Hi all
Consider this post a little bit of venting, and a little bit of curiosity
I am almost finished with my FM intern year. Canadian citizen, Caribbean grad, average board scores right through. I was never really able to figure out which specialty I liked best, and being realistic with my credentials, I thought FM would be a good fit. Then I took my EM rotation as a student at the end of the match cycle. Wow. LOVED IT!
I figured the experience as a student vs being a resident or attending would be very different. I would see all the fun parts as a student, with none of the cons. I ended up matching at a large academic hospital system in Detroit as FM, and just finished an EM month. Wow. LOVED IT! I know, I know...Even as a resident, I'm an outside rotator, and expectations are less. Still though...I can't get over EM.
Every day in FM, I get maybe 30% medicine, 70% social and paper work. I don't want to argue with a patient that I'm not writing them a note for a month off because they caught a cold. I don't want to fill out insurance forms. I tire of chasing after people to get labwork or follow ups done, simply because they can't be bothered. Surely, EM has similar repeating stories - the guy whose pain is only fixed "with a drug that starts with D", the people that use the ER repeatedly for non-emergency cases, etc... All that to say, I feel like my hard work through medical school and thus far into residency is setting me up for a lifetime of a paperwork grind for minimal pay off with actual medicine. It doesn't help that since my program is part of a large system that my staff loves to refer A LOT. I'm just starting to feel like my title of "MD" is fairly hollow.
I often think about just completing this residency, and then possibly re-applying for another residency (Open spots are hard to come by, and by the time this current application cycle ends, I would be starting my third year of FM...might as well finish).
Not really sure of where I'm going with this thread. Guess I'm just looking for some discussion. Maybe what you love and hate about EM? Thoughts on my applying for a second residency/odds of matching? Any personal accounts of FM vs EM colleagues? People that switched into one field or the other? Floors open!
Consider this post a little bit of venting, and a little bit of curiosity
I am almost finished with my FM intern year. Canadian citizen, Caribbean grad, average board scores right through. I was never really able to figure out which specialty I liked best, and being realistic with my credentials, I thought FM would be a good fit. Then I took my EM rotation as a student at the end of the match cycle. Wow. LOVED IT!
I figured the experience as a student vs being a resident or attending would be very different. I would see all the fun parts as a student, with none of the cons. I ended up matching at a large academic hospital system in Detroit as FM, and just finished an EM month. Wow. LOVED IT! I know, I know...Even as a resident, I'm an outside rotator, and expectations are less. Still though...I can't get over EM.
Every day in FM, I get maybe 30% medicine, 70% social and paper work. I don't want to argue with a patient that I'm not writing them a note for a month off because they caught a cold. I don't want to fill out insurance forms. I tire of chasing after people to get labwork or follow ups done, simply because they can't be bothered. Surely, EM has similar repeating stories - the guy whose pain is only fixed "with a drug that starts with D", the people that use the ER repeatedly for non-emergency cases, etc... All that to say, I feel like my hard work through medical school and thus far into residency is setting me up for a lifetime of a paperwork grind for minimal pay off with actual medicine. It doesn't help that since my program is part of a large system that my staff loves to refer A LOT. I'm just starting to feel like my title of "MD" is fairly hollow.
I often think about just completing this residency, and then possibly re-applying for another residency (Open spots are hard to come by, and by the time this current application cycle ends, I would be starting my third year of FM...might as well finish).
Not really sure of where I'm going with this thread. Guess I'm just looking for some discussion. Maybe what you love and hate about EM? Thoughts on my applying for a second residency/odds of matching? Any personal accounts of FM vs EM colleagues? People that switched into one field or the other? Floors open!
