Debbie Downer/Chicken Little thread for Nephrology as a Career.

This forum made possible through the generous support of SDN members, donors, and sponsors. Thank you.
Nephrology as a discipline is wonderful and highly intellectual . As an IM / Nephro / Pulm / Crit and eventual Obesity Medicine diplomat / future diplomat , I must say the renal part of things really makes me the “glue person” on difficult cases . Plus my cross integration of ultrasound into all of my specialties drives the bulk of my writing / publications and is a fertile field to write about in the renal domain . Search my previous posts .

However, I pay my bills through other means aside from my physician revenue stream so I am fortunate in that way . Not everyone else is as lucky .

But if money is no issue then do nephrology at a large academic institution and you won’t regret it . HD , CRRt , biopsies , PD , etc .

Hands on procedures get tiresome after a while . Trust me on this one . Though I’m not speaking from a “make every cent “ perspectives

Do renal if you love the specialty (and want to be an academician )
Don’t do it because you couldn’t getting into another more lucrative specialty and think you’ll strike it big as a community private physician who triples the patient volume and delivers 1/3 the care
 
  • Like
Reactions: 1 user
The grass is greener on the other side as they say .
During my renal fellowship training itself I would always feel the stigma of being the “dialysis technician” and found the “deprogramming” teaching style of my older renal faculty attending very quaint and incompatible with my progressive style .

I worked tooth and nail networking and publishing and got a PCCM spot looking aT it as the “ultimate escape .”

Though I use my renal knowledge every day and have found a niche as the ultrasound person who is finding new roles of LUCI (lung ultrasound in critically ill - as Lichtenstein himself calls it ) and whole body US in renal patients .
I look back on my renal training rather fondly and I plan to practice all my specialties of primary care / general medicine / pulmonology / nephrology and not really planning to do full time critical care . There’s more to life than doctoring in my opinion and I have other designs with my time .

Now if I were dirt poor and had envy At my cardiology / GI colleagues salaries then I would probably be crapping on renal too if money were all I cared about. Honestly, the ones will lament in renal are those who probably wanted to make bank as a private then found out its harder than one thought.
 
  • Like
Reactions: 1 user
Members don't see this ad :)
Wanted to give my 2 cents. In the small city that I practice in, there are 5-6 hospitalists who were former nephrologists.
In one particular hospital, we have 2 nephrologist working as full time hospitalists; which really doesn't reflect well on the specialty.
I'm not suggesting that there aren't nephrologists who do really well. But I think applicants deserve to know the risks they are taking with their careers.
 
Top