In a perfect world, what would you choose?

[dr.evil]

IF all lifestyle considerations were equal including pay, hours worked per week, length of residency, outlook for the future of the field, etc. and you were simply choosing a specialty for personal/idealistic rewards
from the profession, which specialty would you choose and why?

Mine would likely be CT surg. The benefits of being able to greatly improve the quality of life for some extremely sick people is remarkable. Granted, there are a high number of bad outcomes but these usually aren't your fault.

Medicine is full of very personally rewarding specialties.

This is simply for fun and I don't need the "this is ridiculous b/c things aren't the same" crap :wink: . There just seems to be a lot of lifestyle considerations here at SDN and I'm just bored so...

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[bigfrank]

I would do child psychiatry for probably the same reasons you listed for CT surgery.

 

[barb]

I would do neurosurgery because:

1. I like the fact that there's still so much more to learn about the brain. There's no end to what we'll find and I thrive on that kind of exploration.

2. I don't like to brag, but I have awesome control of my hands - people are always gushing over my penmanship! :wink: so I think I'd be great with all those micromanipulations you gotta do.

3. People who don't know me often assume I'm kinda dumb so I'd love for when one of those smartasses condescendingly tells me to do something and says, "Come on, it's not brainsurgery," I could come back with, "That's too bad. Then it would be really easy for me." :wink:

 

[hosskp1]

ortho-with a fellowship in joint replacement or trauma.

That is waht I am going to try for and that is what I am going to eventually do(one way or the other). I like to idea of helping realieve pain, getting motion back, and the surgeries and clinc are the most exciting of any specialty. I realize how hard it is to get in and how much they work, but that is waht I want.

 

[SUNYboy]

Ophthalmology

There aren't many things more rewarding than being the protector of somebody's sight. Plus, it is a specialty where you can actually see the pathology going on, i.e. microaneurysms, lipid exudates, neovascularization, cystoid macular edema, etc. For example, instead of guessing whether the blood pressure is under control based on the reading, you can actually see the A-V nicking, retinal hemorrhages, etc. Since we are dealing with the microvasculature, eye findings are often the first manifestation of systemic diseases. Pretty neat stuff. Oh, and you get to play with cool toys.

And talk about microsurgery!! These are some of the finest and most meticulous surgeries you will see. These surgeries are extremely difficult to learn technically, so it's challenging in that respect.

And the real kicker is: the lifestyle IS awesome. The residency is pretty easy and relatively short. Pay is good, etc.

Just my 2 cents.....

 

[wake up sir your surgery is over]

Pediatric Hematology / Oncology

There are not many more rewarding things that I can think of than being able to tell parents that their child has been cured of cancer.

Obviously some kids will not make it, but knowing that you helped give them a chance is still rewarding in its own way.

Also, being a physician is about helping people live with dignity, and also about helping people die with dignity when the time comes. This specialty truely capures what it means to be a physician, challenging pathology, allows for creativity in treatment when traditional methods fail, and a huge human element.

I might enter this specialty, but probably not because I am simply too sensitive to handle the death of children on a regular basis.

 

[Ploppit]

Interesting thread...thought it would be interesting to see if people's responses have changed with time..

 

[digitlnoize]

Wow, this thread is old. It is a neat discussion though...especially for those still trying to suss out what they might want to do.

All that being said, I think I'm gonna do child psych. I like the hours, the work-life balance, the ability to have your own business with little overhead, the ability to mostly bypass the insurance industry, and being able to help kids get better. Plus, there is a huge shortage and people aren't getting any less crazy.

If all things were really equal, not just competitiveness, I may also throw Cards and Rads into the loop, since those are the other two specialties I find interesting in practice. Unfortunately, I find reading rads material incredibly boring, despite all the cool pictures they get to look and, and I'm far too old and family tied to enter the crazy competitive world that is cards...and I like psych better anyways...but, maybe I'm just crazy, hahaha.

 

[Cruzinman]

Now that my third wife has divorced me, I can live in a perfect world and be married to medicine.

 

[Jolie South]

Plastics because I think reconstruction is amazing. Making people look human again after horrible trauma really is awesome. I also really appreciate the creativity that those guys have to have to put things back together again.

I have the grades for it, but for a number of reasons I'm looking into other specialties.

