paid more.
 
badasshairday said:
Because it draws the same type of personality as Radiology. But since it isn't compensated as well, Radiology is more popular/competitive since the majority of these types of people want to practice medicine this way and get paid more.
Click to expand...

Probably if Pathologists were paid more than Rads, perhaps, just perhaps, Path would be accepting the best & brightest of med students.
 
penguin24 said:
Probably if Pathologists were paid more than Rads, perhaps, just perhaps, Path would be accepting the best & brightest of med students.
Click to expand...

That, and nobody really knows what pathologists do. Well, some people do, but even experienced clinicians can often be clueless. There are the subsets who think pathology is all about autopsies, and those who think it's mostly research, and then there are the subsets who know that we interpret biopsies and run labs but don't really know how it all works. But yes, salary is probably big, as is the job market - the radiology job market is much more wide open these days (unlike about 15 years ago when it was tight).

I'm in path but I couldn't stand radiology. They aren't that similar - the similarities are pretty superficial.

I would not recommend anyone to pick a field based on current salary, employment trends, etc. Things change in medicine. And they will change more. If you're not in a field you enjoy, you are likely going to be unhappy in the future.
 
Advertisement - Members don't see this ad
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

M3478
Choosing a speciality
Replies
12
Views
3K
Captain_Falcon
Captain_Falcon
Lalloo75
No "Speciality" Home Program
Replies
1
Views
734
voxveritatisetlucis
V
J
Failure for Professionalism
Replies
5
Views
1K
DarkBluMage
D
satdixon
Texas Ties for IM
Replies
2
Views
392
GoSpursGo
GoSpursGo
satdixon
Rec Letters for IM
Replies
0
Views
333
satdixon
satdixon