Just started rads residency and I feel like I made a mistake.

[GoPelicans]

---

Members don't see this ad.

I know a large part of it is the learning curve but I don't feel 'doctory' at all. I feel like I'm in med school again learning random anatomy minutiae and hating my life. I was deciding between rads and anesthesia up until August of fourth year and I can't help but feel I might've made a mistake. I'm in a good program so that's not the issue. Please tell me it will get better because I'm feeling borderline depressed and I'm never like this. I just finished a TY and enjoyed myself despite the ****ty hours and annoying patients. Went into rads because I thought it would be just straight medicine minus the bs, and now I'm feeling like I'm doing the least mediciny thing in the hospital. I don't interact with anyone except other radiology people. Despite the great hours I don't feel happy, I don't feel gratified. Everyone around me in my program looks happy except me. I guess I just want someone who felt the same way to tell me it will get better.

 

[deleted950463]

Try IR first, see how you feel about it. If you love IR but dislike actual diagnostic rad you can always gun for a good IR program and aim to become a faculty in IR or some other 100% IR situation.

Diagnostic rad outside of mammo and maybe fluoro is never going to feel very medicin-y

 

[Cognovi]

You may feel differently once you
-know enough to be helpful
-take a consult on the fly in person or over the phone
-present at a multidisciplinary conference
-inform a patient of their diagnostic imaging result such as in GI fluoro or breast imaging
-follow up on cases and see how your read changed management
-compare your life to your friends in other specialties

 

[CidHighwind]

Interesting you are saying this, since rads vs gas is something I’m struggling with right now. What’s funny is that if you ask the Anesthesiology board, they’d say you made the right choice. Can’t think of any other specialty that actively tells students not to apply to it like Anesthesiology does.

 

[deleted950463]

Interesting you are saying this, since rads vs gas is something I’m struggling with right now. What’s funny is that if you ask the Anesthesiology board, they’d say you made the right choice. Can’t think of any other specialty that actively tells students not to apply to it like Anesthesiology does.

Do rad if you are ok with an office job. DR is completely different from what most physican or lay people envision the practice of medicine to be. For starters, there is no clinics.

 

[Dave1980]

I know a large part of it is the learning curve but I don't feel 'doctory' at all. I feel like I'm in med school again learning random anatomy minutiae and hating my life. I was deciding between rads and anesthesia up until August of fourth year and I can't help but feel I might've made a mistake. I'm in a good program so that's not the issue. Please tell me it will get better because I'm feeling borderline depressed and I'm never like this. I just finished a TY and enjoyed myself despite the ****ty hours and annoying patients. Went into rads because I thought it would be just straight medicine minus the bs, and now I'm feeling like I'm doing the least mediciny thing in the hospital. I don't interact with anyone except other radiology people. Despite the great hours I don't feel happy, I don't feel gratified. I'm watching 'day in the life of an anesthesia resident' videos on youtube. I know rads is an objectively amazing specialty people would kill to switch into so I want to stick it out. Everyone around me in my program looks happy except me. I guess I just want someone who felt the same way to tell me it will get better.

I'd consider a different field if you liked TY and want to feel "doctory"

 

[GoPelicans]

Interesting you are saying this, since rads vs gas is something I’m struggling with right now. What’s funny is that if you ask the Anesthesiology board, they’d say you made the right choice. Can’t think of any other specialty that actively tells students not to apply to it like Anesthesiology does.

They were the same when I was trying to pick two years ago, I think that board is just filled with grumpy old white guys for whatever reason.

 

[CidHighwind]

They were the same when I was trying to pick two years ago, I think that board is just filled with grumpy old white guys for whatever reason.

If you want more patient contact you can do mammo or IR. Honestly IR seems like one of the best jobs in medicine. You can even run a clinic and all that if that’s the part of medicine you enjoy. Also yeah, I don’t understand why those guys making 500k a year for sitting down on a stool and doing crossword puzzles all day are so angry.

 

[Tiger100]

You may not like it. DR may be a great field but it is not for everyone. You have to do mental work contantly with less social interaction. People who love DR are the ones who enjoy the intellectual aspect of it. People who are fine with DR are the ones who dislike patient contact.

IR is a different beast and is not for everyone either. Saying that do IR because you want patient contact is like saying that you have to become a trauma surgeon if you don't like dermatology. There is a huge spectrum in between. Choosing IR just because you dislike DR is not a wise choice.

You have to see what you are missing here.

If it is mainly patient contact, then switch fields but anesthesiology is not the solution either.
If you miss OR and have to cut, then swith to surgery. Neither IR nor anesthesia will help.

But if you miss procedures, then stick with radiology and do IR. Depending on your priroties you can do 100% IR or you can do a mixture. If you are OK with a few procedures a day then you can do mammo or body. But be aware that if you want a specific practice set up (doing only IR or only mammo or only body with procedures) your job options will be less than other applicants. For example in some grouos all body procedures are done by IR.

Do what you like but don't overthink.

 

[SeisK]

Honestly IR seems like one of the best jobs in medicine.

You misspelled DR.

 

[CidHighwind]

You misspelled DR.

Aren’t IR people essentially DR people that do more procedures?

 

[Dave1980]

Aren’t IR people essentially DR people that do more procedures?

Aren't surgeons DR people who that do more more procedures?

