Choosing a specialty

[viper63]

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Does anyone know of any good references for comparing different specialties? The aspects I'm looking for are 1. Quality of Life 2. Income 3. Short residency

I scored in the mid 240s on STEP 1, did well on all SHELF exams. My school does not have elective rotations until the 4th year (sucks). Right now I'm thinking about ER and Anesthesiology, but I've heard the shift work of ER is grueling and Anesthesiology seems to have bad hours. Radiology does not interest me.

I'm frightened that I have to basically pick a field within my first 4 rotations (one of which will be consumed by STEP 2), and that I have to choose which 4 coins to flip now.

Thanks

 

[Rendar5]

Does anyone know of any good references for comparing different specialties? The aspects I'm looking for are 1. Quality of Life 2. Income 3. Short residency

I scored in the mid 240s on STEP 1, did well on all SHELF exams. My school does not have elective rotations until the 4th year (sucks). Right now I'm thinking about ER and Anesthesiology, but I've heard the shift work of ER is grueling and Anesthesiology seems to have bad hours. Radiology does not interest me.

I'm frightened that I have to basically pick a field within my first 4 rotations (one of which will be consumed by STEP 2), and that I have to choose which 4 coins to flip now.

Thanks

Why don't you rotate in the variuos fields that you're interested in after narrowing the field down a bit. You don't need that many to try out. Basically at this point you ahve to ask yourself the following:

1. surgical or medical? (Emergency is a medical field in that classification)
2. general (huge variety) or specific?
3. dealing with patients or not?
4. adults, kids, or both?
5. acute or chronic?
You also need to consider if you really don't give a crap about any of those questions. Once you've got that stuff down, then you can start thinking about QoL issues.

 

[Hurricane95]

Anesthesiology can have crappy hours during residency, but residency is only 1+3 years. Afterwards working in private practice can have a great lifestyle and pay, so it compensates your time in residency well.

 

[lilnoelle]

I was having a difficult time narrowing down my choice till I read through "The Ultimate Guide to Choosing a Medical Specialty." http://www.amazon.com/Ultimate-Guid...=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1243777807&sr=8-1

The book has a general description of all of the major fields, including the type of people that are attracted to the field and lifestyle factors as well as residency information. I felt like it was a great resource.

 

[JonnyWise]

The AAMC Careers in Medicine webpage has some pretty good info about each specialty including some personality traits/tests, patient populations, salaries, fellowships, etc. You need your AAMC ID number to register, but I think it is well worth it if you are looking for this kind of info.

Here is another one from WashU that has a brief overview of each specialty.
WashU Information About Specialties