If you could do it all over again would you stick with EM?

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anon4895

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As someone interested in EM I've been doing a lot of reading in this forum. I've seen scary posts about being berated by ungrateful patients. I've also read a bunch of posts about how specialists may not respect you and can be somewhat condescending during consults, as well as them possibly making a ton more money than you.

Is it really that bad or are these just the standard downsides that every profession will have? As the title says, if you could do it all over again would you go into a different field or do you really enjoy it deep down?
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I would do EM again. For me, that doesn't even take a moment to consider. I was good at IM, but I was bored - to tears - even though I have a mind for all the trivialities. As a student, I tried to suck at psychiatry, and I still got an A (this was before P/HP/H).

If you told me it was either "do surgery or do nothing", my response would be, "Would you like fries with that?".

Some people do get burned, after a sort. Some people are never, ever happy - you could give them free, Italian-made by hand shoes, and they would complain about where they had to walk.

For me, EM is easy, and I enjoy what I do (which, I think, kind of go together). When I think of people making buckets of cash, like cards or ortho or neurosx, I think about (for them) the higher responsibility - or, at least, what I would feel in their shoes. For people that are doing what they want, maybe they feel it's "easy" or "natural", too. Then again, if you have replaced 500 hips, or done 1000 caths, the repetition makes it seem easy for you.

I don't think about consultants thinking less of me or MFing me behind my back. Notwithstanding SDN, I'm a pretty personable guy in person, personally, so, if someone doesn't like me, they're pretty good in not showing it (or, like a nurse that was constantly insulting and disrespectful, she showed it plainly, although no one - me, my boss, her boss, or anyone else - could figure out why she had such a case of the ass for me), then saying something out of earshot. And, if you can't say it TO me, I don't care what you say ABOUT me.
 
Apollyon said:
I would do EM again. For me, that doesn't even take a moment to consider. I was good at IM, but I was bored - to tears - even though I have a mind for all the trivialities. As a student, I tried to suck at psychiatry, and I still got an A (this was before P/HP/H).

If you told me it was either "do surgery or do nothing", my response would be, "Would you like fries with that?".

Some people do get burned, after a sort. Some people are never, ever happy - you could give them free, Italian-made by hand shoes, and they would complain about where they had to walk.

For me, EM is easy, and I enjoy what I do (which, I think, kind of go together). When I think of people making buckets of cash, like cards or ortho or neurosx, I think about (for them) the higher responsibility - or, at least, what I would feel in their shoes. For people that are doing what they want, maybe they feel it's "easy" or "natural", too. Then again, if you have replaced 500 hips, or done 1000 caths, the repetition makes it seem easy for you.

I don't think about consultants thinking less of me or MFing me behind my back. Notwithstanding SDN, I'm a pretty personable guy in person, personally, so, if someone doesn't like me, they're pretty good in not showing it (or, like a nurse that was constantly insulting and disrespectful, she showed it plainly, although no one - me, my boss, her boss, or anyone else - could figure out why she had such a case of the ass for me), then saying something out of earshot. And, if you can't say it TO me, I don't care what you say ABOUT me.
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Thank you! That was a nice post to read.
 
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Oh, and I just remembered (which is kind of funny, in that I didn't recall it before) - the only thing that even possibly got reasonably in the ballpark of what I MIGHT apply to besides EM was peds. Notwithstanding that wordy sentence, peds is the only thing that actually was seriously considered, although I didn't actually click anything.
 
Me as well. I would do this again in a heartbeat and strongly and seriously considered Peds. I went to med school to do ortho but I think I would have killed myself if I hadnt seen the light.

Great field, we are the closest thing to pure medicine left though the job has its frustrations.
 
I've been out less than a year, but without a doubt, I would do this again...

I like the variety, the schedule, the money is pretty darn good considering what we do.

I went to medical school to do Pediatrics.. had EM experiences early, and quickly saw that I loved EM well over Peds. I like working with my hands, and although I think I would have been great in surgical specialties... I do not care to have their lifestyle.

People on here say EM is not lifestyle... and maybe is not the perfect lifestyle, but I argue its a pretty dang good one. I was in Florida at the beginning of the month for several days at the beach. Just got back from a quick Dallas trip.. and just booked a quick cruise in August... Plus a family reunion in Maryland in July. We try to travel much. I have a great job, but its not in the most happening place.. so most of my group travels a decent amount. We have a great airport and I can leave my house exactly 1 hour prior to departure and still sit at the gate a few mins..