 

[Cognovi]

Aren't surgeons DR people who that do more more procedures?

Many cardiologists are essentially DR people that sometimes see patients in clinic.

 

[GoPelicans]

To the above people, I do my first IR rotation in January, hopefully it scratches that procedure itch and I learn to like DR in the meantime. I don't miss rounding and stuff, but talking to patients once in a while when you could give good news/reassurance was fun.

 

[JoshSt]

I mean, you're 15ish days / 2 weeks in, right? I didn't like my first rotation in DR but loved (nearly) every rotation after that. Just give it some time. As others said, IR will give you a clinical itch but DR is so so great once you learn what you're doing (at least for me). Patient contact will come in certain rotations - you can decide if you want to build what you do around that (like breast, MSK/body with procedures) or completely immerse yourself with patient contact with IR.

 

[deleted950463]

Aren’t IR people essentially DR people that do more procedures?

IR are often not paid as well or equally in private practice despite having a rough call schedule. It’s a funner job but you pay for it.

 

[scoopdaboop]

If you want more patient contact you can do mammo or IR. Honestly IR seems like one of the best jobs in medicine. You can even run a clinic and all that if that’s the part of medicine you enjoy. Also yeah, I don’t understand why those guys making 500k a year for sitting down on a stool and doing crossword puzzles all day are so angry.

more anaesthesia physicians = more people to lobby and fight for physician led anaesthesia or physician supervised anaesthesia. telling people to not apply so anaesthesia seats don't get filled is a bad thing for the future of the specialty in the long run, atleast that's how I view it.

 

[shadowlightfox]

I thought anesthesiology would be very appealing. It's becoming more competitive no?

 

[Tiger100]

Aren’t IR people essentially DR people that do more procedures?

True.

Despite the clear line that is drawn between IR and DR in academics or at least they try to, in the REAL WORLD there is no clear line between two fields. You may get surprised to see how often the socalled DR people do procedures in the community from doing biopsies and drains to vascular work (at least venous work and especially in smaller cities).

A lot of these are practice dependent. There are people who read only DR and there are radiologists who may spend 1/3 of their time doing procedures.

Community practice (80% of healthcare) is way way different than academics with totally different mindset.

 

[Tiger100]

One clarification:

In most radiology groups IR is paid similar to DR. There are always exceptions but most DRs are totally fine with this structure.

 

[Sircalvin]

I know a large part of it is the learning curve but I don't feel 'doctory' at all. I feel like I'm in med school again learning random anatomy minutiae and hating my life. I was deciding between rads and anesthesia up until August of fourth year and I can't help but feel I might've made a mistake. I'm in a good program so that's not the issue. Please tell me it will get better because I'm feeling borderline depressed and I'm never like this. I just finished a TY and enjoyed myself despite the ****ty hours and annoying patients. Went into rads because I thought it would be just straight medicine minus the bs, and now I'm feeling like I'm doing the least mediciny thing in the hospital. I don't interact with anyone except other radiology people. Despite the great hours I don't feel happy, I don't feel gratified. I'm watching 'day in the life of an anesthesia resident' videos on youtube. I know rads is an objectively amazing specialty people would kill to switch into so I want to stick it out. Everyone around me in my program looks happy except me. I guess I just want someone who felt the same way to tell me it will get better.

Radiology is like FINE WINE... It gets better and better with age.. Trust me, when you are 50-60 years old practicing medicine you will thank God everyday you went into Radiology !!!! I know- I've been doing this for 35 years, and love it more and more everyday. How many surgeons, GP's, OB-GYN's, IM's, Peds, etc.. can say that ?? ANS: Zero, None, Nada !!

 

[nickelbackfan]

Radiology is like FINE WINE... It gets better and better with age.. Trust me, when you are 50-60 years old practicing medicine you will thank God everyday you went into Radiology !!!! I know- I've been doing this for 35 years, and love it more and more everyday. How many surgeons, GP's, OB-GYN's, IM's, Peds, etc.. can say that ?? ANS: Zero, None, Nada !!

As a pgy-1 going into rads, can you expand as to why rads gets more fun with time as opposed to boring? Thanks!

 

[Norick13]

As a pgy-1 going into rads, can you expand as to why rads gets more fun with time as opposed to boring? Thanks!

As an R2, it is way better than R1 already.

I think the reason it gets better with experience is that you’re able to read the bull****, non-indicated studies faster without as much fear of missing something.

Then the indicated studies are even more interesting because instead of being panicked about not knowing anatomic structures and pathologic findings you’re able to start putting together the puzzle. You start being able to make coherent diagnoses rather than just listing findings. That’s when radiology actually starts to become fun and interesting at least to me.

 

[CherryRedDracul]

Then the indicated studies are even more interesting because instead of being panicked about not knowing anatomic structures and pathologic findings you’re able to start putting together the puzzle. You start being able to make coherent diagnoses rather than just listing findings. That’s when radiology actually starts to become fun and interesting at least to me.

This is what I love about radiology: being able to put the pieces together. It's especially satisfying when I'm talking to a clinician and we both work together to make the puzzle complete (or as near to complete as possible).

 

[Radology]

Give it 3-4 months.

You’re already kind of pot committed to this year, might as well try to give it your best effort

If you end up miserable and hating it so be it, time to transfer and start looking for openings in other programs. Radiology is not for everyone. The time to switch is after your R1 year