GI fellowship vs. anesthesia

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Choice?

  • GI

    Votes: 44 61.1%

  • Switch to anesthesia after residency

    Votes: 2 2.8%

  • Switch to anesthesia after pgy-2

    Votes: 26 36.1%
  • Total voters
    72
I am amazed anybody could see themselves either doing GI or anesthesia as a career and trying to decide between them. Almost no overlap in the specialties except perhaps a paycheck.
 
Test Boy said:
Maybe cause it’s kinda boring?
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and Anesthesia is Exciting? GI is exciting? Cmon.. Anesthesia is Boring with the added benefit of you having the potential to kill someone dead on the spot. That will perk you up!! The Benefits of Allergy is that you NEVER have to listen to another administrator as long as you are practicing.. Plus you do not have to reliant on hospitals.. Its all outpatient..
 
Aheadbyacentury said:
and Anesthesia is Exciting? GI is exciting? Cmon.. Anesthesia is Boring with the added benefit of you having the potential to kill someone dead on the spot. That will perk you up!! The Benefits of Allergy is that you NEVER have to listen to another administrator as long as you are practicing.. Plus you do not have to reliant on hospitals.. Its all outpatient..
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Anesthesia can be exciting. Depends on where you work.
 
Aheadbyacentury said:
and Anesthesia is Exciting? GI is exciting? Cmon.. Anesthesia is Boring with the added benefit of you having the potential to kill someone dead on the spot. That will perk you up!! The Benefits of Allergy is that you NEVER have to listen to another administrator as long as you are practicing.. Plus you do not have to reliant on hospitals.. Its all outpatient..
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When I did an allergy elective many years ago, all I saw in the allergy clinic were patients being given antihistamines mainly. A few got an allergy skin test and some got pfts to evaluate their asthma. It was pretty boring but some people will like that. Anesthesiology is boring in different ways but overall it’s not as boring.
 
Mman said:
I am amazed anybody could see themselves either doing GI or anesthesia as a career and trying to decide between them. Almost no overlap in the specialties except perhaps a paycheck.
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There were plenty anesthesia vs psychiatry..... I think that’s even more difficult to comprehend. I don’t want to have conversations for more than 10 mins with my patients. I rarely rarely need to talk to the family (bonus).

I guess you’re right. All the common denominate is will get paid for the work we do.
 
Basically all jobs are boring, or at least “routine” after 5-10 years.

The best advice I got was to ask each specialist what the worst part of their job is, then picture doing that 50 hours a week when you are 50.
 
pjl said:
Basically all jobs are boring, or at least “routine” after 5-10 years.

The best advice I got was to ask each specialist what the worst part of their job is, then picture doing that 50 hours a week when you are 50.
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yep, don't do ENT because you think the neck dissection and free flap is cool, do it because you don't mind putting in a bunch of ear tubes and taking out a bunch of tonsils and adenoids.
 
Mman said:
yep, don't do ENT because you think the neck dissection and free flap is cool, do it because you don't mind putting in a bunch of ear tubes and taking out a bunch of tonsils and adenoids.
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I don't see where doing a 12hr dissection and free flap is fun or cool. From the ENT side or the anesthesia side, thank God I escaped those rooms in residency, they had the CRNAs usually do them
 
Aheadbyacentury said:
and Anesthesia is Exciting? GI is exciting? Cmon.. Anesthesia is Boring with the added benefit of you having the potential to kill someone dead on the spot. That will perk you up!! The Benefits of Allergy is that you NEVER have to listen to another administrator as long as you are practicing.. Plus you do not have to reliant on hospitals.. Its all outpatient..
Click to expand...
Anesthesia is not unexciting, come on... Sure routine, but every case is nuanced in its own way. And the chance of death or bad times when things go awry, that's always fun!
 
2Fast2Des said:
I don't see where doing a 12hr dissection and free flap is fun or cool. From the ENT side or the anesthesia side, thank God I escaped those rooms in residency, they had the CRNAs usually do them
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What? You didn't like learning about "fluid balance" while being told every 15 minutes "NO PRESSORS!1!1!1!1!!!"
 
GI sucks. Clinic sucks. I’d get bored of scoping all day. Talking on the phone sucks to insurance companies suck. Complications blow. Don’t call me when I leave the hospital. Not for me.

I also don’t think they make significantly more in major metro areas. We seem to be doing better. And you can only compare newbies for newbie now. The 58 year old GI who co-owns the surgery center for the past 20 years doesn’t count.
 
dipriMAN said:
This is what I mean. Anesthesiologists only interact with GI doctors in the colonoscopy suite. We don’t really know what the clinic schedule is like, what the salary is like (except for maybe those high earners that do a ridiculous amount of screening colonoscopies), we certainly don’t interact with GI docs that do mostly clinic. Maybe the home call is worse than we imagine. Maybe that hours aren’t as good as we imagine.
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Who in the hell would actively choose to do this after working hard to get into a goldmine procedural field???
 
Mman said:
I am amazed anybody could see themselves either doing GI or anesthesia as a career and trying to decide between them. Almost no overlap in the specialties except perhaps a paycheck.
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It’s a job. The question should be what is the highest paying job that I have a reasonable chance of attaining that will give me the lifestyle I want. Do you think all those dermatologists are really med students who found themselves interested in rashes?
 
