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Random question, but as I'm in 3rd year (on my surgery rotation) and I'm thinking about the specialties in mind (minus the really time intensive surgical specialties), I'm starting to re-evaluate what interests me and the word "stress" when it comes to a specialty, even one that you enjoy, 10-15 years down the road. And I say down the road because it's unfair to assume that what life after residency is identical to that of med school/residency.
In general, it seems like every specialty has something to offer and is interesting the first time and that's sort of the nature of I guess just learning things for the first time in med school (take out biochem and a lot of boring 1st 2 year stuff, most specialties have something cool to offer)...in the end I figure we all will get proficient at our jobs by the end of residency and things become 2nd nature.
So about the word, "stress" what do you guys see as stressful 20 years down the line (assuming you are working 50 hours a week in these well-compensated specialties):
a.) First case: a high-volume outpatient model seeing lots of patients each day (i.e.- derm) with relatively low insurance overhead
b.) Second case: orthopedic surgeon who does only a handful of meticulous hours-long surgeries a day with high insurance overhead
c.) Third case: mix of both outpatient and surgical (ENT, optho, urology)
d.) 4th case: Anesthesiology (hospitalist vs. outpatient pain management)
e.) 5th case: purely diagnostic specialties (path/rads)
Part of me asks this because I have been thinking about derm for some time but I think about the stress of a.) and then think about how I'm literally pretty stress-free in my anethesiology block right now and really enjoy it...bottomline career specialty choosing sucks and is a hard decision
In general, it seems like every specialty has something to offer and is interesting the first time and that's sort of the nature of I guess just learning things for the first time in med school (take out biochem and a lot of boring 1st 2 year stuff, most specialties have something cool to offer)...in the end I figure we all will get proficient at our jobs by the end of residency and things become 2nd nature.
So about the word, "stress" what do you guys see as stressful 20 years down the line (assuming you are working 50 hours a week in these well-compensated specialties):
a.) First case: a high-volume outpatient model seeing lots of patients each day (i.e.- derm) with relatively low insurance overhead
b.) Second case: orthopedic surgeon who does only a handful of meticulous hours-long surgeries a day with high insurance overhead
c.) Third case: mix of both outpatient and surgical (ENT, optho, urology)
d.) 4th case: Anesthesiology (hospitalist vs. outpatient pain management)
e.) 5th case: purely diagnostic specialties (path/rads)
Part of me asks this because I have been thinking about derm for some time but I think about the stress of a.) and then think about how I'm literally pretty stress-free in my anethesiology block right now and really enjoy it...bottomline career specialty choosing sucks and is a hard decision
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