Help!

[bandn]

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Sorry for this post, as it is probably something that is seen in here often, but I could use some advice. I will be straight forward: I want to have a life, make a decent living, and not have to stress out all the time. I like surgery, hate rounding, and am pretty much sick of patients. While not the best sounding characteristics, they have led me to certain fields for a possible career. Right now, I am pretty set on anesthesiology, but the stress of it does concern me. I don't want an ulcer by age 33. I have not thought much of path in the past, mainly as my school is primary care gung ho, but lately I have been thinking about it. I used to always enjoy labs during college and med school, plus I have an interst in forensics. Still, I am not ready to abandon gas without more information. I plan on doing a foresnic path rotation soon, but would also love any advice or info you can give me. Thanks!

 

[mcfaddens]

Sorry for this post, as it is probably something that is seen in here often, but I could use some advice. I will be straight forward: I want to have a life, make a decent living, and not have to stress out all the time. I like surgery, hate rounding, and am pretty much sick of patients. While not the best sounding characteristics, they have led me to certain fields for a possible career. Right now, I am pretty set on anesthesiology, but the stress of it does concern me. I don't want an ulcer by age 33. I have not thought much of path in the past, mainly as my school is primary care gung ho, but lately I have been thinking about it. I used to always enjoy labs during college and med school, plus I have an interst in forensics. Still, I am not ready to abandon gas without more information. I plan on doing a foresnic path rotation soon, but would also love any advice or info you can give me. Thanks!

Keep in mind that forensics in only a limited view of pathology and there are many threads that discuss this. You will have to do at least 3 years of AP or 4 of AP/CP to get there. So if your really interested I would reccomend doing a rotation in Surg path first to get an idea of what its gonna be like after a forensics rotation, you might like it. Also you will take a significant cut in pay in forensics (your a state employee on a pay grade) and limited employment opportunity vs Gas.
Im not bashing FP I personally enjoy performing autopsy, but from my experence FP is alot of gross diagnostics and here a PhD does the toxicology so its not like it is on TV

 

[b&ierstiefel]

Sorry for this post, as it is probably something that is seen in here often, but I could use some advice. I will be straight forward: I want to have a life, make a decent living, and not have to stress out all the time. I like surgery, hate rounding, and am pretty much sick of patients. While not the best sounding characteristics, they have led me to certain fields for a possible career. Right now, I am pretty set on anesthesiology, but the stress of it does concern me. I don't want an ulcer by age 33. I have not thought much of path in the past, mainly as my school is primary care gung ho, but lately I have been thinking about it. I used to always enjoy labs during college and med school, plus I have an interst in forensics. Still, I am not ready to abandon gas without more information. I plan on doing a foresnic path rotation soon, but would also love any advice or info you can give me. Thanks!

My roommate when I was finishing med school was an anesthesiology resident...he had regular work hours (6 am -5 pm) and didn't seem all that stressed. But now he's a little stressed since he's preparing for anesthesiology boards...poor dude.

 

[yaah]

Second the recommendation to do a rotation through surgical pathology and not just forensics...

 

[LADoc00]

ANY speciality can be lifestyle. Realize residency is a small small part of your career (3-6 years of out 35, which is 10-17%) and the remainder is a LONG tiresome journey if you hate what you do, regardless of how much money you make.

 

[cytoborg]

Path vs. anesthesia is an interesting question...guess it depends on what aspect of surgery you really like...is it the cutting, or the OR atmosphere, or what? In path you get to wield knives, without as much ego crap, and in a chiller environment than the OR. I really liked the hands-on aspects of surgery but found the hours & personalities stressful. And my main interest was diagnostics. If on the other hand you really enjoy the OR environment and find it exciting and stimulating, and you like physiology and pharmacology, then it seems like anesthesia would probably suit you well.

As for the stress...I was looking for a low stress specialty too...But I think they all have their stressful aspects. I personally would not to be responsible for the pt living or dying on the OR table! But path has its own set of stresses. For example, you're depended upon to make definitive diagnoses, often in a very short amount of time, which often have profound ramifications (will that kid gets his leg amputated/liver transplanted/brain irradiated...or not?). Even though you may not be actually touching a pt, there is still a lot of potential to screw up and that does hang over pathologists' heads they skim hundreds of slides and wonder which 2 funny looking cells may turn out to be "litigation cells." Now forensics, I dunno much about that yet...seems like some of the pressure is off cuz they're already dead, right? - but I imagine it has its own set of stresses as you're depended on for evidence in legal cases and your work is subject to a lot of scrutiny.

Ultimately the practice of medicine involves responsibility and stress. I don't mean to bum you out, but a low-stress job might be doing research in industry (where you don't even have to write grants!).

But yeah, I concur with the others that you should try to get more exposure to path (all aspects of path including surg path and forensics) before making a decision.