If not Ortho, than what??

[Frogger27]

What type of fields of medicine do students who are interested in ortho tend to gravitate towards if they cannot/decide not to pursue ortho in the end? EM, PM&R, Sports Med, other surgical subs, etc come to mind.

For attendings/residents, what field of medicine do you think you would have pursued if you could not have done Ortho? Why? Think you would be happy in it?

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[OrthoTraumaMD]

I would have been another type of surgeon, likely vascular. I would not be as happy as I am now though. Vascular patients are too sick.
Lots of people who don't make it into orthopaedics end up going to general surgery or emergency medicine.


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[masaraksh]

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[VincentAdultman]

I was torn between general and ortho for a while as a third year. I decided on ortho, which is good because while I respect the hell out them there's just no way I could see myself as a general surgeon.

I've seen others settle on ER, PM and R, anesthesia, and rads.

 

[Frogger27]

@Pompacil Can you talk about how your perspective has changed from when you were a third year deciding between Ortho/Gen surg vs now where you could never see yourself as a general surgeon?? What do you think you would pick if you could not do ortho (and please refrain from the "nothing in medicine" answer")??

A lot of people in medical school talk about how the first thing you need to do is decide if you want to do surgery or not. However, ortho seems to be an exception to this as I find a lot of people who are interested in ortho and ultimately don't pursue it (usually for competitiveness purposes) decide on nonsurgical fields such as Anes, PM&R and EM vs general surgery/other surgical avenues

@OrthoTraumaMD maybe you can contribute as well since it sounds like you were in the group that would 100% do something surgical

 

[VincentAdultman]

@Pompacil Can you talk about how your perspective has changed from when you were a third year deciding between Ortho/Gen surg vs now where you could never see yourself as a general surgeon?? What do you think you would pick if you could not do ortho (and please refrain from the "nothing in medicine" answer")??

A lot of people in medical school talk about how the first thing you need to do is decide if you want to do surgery or not. However, ortho seems to be an exception to this as I find a lot of people who are interested in ortho and ultimately don't pursue it (usually for competitiveness purposes) decide on nonsurgical fields such as Anes, PM&R and EM vs general surgery/other surgical avenues

Going into third year I was pretty sure I was pretty sure I wanted to do surgery. There were things that I saw during my ortho and gen surg rotations as a third year that I liked. But in general surgery there was a lot more medical management of patients as opposed to ortho where it was more operative. The patients were sicker in gen surg too as opposed to ortho where you were operating more to preserve lifestyles (except trauma obv) And there more I thought of it the more I think I liked the idea of medically managing sick patients than I did actually doing it. I think that's what turns off a lot of people who are initially interested in surgery...that and managing the complications. So they pick other, more "lifestyle" oriented fields. Just in my opinion.

And that's not even getting into the actual cases themselves. The first time I saw a total knee replacement, up close, scrubbed in, was like a life changing experience for me. There just wasn't anything in general surgery that compared to that.

If I had to pick another field? Probably Radiology as that has some tangential relation to orthopedics and is also a procedural field if you choose.

One more thing: it tilts me somewhat to hear people who choose another specialty because of their perceived "competitiveness." It's not like picking a school that you're going to attend for four years and then move on to the next stage of your life. This is the rest of your life. So it makes sense if you really love orthopedics (or any other field for that matter) to fight for it with everything you have regardless of a bad test day or whatever. You don't want to spend the rest of your career in a field that is "just ok" and wondering what if? Hell I was told straight up as a medical student by my deans office that I wouldn't be competitive, applied anyway, scrambled, and then lucked out big time by matching the scond time around to a great community program.

Hopefully that makes sense. I have a limited amount of time to type this out and I'm kind of just going off the cuff.

 

[Sam212]

I was an EM resident and switched into ortho. I had the stats to match ortho from the get go, but didn't have the clarity as an M4, I was somewhat lost and was talked into applying EM by some of my friends. I was lucky enough to find a spot outside the match and the rest is history.

 

[akwho]

I would have done derm for the amazing work-life balance and interesting procedures.

I love ortho and don't mind the hours because the patients, pathology and surgeries are incredible, but I just couldn't do the hours in another surgical speciality I didn't love as much.

 

[Frogger27]

I was an EM resident and switched into ortho. I had the stats to match ortho from the get go, but didn't have the clarity as an M4, I was somewhat lost and was talked into applying EM by some of my friends. I was lucky enough to find a spot outside the match and the rest is history.

Can you elaborate on what made you switch from EM to ortho? What were some of the factors that led you to be "somewhat lost" as an M4 and what realizations your had during residency that pushed you towards switching?

 

[Frogger27]

I would have done derm for the amazing work-life balance and interesting procedures.

I love ortho and don't mind the hours because the patients, pathology and surgeries are incredible, but I just couldn't do the hours in another surgical speciality I didn't love as much.

Woah, now that's a pretty interesting switch. You don't think you could have found an enjoyable career in a different surgical specialty other than ortho?

 

[mymembernames]

I was an EM resident and switched into ortho. I had the stats to match ortho from the get go, but didn't have the clarity as an M4, I was somewhat lost and was talked into applying EM by some of my friends. I was lucky enough to find a spot outside the match and the rest is history.

What made you wanna switch? Any regrets in not sticking to EM?