We have one 11 month old and just announced that number two will be here December 25th.

Life as an EM Physician is great! *knock on wood*

EDIT: I re-read you original question... As far as consults, I think you find that there are many that see the value of a GOOD well trained EM Physician... Like many things, its a trust thing. If you convince the hospitalists your good and this CP needs to be taken serious, then they will believe you. There will ALWAYS be some of those consultants that you simply cannot please and they will often be a pain in the rear phone call... if you are in a well suited private practice, those people often do not lost if they are really THAT bad. Thats one of our downsides. I think generally most people play well together. As far as some consultants making a ton more money than us.... I dont know that many make a 'ton more' and if they do, they rarely enjoy it as they work every day. As a good friend of mine says "Sure, Orthopedist, your lake house is twice the size of mine.. but I am at mine every other weekend!"...
 
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I'm a PGY-3 EM (in a few days), and I love my job, I can't think of many careers that would be as fulfilling to me. Like some of those above, I also didn't start medschool thinking I wanted to be EM (although I had considered it). I was pretty set on surgery until midway through MS3 when I realized surgery just wasn't for me. EM may not be a "lifestyle" field in the sense that rads or derm are, but it's not bad, and even as a resident I have a pretty active social life.
 
Yes, I would do it again. Having knowledge of the downsides is important for developing coping strategies, but doesn't detract from the fact that I like going to work almost every shift.
 
I'm finishing up residency (already technically graduated actually) but I can't imagine having done another residency.

One of the things I enjoy the most is that I actually get to feel like a doctor. At least 30% of the time someone comes in with a legit complaint, I do an H+P, maybe order some tests, then talk to them about how they are going to make it better. That really hasn't started getting old yet.

It is also really fun to be able to DO lots of things rather than just talk about them. My Peds/IM colleagues are great, don't get me wrong, but when they talk about putting in a chest tube they are talking about calling a consult to an irritated surgery resident, I'm saying to the RN "hey can you grab a pleurevac?"

I think a caveat for the med students reading this is that it's a hell of a lot easier to enjoy working in the ER if you are well trained. None of us are perfect and we all have deficiencies but definitely things get more fun when you know what you are doing. You need to be very aggressive during residency. About 10% of people at my shop always have half a foot out the door to the their next vacation, dinner reservation, weekend off etc. They are always going to struggle b/c their priority was not clinical excellence.

When you meet someone who is unhappy, ask them if they were ever happy. I know a few people from med school who were miserable as M1,2,3,4, then chose a brutal field, now they are miserable. Is this medicine's fault?
 
Wouldn't do any speciality besides EM.

That being said, I'd be bored of EM pretty quickly if I weren't in academics.

And, even then, I'll probably be ready for whatever the next evolution of my career in a decade.
 
Yes I would do EM again.

Grouchy consultants are not a big issue, just an annoyance. You learn how to handle them.

The biggest thing I didn't appreciate was our disadvantage in hospital power dynamics because we don't control large practices full of insured patients or schedule pre approved surgeries.

That said the minutiae that these guys have to deal with to manage their practices would make me crazy.
 
AmoryBlaine said:
I think a caveat for the med students reading this is that it's a hell of a lot easier to enjoy working in the ER if you are well trained. None of us are perfect and we all have deficiencies but definitely things get more fun when you know what you are doing. You need to be very aggressive during residency. About 10% of people at my shop always have half a foot out the door to the their next vacation, dinner reservation, weekend off etc. They are always going to struggle b/c their priority was not clinical excellence.
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Thanks for this blurb.
 
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xaelia said:
Wouldn't do any speciality besides EM.

That being said, I'd be bored of EM pretty quickly if I weren't in academics.

And, even then, I'll probably be ready for whatever the next evolution of my career in a decade.
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I think this is an important issue. I heavily weighed academics and had an offer to do so. I think it depends on what you want. If I did academics I think i would be much less happy. It really is personality dependent and what you want your life to look like. Academics is great for the right poeple. In my experience too many people who arent fit for academics choose it (not saying you xaelia) cause its what they know and not what they love or enjoy.
 
Interesting thread. It's encouraging to see you all state that you would do it again despite the drawbacks.

What are your guys' thoughts on anesthesiology? I feel that it's similar to EM in that it more closely approaches "real medicine" than other specialties (treating patients immediately vs long-term follow up). Do any of you wish you had looked more into anesthesia as a med student? EM is the specialty that attracted me to medicine initially though anesthesia seems like an attractive option as well, albeit with its own political challenges.
 
