International travel?

[bulldogtor]

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I'm a third year med student and am currently on rotations and trying to decide what I want to pursue. My grades and Step 1 score are not competitive.

Future salary is not a big concern for me. My two main criteria for a future specialty are:
1. Applicable for international volunteer work
2. I'll have enough time to travel and do volunteer work

I am interested in PM&R, neuro, psych, and peds. I know there is a need for FM docs and sometimes ped docs in certain places around the world. If I did do FM, I would probably do a sports med fellowship with it. I've heard FM can have a great lifestyle with good hours. I've never heard that about peds. Of course we know that PM&R has good hours.

I love PM&R. But I am worried about it being in demand here in the US and also concerned if I can use these skills in places around the world where treatment is more acute.

What do you say? PM&R for international work? Is the job market for physiatrists here in the US looking promising? Or should I stick with sports med or peds + sports med if I want to travel?

 

[PMR 4 MSK]

Lots of questions there.

With peds, the international possibilities are endless. Kids are underserved in most of the world. Here in the states, the hours can suck unless you do part-time. Peds are among the lowest paid docs.

FP could lead to anything international. All-around general practitioners can be doing general medicine and surgery in meany places in the world.

Sports med would be good hours, but is quite competitive. It could lead to international travel for sports teams, such as olympic or professional sports. In most of the rest of the world, sports medicnie is only for the elite.

Neuro and psych both tend to have good hours also, although bothn can get after-hours admits and emergencies. I would imagine there is a great need for both internationally.

PM&R is long-haul medicine. Take the Haiti earthquake. The first thing they needed was surgeons to put people back together. Then they needed rehab. But they need it for months. Most of the world does not have PM&R.

 

[Jitter Bug]

Don't overlook general surgery and emergency medicine.

If you want to travel frequently you can work as a locums tenens choose your assignment length (weeks to months) then vacation or volunteer until you feel like signing up for another locums position. Of course that means you and your family will need to be really portable as you probably won't get multiple assignments in the same city.

Sorry to say PM&R isn't a fly in and fly out type of medicine. What good is throwing some kid in a prosthetic leg if you can't teach him how to use it (which can take weeks) and be there when the sock liners wear out with replacement parts?