I might choose my specialty depending on salary/lifestyle

[Pkboi24]

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Does this mean I'm doing medicine for the money? I feel like every specialty out there can help people in one way or another, which is really what I'm after. They help patients in different ways but they help nonetheless. I believe a lot of medical students feel this way and it shows in how competitive derm/rad/etc. are.

I caught myself looking up the salaries of difference specialties today and weighing the costs/benefits of being in school longer for more $ or getting out early and making less $. That's when I suddenly realized that the money part of this was very important to me, or at least more than I had initially believed it to be.

This might have to do with the fact that I'm working 40 hrs a week at $7/hr and $8/hr jobs right now. I need to look to the future to cheer myself up.

Anyone else feeling somewhat guilty about the same thing?

 

[Haemulon]

Does this mean I'm doing medicine for the money? I feel like every specialty out there can help people in one way or another, which is really what I'm after. They help patients in different ways but they help nonetheless. I believe a lot of medical students feel this way and it shows in how competitive derm/rad/etc. are.

I caught myself looking up the salaries of difference specialties today and weighing the costs/benefits of being in school longer for more $ or getting out early and making less $. That's when I suddenly realized that the money part of this was very important to me, or at least more than I had initially believed it to be.

This might have to do with the fact that I'm working 40 hrs a week at $7/hr and $8/hr jobs right now. I need to look to the future to cheer myself up.

Anyone else feeling somewhat guilty about the same thing?

Lifestyle, compensation, residency length, etc are all factors. But the most important factor is to do something that you genuinely love doing. Make youreself happy with your work, no matter what the other factors are.

 

[Law2Doc]

Lifestyle, compensation, residency length, etc are all factors. But the most important factor is to do something that you genuinely love doing. Make youreself happy with your work, no matter what the other factors are.

Agree. There is nothing wrong with getting a decent salary and having a decent lifestyle, but the medicine path is simply too hard, and too many years, too much pressure, etc., if that is ALL you are seeking. To totally throw yourself into a career, which is basically what is required of people taking the medical path, requires that you enjoy it, or at least find it interesting. There are some jobs you can merely exist in, working for a paycheck, living for the weekend. Medicine demands more. And when you are working long hours, spending the bulk of your waking hours doing something, you will find that the size of the paycheck is far less important than enjoyment, and far too little of an incentive to get out of bed each morning. You only get one life, and if you spend the bulk of it doing something you don't enjoy at some level, you have wasted it.

 

[xpinchx]

I chose anesthesiology pretty early on for various reasons. The residency isn't bad compared to surgery, you're not on-call nearly as much, and not to mention the compensation is more than fair. I wouldn't say these are the reasons I want to be an anesthesiologist, but they lead me to look more into it. I spent probably 10 hours one day looking around the gas forums and I'd say after reading into it, I don't think I could find a better match for myself.

I would love to do surgery, but I don't think my life can accomodate those kinds of hours for that amount of time. It just seems like it would make sustaining a family or any sort of personal relationships outside the hospital neigh impossible. As an anesthesiologist I could still have a life before I'm 35 years old. 😳

*puts on flame suit to guard against future surgical residents*

 

[shaggybill]

Absolutely. I think I would love doing surgery, but I could never lead that lifestyle. EM is something else I would really like to do, and they dont work the long hours so it's probably what Im going to specialize in.

It's important to find an area of medicine that you enjoy, but you arent going to enjoy it for long if you can't handle the lifestyle.

 

[SoCuteMD]

.

 

[Rafa]

You don't really need to worry about what specialty to go into now. It's sort of like an 8th grader fretting over which college he should go to. Get into high school first, and you'll get a better idea of which door to open next.

Lifestyle, compensation, residency length, etc are all factors. But the most important factor is to do something that you genuinely love doing. Make youreself happy with your work, no matter what the other factors are.

Yeah.

 

[solitude]

Agree. There is nothing wrong with getting a decent salary and having a decent lifestyle, but the medicine path is simply too hard, and too many years, too much pressure, etc., if that is ALL you are seeking. To totally throw yourself into a career, which is basically what is required of people taking the medical path, requires that you enjoy it, or at least find it interesting. There are some jobs you can merely exist in, working for a paycheck, living for the weekend. Medicine demands more. And when you are working long hours, spending the bulk of your waking hours doing something, you will find that the size of the paycheck is far less important than enjoyment, and far too little of an incentive to get out of bed each morning. You only get one life, and if you spend the bulk of it doing something you don't enjoy at some level, you have wasted it.

so true. I wish we could figure out some way to effectively convey this message to college freshman. Billboards, spam mail, podcasts?