One thing that I didn't truly appreciate as a difference between EM and other fields is the multitasking involved. I know that sounds silly for me to say. I mean, I knew that you went back and forth between multiple patients and taking on new patients. But that's a rare thing in medicine, and I dare say, particular to EM.

Other specialties, you see one patient, deal with them, send them away. Lather, rinse, repeat. If you enjoy providing care in that manner, without being pulled to see another patient, or five, then EM is not for you. Sure, as a specialist you have consults waiting for you to see, and a full office schedule, and a call schedule, so there's always pressure to get things done. However, if you cannot keep your head wrapped around 5-6 different patients at a time, the ADD-ishness of EM can be frustrating.
 
I'm just one year into residency, but for what its worth,

100% yes. There is no other specialty that I would choose or that even comes close.
 
As PGY-3 graduating in 2 weeks, there is no other specialty I would have chosen, and I agree with most of the above.

For me, the worst part of EM is the rotating sleep schedule, and I have been more frustrated about this over the last few months than ever before. At our program, PGY-3s only work afternoon/evenings or overnights, and my wife and I have a baby who wakes up at 6AM no matter what.

If you need a regular sleep schedule, EM is a tough field.
 
anon4895 said:
As someone interested in EM I've been doing a lot of reading in this forum. I've seen scary posts about being berated by ungrateful patients. I've also read a bunch of posts about how specialists may not respect you and can be somewhat condescending during consults, as well as them possibly making a ton more money than you.

Is it really that bad or are these just the standard downsides that every profession will have? As the title says, if you could do it all over again would you go into a different field or do you really enjoy it deep down?
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Also, as far as the money thing goes, EM is compensated pretty well compared to other specialties. I mean, you can make 300k working on average less than 40 hours per week. As a money/hour perspective, Rads and maybe a few other specialties are compensated better. I mean Ortho Docs might make 500k a year, but they also work 60-70 hours a week and had to go through 5 years of residency, plus a fellowship to make that much.
 
There are things about the field that I did not foresee when I first went into it, but as a graduating resident - yes, I enjoy what I do.

Not all of what I do, but I enjoy the majority.
 
In regards to your immediate questions in the OP, that stuff doesn't affect me personally.
However, in general, if given the opp to chose again, I would have chosen differently.
 
TrumpetDoc said:
In regards to your immediate questions in the OP, that stuff doesn't affect me personally.
However, in general, if given the opp to chose again, I would have chosen differently.
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What's your reason(s) for wanting to choose differently? What would you go into instead?
 
pinipig523 said:
There are things about the field that I did not foresee when I first went into it, but as a graduating resident - yes, I enjoy what I do.

Not all of what I do, but I enjoy the majority.
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Any chance you can expand on the sortof thing you didn't envision going into the field? Would it have changed your mind if you knowing it before the application process?
 
I'll make another add.. I really thought long and hard about Academics and was really encouraged by my residency program to go the Academic route...

I ended up looking at a rare niche of academic centers without EM programs... I interviewed at two of them and ended up at the one I already knew well. There are several of these type places out there... just look at any medical school without an EM program.

I am very active with out medical students plus we have intern rotators from other departments that come through. I have also become active with TMA, TCEP, and ACEP.

Its nice as the rest of my group has little regard to the above groups and their meetings, so even as the new guy, I can get off for ever single conference/meeting/etc. Also, I recently was gladly put in charge of scheduling for our students and I have had fun mentoring to them and helping with applications and such this past year. Its a far cry from Academic EM, but it certainly helps fill my 'free time' easily and I can feel like I make a difference.

Other people have said that getting involved in your hospitals politics/committees/etc is another way to lessen any burnout concern and may can help you make a difference. Every hospital has committees, board, etc etc that you can often work your way into...

Avoiding burnout is simple; dont work too much and live within your means. Its very easy to view an 'off day' as a 2K+ loss as you could have been working. Thats a bad way to view free time, but trust me, its easy to view it that way...
 
I have been out from residency for almost a year now. By the time it was time to do residency applications in med school there was no other specialty I was seriously considering. Most of residency I thought I made the right choice. Usually now I still think I did. However working all the nights, evenings, holidays, every other weekend really can put a damper on things. This month I'm working 15 shifts (we are shorthanded) and my family has said to me multiple times that they think I work all the time. In actuality of the 9 weekend days this month I'm working 4 of them. They of course though were ones that had cousin's birthday parties on 2 different days and father's day. If you are in some other specialties you can reduce some of your call for this stuff by joining a large group that shares call. My uncle is a cardiologist and I think at this point he works every 7th weekend and is off the rest.
 