 

[coldweatherblue]

love EM for pretty much all those reasons.. I know it's hard for people to understand.. I like ER patients more than most of my classmates. i can talk about guns, sports, cars, travel, music, art etc with anyone but as soon as someone starts spouting some pretentious BS about how they're better than people I tune out.. I always wanted to do mission work, and in EM you basically do mission work every day, no matter where you work. you work for free for people who don't really care about your work.. which is my thing.. providing a service. plus it's the perfect mix of medicine/surgery/peds/psych/neuro/gyn etc. Lots of procedures which I love.. lots of variety.. no follow up... i just wanna see you for 1hr, find out whats wrong, and peace out. plus I love how everyone can be total dicks to ER and they just shrug it off.. like my resident on surgery was being rude to the ER attending today and he was nice and professional.. high road.. which is awesome. so it's an awesome lifestyle, best fit, basically meets all my dreams of what I wanted to do with my life, plus you can go anywhere in the world and practice, cause i'm a rambling person, will prolly never settle down. Look I work like 100 hours a week on surg now but never really feel like I"m working because it's sooooo tedious and boring.. but in ER you go ACTUALLY WORK.. you handle business, fix problems.. and you still have free time. I'm used to busting ass and I like working hard but 90% of the things i love are outside medicine. Basically ER is the best thing in the world. oh yeah, ER is awesome because you can go to work and be HAPPY and enthusiastic about medicine and people don't criticize you.. I'm on surgery and I go to work every day like totally happy and wanting to work and learn and they just look at me like i'm crazy, pimp the **** out of me, i answer all that, then they look at me like i'm crazier. got the grades for anything but all i want is ER in my sleepy hometown program.

 

[username456789]

I have the grades for it, but for a number of reasons I'm looking into other specialties.

Same. I'm very interested in ortho and plastics, and have the grades to be highly competitive in both. Unfortunately, there are a lot of reasons I have been dissuaded from most/all surgical fields.

So I'm trying to figure out what I want to do now. Radiology/Anesthesiology/EM all sound like pretty sweet deals, but I'm not sure I'm all that passionate about either of them. So it's now a game of trying to find a balance between "really wanting to do something" specifically, and "really wanting to have a life and make a decent salary."

 

[Jolie South]

Same. I'm very interested in ortho and plastics, and have the grades to be highly competitive in both. Unfortunately, there are a lot of reasons I have been dissuaded from most/all surgical fields.

So I'm trying to figure out what I want to do now. Radiology/Anesthesiology/EM all sound like pretty sweet deals, but I'm not sure I'm all that passionate about either of them. So it's now a game of trying to find a balance between "really wanting to do something" specifically, and "really wanting to have a life and make a decent salary."

I'm on the fence between anesthesiology and urology.

 

[2012mdc]

Interventional Neuroradiology or whatever is the official name now.

Perfect mix of neurology, radiology, and surgery for me. Also find it more interesting than IR. Things like strokes are a big problem in this country.

Outside chance I end up doing it but I think it may be too high stress. May just settle on neurorads

 

[illixir]

In a perfect world, I'd probably say ct surgery, neurosurgery but I think plastics would be right up there too. Can either of you say why you'd choose against plastics even though you like it?

 

[McGillGrad]

love EM for pretty much all those reasons.. I know it's hard for people to understand.. I like ER patients more than most of my classmates. i can talk about guns, sports, cars, travel, music, art etc with anyone but as soon as someone starts spouting some pretentious BS about how they're better than people I tune out.. I always wanted to do mission work, and in EM you basically do mission work every day, no matter where you work. you work for free for people who don't really care about your work.. which is my thing.. providing a service. plus it's the perfect mix of medicine/surgery/peds/psych/neuro/gyn etc. Lots of procedures which I love.. lots of variety.. no follow up... i just wanna see you for 1hr, find out whats wrong, and peace out. plus I love how everyone can be total dicks to ER and they just shrug it off.. like my resident on surgery was being rude to the ER attending today and he was nice and professional.. high road.. which is awesome. so it's an awesome lifestyle, best fit, basically meets all my dreams of what I wanted to do with my life, plus you can go anywhere in the world and practice, cause i'm a rambling person, will prolly never settle down. Look I work like 100 hours a week on surg now but never really feel like I"m working because it's sooooo tedious and boring.. but in ER you go ACTUALLY WORK.. you handle business, fix problems.. and you still have free time. I'm used to busting ass and I like working hard but 90% of the things i love are outside medicine. Basically ER is the best thing in the world. oh yeah, ER is awesome because you can go to work and be HAPPY and enthusiastic about medicine and people don't criticize you.. I'm on surgery and I go to work every day like totally happy and wanting to work and learn and they just look at me like i'm crazy, pimp the **** out of me, i answer all that, then they look at me like i'm crazier. got the grades for anything but all i want is ER in my sleepy hometown program.

In a perfect world people would use multiple paragraphs.

 

[coldweatherblue]

In a perfect world people would use multiple paragraphs.

glad it's not a perfect world and I can write however I feel at the moment, regardless of conventional typography.

 

[digitlnoize]

In a perfect world, no one would be sick, and we'd all be rich and I'd be a beach bum guitarist.

 

[Bartelby]

Psych. The stories are always interesting and there is lots of room for exciting advancements in Psychiatric theory. Not only that, when you are able to help a mentally ill person recover it's as crucial to their wellbeing as pretty much any other specialty out there.