I love neurology but I hate rounding ...

[NeuroKlitch]

I love neurology academically , I love the puzzles , I love the physical exams , and the especially the behavioral aspects of it . I hate rounding . So much . As an attending I'm sure it would be better but , as a student it's just so boring. I'd probably prefer to work out patient to be honest , with maybe a fellowship under my belt . Is neurology for me ? Or can I find similar fulfillment in a field such a neuropsychiatry. Internal medicine was definitely not my favorite rotation.


Sent from my iPhone using SDN mobile

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[kchan99]

Do you think you might like clinics? Many neuro subspecialties are outpatient-based.

 

[Postictal Raiden]

I hate rounding too and I'm very interested in knowing neurologists/residents responses to OP.

I have spoken to some of my classmates who are pursuing IM and all of them said they hated rounding. I guess it's just a "right of passage" thing that everyone endures.

 

[typhoonegator]

When you're at the bottom of the totem pole, rounds are boring, just like meetings are boring, catching up on email is boring, commuting is boring, etc. I bet the same percentage of medical students enjoy rounds as externs at Delloite enjoy all-hands meetings. Your engagement level in any activity is going to scale with your interest and investment, and both of those will increase as you ascend through your training. At this level, it doesn't really reflect on whether your destiny is inpatient or outpatient. It's not really the same as whether you feel drawn to the operating room or not. If you love the subject matter, you eventually will not mind, and may even come to enjoy, rounding...particularly as your seniority allows you to not have to focus on 50 things at once and devote more brain space to teaching and medical nuance.

 

[anbuitachi]

I was in the same boat, really liked the puzzle solving and stuff, did not like rounding, but im glad i didn't end up going to neurology. As a resident, I now hate the neuro exam, it is the longest part of my physical exams. I definitely do not miss the rounding. I see neuro residents get so many stupid consults, and i still think the stuff you can fix is limited.

 

[Hellothere111]

You'll see it bother you less and less with every year of your training. As a PGY-4, i don't write notes and am able to focus on the big picture which, if you love neurology, is a treat.

As faculty, if u end up rounding, you can choose your pace. In private practice, you can bill for those stupid consults. There's no arguing the science behind neurology. Try and think beyond training to the 30 years after it.


Sent from my iPhone using SDN mobile app

 

[Nonphysiologic]

Surprisingly when I was rounding as a senior resident I always thought I'd be super fast but I was surprised how long I took. I think it's a good skill to be painstakingly thorough as a resident then you can do it however you want. I'm in a field now where I see like 30-40 patients a day from 7-330 and still have time for one hour lunch in clinic easily and a lot of why I feel comfortable doing that is because I was super thorough in residency allowing me to gain some intuition and know what to look for.


Sent from my iPhone using SDN mobile

 

[oopsy]

I'm an ICU minded neurology resident. I always found forever rounds frustrating, and I'm a neurology resident very satisfied with my choice.

In all specialties, you will have marathon-rounding attendings (versus painfully slow surgeons/interventionalists). This is more of a personality issues than a specialty issue, it is just manifested differently based on your actual day to day responsibilities. I've literally rounded on 25 stroke ward patients in 45 minutes with my attending or rounded at 1hr/patient with another attending. I was worried this would be intrinsic to neurology; it is not. Medicine was similarly variable. Some surgeons flew threw cases while others were far more meticulous. It is what it is.

I don't think rounds are a reason to pick anything. You don't grasp the complexity of what's happening on rounds as a medical student, and it's just painful when you're not presenting. As a resident, it's different, and as a senior, it's a very different. It's an opportunity for you to gobble up as much learning before you're out on your own. Now as a senior, I really enjoy rounding (with effective attendings) because I have questions I want answered and I have a context to put things into before I go out into practice in the not-too distant future.

 

[Thama]

I was very much in your boat as a med student and even as a junior resident. As a current senior resident though, some of the best times in the hospital are spent with attendings with whom you've built a trust (so they aren't spending forever duplicating most of what you've done) and with whom you clinically see eye to eye or respect enough to learn from the differences in their approach to yours. It's a great learning opportunity and a chance for positive realtime feedback on your clinical skills.

Regardless, as others have noted, rounding is a part of academic medicine and therefore a part of training. There is no way to escape it. You just have to understand that it gets better as you gain autonomy and investment.

 

[Sitagliptin]

I'm a neuro PGY-1 (soon to be PGY-2) in a categorical program, meaning I've almost exclusively done IM wards so far. Even though IM (while I do enjoy it) is not my chosen field, and I'm not the biggest fan of rounds, I do find I find it more interesting and relevant even as an intern compared to how I felt about them when I was a medical student.

So to echo the above- don't pick a field based on your thoughts about rounding. If you love your field, rounding will become more enjoyable the more you actively do.

 

[Nonphysiologic]

Yeah I remember I hated rounds and rounding so much in internal and as a student I was considering anesthesia or even er as specialty for that reason...but somehow I didn't mind so much on neuro.


Sent from my iPhone using SDN mobile