Alright, I'll voice the other side of things:

I have second thoughts sometimes. I thought that going into EM would allow me to focus on emergencies and ignore the BS. To a large extent I still do (I look at the ECG of a chest pain patient long before I look at their insurance, and I'll have a patient escorted out by security if he or she is abusive), but it's getting harder and harder to get away with not worrying about the BS. Add to that the fact that my schedule looks much less attractive from the perspective of a family man than it did from the perspective of a single guy who had entirely too many friends who were willing to go out drinking on a Tuesday. Add to that the lack of control I have over the pace and flow of my workday and I start wondering if I should've done something else. I think a lot of people's second thoughts stem from the fact that most of us chose our field in our late 20's. EM appeals to most 28 year olds a lot more than it does to most 45 year olds.

However, when I think of alternatives, I'm not thinking that maybe I should've done Ortho or FP (the two other fields I most seriously considered). I wonder if I should've been a Pharmacist or a Pathologist, so we're talking about some pretty dramatically different career paths. When I actually take stock of everything (salary, hours, self-respect, job security, etc) EM still looks like one of the best deals in medicine.
 
anon4895 said:
What's your reason(s) for wanting to choose differently? What would you go into instead?
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Wilco shed light on some o the aspects I immediately found troubling.
Although a large problem I have is likely a problem with the entire course of medicine in this country. I did not go into this to have to worry about satisfaction or bio psychosocial factors. I am a "sick/not sick" guy. Don't get me wrong I am very personable and enjoy getting along with staff and pts. In fact I get asked almost daily to be the primary doctor for someone. But my "scores" don't pan that out, and if kept that way it threatens my job...if I was an a hole and such I can see that. But not when I'm out there doing good medicine and making people happy (see previous posts on press ganey).

This whole idea if us becoming "less physician focused" is BS and simply a accelerant to the house of medicine devaluing us enough to SLASH our pay!

The schedule is a hard thing to get used to. In residency it's funny, we were happier with it as they were 12s and I was either "day" or "night" and these were in predictable blocks...so schedules and plans could be made in advance...not so now. I work any one of 6 different "day" shifts or one of 3 "nights". These are rather random and we have equal share of the pain. And we get the next mo schedule 1 mo in advance.
Needless to say this is immensely hard in my wife as we have 3 lil children and can't plan ahead for much at all.

Is it better doing anything else? Dunno.
Can i do it feasibly? Not at the moment. Recently bought a house that we can't sell, family, loans/debt, etc.

My other choices actually were radiology and pathology (pathology experience a pre med). I was wood into EM after a couple of great rotations, so I guess I may have had blinders on or "career beer goggles" as it were.

I would prob go to law school if it weren't for the debt (getting more loans an managing what I have)
There's fertile ground there the way medicine is going.

If I erased my debt I would leave medicine an go back to music.
 
Birdstrike said:
EM for me, is like that crazy first girlfriend, perfect at the time:

Intoxicating. Amazing. Crazy. Beautiful. Ugly. Exciting. Boring. Necessary. Not eternal.


I loved and hated every minute of the crazy roller coaster ride, but I'd never, ever give up the memories. I'm thankful for the person she made me, for without her I wouldn't be in the place I am now, but I'm happy we've parted ways. I vow never to go back to her, but in a moment of weakness, just might be tempted. I prefer my new lady, who has a little less glitz and glam, but is a lot more stable.

Do I regret the experience? Not for a minute.
Knowing what the person I was knew then, would I do it again? Hell yeah!
Knowing what the person I am knows now, would I go back? Hell no.
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What do you do now?
 
BStrike, I hear ya.

Sometimes I wonder what life would have been like if I took that PMC in Africa/Asia.

Oh well, it could be worse...it could be raining.
 
RPedigo said:
Legend has it that one person found out... but was never heard from again. ;)
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Legend has it that he operated on his surgeon, that press ganey has a special category of awesome locked away in a secure location just for him, and that hospital administrators bred a mountain lion to keep him in check but now lays in front of his fireplace . . .

Although he doesn't tell you what he does, he prefers not doing so while drinking dos equis . . .
 
This thread was so good that I actually went ahead and signed up just so I could post.