Gastrapathy said:
Allergy.
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My buddy from IM residency is in allergy; lifestyle is great. Hospital employed position, but full time is 32hr a week, every friday and weekends off, no call, has had only one inpatient consult over the last year. wRVU based compensation, still pulled in >300k despite covid last year.

If I could tolerate clinic I would choose allergy over GI since you never need to poke and sniff buttholes
 
GravelRider said:
It’s a job. The question should be what is the highest paying job that I have a reasonable chance of attaining that will give me the lifestyle I want. Do you think all those dermatologists are really med students who found themselves interested in rashes?
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if the only thing you care about is which paycheck is the biggest you will probably be miserable no matter what. Gotta find a job you'd be happy at even if it paid a lot less, because once we are under single payer everybody will be taking a massive paycut anyways.
 
Mman said:
if the only thing you care about is which paycheck is the biggest you will probably be miserable no matter what. Gotta find a job you'd be happy at even if it paid a lot less, because once we are under single payer everybody will be taking a massive paycut anyways.
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I’m re reading house of god and people have been worried about single payer since the 70s and yet here we are…
 
Osteoth said:
I’m re reading house of god and people have been worried about single payer since the 70s and yet here we are…
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I don't disagree, but in terms of life planning you have to plan for the worst and hope for the best. I cannot count on the good times to last forever. If they do, then I will be pleasantly wrong.
 
wamcp said:
My buddy from IM residency is in allergy; lifestyle is great. Hospital employed position, but full time is 32hr a week, every friday and weekends off, no call, has had only one inpatient consult over the last year. wRVU based compensation, still pulled in >300k despite covid last year.

If I could tolerate clinic I would choose allergy over GI since you never need to poke and sniff buttholes
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300K for 4 days per week and every weekend off....
That is a great schedule and the money is what we make for doing the crap we do.
In anesthesia nobody is going to pay you 300 k for 4 days per week
 
Osteoth said:
I’m re reading house of god and people have been worried about single payer since the 70s and yet here we are…
Click to expand...

In case you haven’t noticed, burnout, depression, dissatisfaction among docs is way up from a few decades ago.
 
Grass is always greener on the other side. I am a newer attending (2 years out) and i've been surprised by how good the job market has been. Tons of jobs available, salaries seen to be going up. If you hustle with a few side jobs (surgical centers on weekends, going to diff hospital postcall, etc) you should be clearing 600k.

I see a lot of surgical center jobs 7-3 4-5 days a week paying around or above 300k so that option is there if you wnat it. I think overall we have it pretty good.
 
Aheadbyacentury said:
If they are.. they are LONG 4 days... to equal 40 hours.... they are not easy 4days.
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I mean it just depends where you are and what the payor mix is. There are definitely people making that for relatively easy 4 day work weeks in places. Hell, there are people making way more than that for the same amount of work in some places.
 
SaltyDog said:
Not true. I might die in the office.

If you are that scared of your shadow, anesthesia is not a good fit for you.
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Not scared of my shadow... Scared of medical malpractice lawyers following all the fingers.
 
nimbus said:
I’m pretty sure many people doing anesthesia 4days/week make 300+.
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What kind of day doc position is only a 4 day work week though? Sure the money is possible but ORs run Monday thru Friday for elective cases. Day doc positions are advertised as 5 day work weeks.
But I guess if you got “connections” anything is possible but walking in straight from the streets, looking for four days a week is damn near impossible.
Where are these places looking for just four day workweeks?
 
chocomorsel said:
What kind of day doc position is only a 4 day work week though? Sure the money is possible but ORs run Monday thru Friday for elective cases. Day doc positions are advertised as 5 day work weeks.
But I guess if you got “connections” anything is possible but walking in straight from the streets, looking for four days a week is damn near impossible.
Where are these places looking for just four day workweeks?
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We have people who job share. 5 people doing 4fte’s. 3 of them still take call. 2 of them give all their calls away. When our schedule comes out for the following month, they send out a group text or email and the call shifts are taken within minutes. But it’s true all these people took call and worked full time at one time. You could not get this position walking off the street. You’d need to build “connections” with like minded people who want a similar arrangement. That’s the beauty of running one’s own practice, you can get creative and do whatever you want.
 
Last edited:
Lashler9054 said:
This sounds like a medical student. I don’t think any doctor currently in residency or one that has completed residency has this viewpoint
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He or she is probably an anesthesiologist. I’ve met some like that...they tend to cancel cases more than others.
 
I’m thinking a wannabe ‘ologist who didn’t match and is trying to make himself feel better about his new career in clinic.
 
Lashler9054 said:
This sounds like a medical student. I don’t think any doctor currently in residency or one that has completed residency has this viewpoint
Click to expand...
Lashler9054 said:
This sounds like a medical student. I don’t think any doctor currently in residency or one that has completed residency has this viewpoint
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He may or may not be....

You ever seen a code in the Rad or GI suite??? “Helpful” is not the term I’d use to describe those specialists, when it happens....
 
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