I am a crossroads regarding what I want to go into between Neuro and PM&R. Hoping someone could shed some light on suggestions as there are benefits to both specialties and reasons I like them each.
Neuro: I enjoy like neuro trauma and the acute care aspect of it. Deciphering the diagnosis and looking at the imaging is very interesting. Very broad in terms of what I could do with it but, I could see myself in neuro ICU. I recognize however, it is a hard residency and I am definitely a "i like my work, don't live for my work" person and work-life balance is important to me. I know i'll enjoy every second of the job while there but with all my family/friends not in medicine, I worry being able to balance neurology and my life (at least until after residency, which i recognize is only temporary, but still worrisome to me)
PM&R: Very much interested in brain injury within pm&r or spinal cord injuries. I am very interested in disability advocacy and QoL, and felt like this was the only specialty that adequately addressed it to the degree I'd prefer. Obviously there is less chaos, which I worry I will miss, but I thoroughly enjoy the nice work-life balance associated with it. I like being able to help patients adapt after big function changes/disability changes and help them find their new normal, which is sometimes missing for me in neurology. I like spasticity management with injections for brain injury and also like IM/primary care and like that for some folks with disabilities, I can become sort of like their primary doc. A con I worry about is that I have heard the disrespect physiatrists can get in the hospital, and I worry that it will bother me.
I feel like I am so split because I love the fast pace/acute care/diagnostic possibilities of Neuro, but appreciate the advocacy/QoL improvement/patient relationship of the PM&R and it just feels like I like them both for very different reasons and I don't know what to pursue.
Neuro: I enjoy like neuro trauma and the acute care aspect of it. Deciphering the diagnosis and looking at the imaging is very interesting. Very broad in terms of what I could do with it but, I could see myself in neuro ICU. I recognize however, it is a hard residency and I am definitely a "i like my work, don't live for my work" person and work-life balance is important to me. I know i'll enjoy every second of the job while there but with all my family/friends not in medicine, I worry being able to balance neurology and my life (at least until after residency, which i recognize is only temporary, but still worrisome to me)
PM&R: Very much interested in brain injury within pm&r or spinal cord injuries. I am very interested in disability advocacy and QoL, and felt like this was the only specialty that adequately addressed it to the degree I'd prefer. Obviously there is less chaos, which I worry I will miss, but I thoroughly enjoy the nice work-life balance associated with it. I like being able to help patients adapt after big function changes/disability changes and help them find their new normal, which is sometimes missing for me in neurology. I like spasticity management with injections for brain injury and also like IM/primary care and like that for some folks with disabilities, I can become sort of like their primary doc. A con I worry about is that I have heard the disrespect physiatrists can get in the hospital, and I worry that it will bother me.
I feel like I am so split because I love the fast pace/acute care/diagnostic possibilities of Neuro, but appreciate the advocacy/QoL improvement/patient relationship of the PM&R and it just feels like I like them both for very different reasons and I don't know what to pursue.