I'm a 4th year medical student and I just finished up my EM rotation last month and I loved it. The variability in patients, in hours, the procedures, working closely with the residents and attendings.. it was great, even the overnights. Before then I was thinking Radiology, emphasis on the thinking. I was never too comfortable with the decision, it was something I wanted to do dating back to high school but my rotations never blew me away like EM. I enjoyed it, I'm actually pretty good at it and yes, the lifestyle is very, very tempting but I was never comfortable with it. Add on the paycut and job market issues and the fact that 10 of 20 spots in my state went unfilled last year (I think that should tell me something) and I was seriously doubting myself. There was just nothing else that really made me change my mind until EM, not that my mind's completely changed.

I guess my question to those who posted before me is what advice would you have for me about this? Obviously, do what you love is the answer here but one of you summed up my thinking perfectly when you said EM is a dream job for a 25 year old, not a 45 year old. I'm married, I want to have kids soon, I love to travel... obviously, there must be a reason for the high burn-out rate of EM docs. I wish I could make a decision based on what I like NOW but I can't really help but to think about the future (the hours, the energy needed, etc). And to be quite honest, if they were paid exactly the same I would probably do EM.

Sorry for rambling, this was longer than I planned... thanks for any help you guys can give me... I definitely need it.
 
Birdstrike said:
I loved and hated every minute of the crazy roller coaster ride, but I'd never, ever give up the memories. I'm thankful for the person she made me, for without her I wouldn't be in the place I am now, but I'm happy we've parted ways. I vow never to go back to her, but in a moment of weakness, just might be tempted. I prefer my new lady, who has a little less glitz and glam, but is a lot more stable.
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I remember my first girl-friend...Martha. She was very pretty, but dumb as a box of rocks. I tried to help her with her math once. It was like teaching a 3rd grader. We didn't talk much. I shudder to think what I would have done to the ACT-scoring potential of my off-spring for generations had she not dumped me several times in 2 months.
 
dostudent13 said:
? Obviously, do what you love is the answer here but one of you summed up my thinking perfectly when you said EM is a dream job for a 25 year old, not a 45 year old. I'm married, I want to have kids soon, I love to travel... obviously, there must be a reason for the high burn-out rate of EM docs.
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I dont have the stats on me, but I have recently seen that the Burnout rate for EM isnt really different then other specialties.
 
Almost all of the doctors I know work really hard, or at least feel like they do. There are very few fields where you're going to work bankers' hours and make a lot of money. Quite frankly, some of those fields would be pretty boring.

I'm pretty happy doing EM. It fits my lifestyle and demeanor. There's a lot of flexibility to tweak your career in a variety of directions if you want a change. Med schools don't really give students a lot of opportunity to try out lots of different fields. It might be worth setting up some of your own shadowing shifts. Ultimately you're just going to have to pick a field.

To me I'd prefer

"This is really fun now, but in 10 years night shifts may get old."

over

"This is kinda boring now, in 10 years it's unlikely to get a lot more interesting."


dostudent13 said:
This thread was so good that I actually went ahead and signed up just so I could post.

I'm a 4th year medical student and I just finished up my EM rotation last month and I loved it. The variability in patients, in hours, the procedures, working closely with the residents and attendings.. it was great, even the overnights. Before then I was thinking Radiology, emphasis on the thinking. I was never too comfortable with the decision, it was something I wanted to do dating back to high school but my rotations never blew me away like EM. I enjoyed it, I'm actually pretty good at it and yes, the lifestyle is very, very tempting but I was never comfortable with it. Add on the paycut and job market issues and the fact that 10 of 20 spots in my state went unfilled last year (I think that should tell me something) and I was seriously doubting myself. There was just nothing else that really made me change my mind until EM, not that my mind's completely changed.

I guess my question to those who posted before me is what advice would you have for me about this? Obviously, do what you love is the answer here but one of you summed up my thinking perfectly when you said EM is a dream job for a 25 year old, not a 45 year old. I'm married, I want to have kids soon, I love to travel... obviously, there must be a reason for the high burn-out rate of EM docs. I wish I could make a decision based on what I like NOW but I can't really help but to think about the future (the hours, the energy needed, etc). And to be quite honest, if they were paid exactly the same I would probably do EM.

Sorry for rambling, this was longer than I planned... thanks for any help you guys can give me... I definitely need it.
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Jarabacoa said:
I remember my first girl-friend...Martha. She was very pretty, but dumb as a box of rocks. I tried to help her with her math once. It was like teaching a 3rd grader. We didn't talk much. I shudder to think what I would have done to the ACT-scoring potential of my off-spring for generations had she not dumped me several times in 2 months.
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I wonder if we dated the same girl....
 
dotcb said:
To me I'd prefer

"This is really fun now, but in 10 years night shifts may get old."

over

"This is kinda boring now, in 10 years it's unlikely to get a lot more interesting."
Click to expand...

That's actually a pretty good way of putting it.. thanks for the reply!
 
winkleweizen said:
I dont have the stats on me, but I have recently seen that the Burnout rate for EM isnt really different then other specialties.
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I think that the burn-out rate for ER in general is not as bad as any job. I think that INDIVIDUAL job locations tend to run through ER physicians like crazy. Between groups losing contracts and physicians getting tired of a particular hospital, group, director, nurse group, CEO, location, etc., the turn over is astronomical. If you talk to the average ER physician who has been out for 20 years, they have gone through dozens of ERs. ESPECIALLY in the first 3 years. If you would have told me the truth about my first job, I still would have taken it because...I can take anything, right? I knew there was some turnover, and there was even a different group of doctors that I interviewed with compared to when I showed up, which should have been unsettling. That group had gone through 20 doctors in 3 years. After 11 years of jumping through hoops and getting ground into bat-snot by senior residents, professors, and program directors, you think, "Hey man, I can take anything." Three years later, you realize, "Hey, I don't have to take this anymore."

I still don't regret going into ER, or even getting a job at the first place I worked out of residency. In retrospect, all of the areas where I was deficient as a resident, got strengthened hard-core at my first job.
 
ensuii said:
Any chance you can expand on the sortof thing you didn't envision going into the field? Would it have changed your mind if you knowing it before the application process?
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I don't like the huge emphasis on customer service, press ganey, etc.

If it were just the medicine, that's fine. But all that plus ungrateful patients - those are my negatives of the field.
 
pinipig523 said:
I don't like the huge emphasis on customer service, press ganey, etc.

If it were just the medicine, that's fine. But all that plus ungrateful patients - those are my negatives of the field.
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This.

You've got to have some sort of coping mechanism to deal with the throngs of ungrateful people with "no real pathology" that are "entitled" to... well... everything. You are their servant. And they don't give a phuck about the medicine, or their personal/social/societal irresponsibility. And here's the kicker: You're paying (with your taxes) for the privilege of treating them... at your own personal risk.

Just this past shift, I had someone shout at me - "I know my rights. I have a right to pain medicines." Yep. Narcotic bowel FTW.

This was after the sixteen year old who comes in for intractable belly pain x3 months... pregnant for the fourth time. Her mother was mad at ME for not being able to tell her who the father was. Told me to "go do the tests to find out like on the TV shows".
 
If you go into EM because you want to take care of emergencies, you may be disappointed. Depending on your setting, a minority of what you'll see will truly be emergencies. Maybe 5% critical, 20-30% needing admission. The rest will be urgent in the sense that the patient feels they need to see a doctor and for whatever reason, feel like they have nowhere else to turn. Sometimes this can be painful, and sometimes it can be deeply satisfying. It's important that you either enjoy or learn to enjoy this full spectrum, otherwise you will be unhappy most of the time because most patients aren't really having emergencies. My experience is this: on almost every shift I see at least a few really interesting things, and these help make the rest of it worth it.
 
anon4895 said:
As someone interested in EM I've been doing a lot of reading in this forum. I've seen scary posts about being berated by ungrateful patients. I've also read a bunch of posts about how specialists may not respect you and can be somewhat condescending during consults, as well as them possibly making a ton more money than you.

Is it really that bad or are these just the standard downsides that every profession will have? As the title says, if you could do it all over again would you go into a different field or do you really enjoy it deep down?
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Ab. So. Lute. Ly. In a heartbeat. Less than that, actually, in a PR interval. Not even a question - I don't belong anywhere else. d=)

Any & every branch of medicine and the subspecialties have some degree of this condescention crap; it's a fact of life.

What I love about EM is the undifferentiated aspect, sprinkled with the occasional *true* emergency, and never - EVER - having to set foot in a clinic... except for tox clinic, and I looooooove tox; so bearable.

To me, the urgent care B.S. is simply the cost of admission to do what I love.

Cheers!
-d

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I will say that while a student, and even in residency I felt a ls if I really loved what i did.
It wasn't until about a year out that i felt burned out and really down about my job. I do think that a lot of it may come from a general disgust of where medicine is going in general.
I envy those who truly love what they do day in and day out.
 
"I envy those who truly love what they do day in and day out."

You might feel better when you realize that these people don't exist.
 
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