Matching competitive specialty

[Chibucks15]

You can have a good lifestyle in most everything. You just have to be willing to take a pay cut

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[mrbreakfast]

other orthopedic surgeons who operate electively 4 days a week 7am-3pm with a day of clinic, which is pretty good in terms of lifestlye.

A surgeon with clinic one day a week?

You can have a good lifestyle in most everything. You just have to be willing to take a pay cut

This is basically the take-home message. Pick the salary you want, and find the way to get that in the lifestyle that works for you. You can make a lot of money in clinic, working shift work (hospitalist/EM), or doing surgeries. The absolute highest paid physicians I know an orthopod and a neurosurgeon, but also a psychiatrist, a neurologist, and a pain guy. It's all in how you practice.

Every EM doc I've met loves their job, working 12 hour shifts at every imaginable hour. The neuro-interventionalists at the hospital work Q2 and absolutely love their jobs. My FM clerkship preceptor saw 20 patients a day and loved it. The trauma GS I worked with loved taking trauma call in the middle of the night. Worked with hospitalists who got in at 8, rounded, wrote orders, ate lunch, rounded again, signed notes, and left in time to go to their kid's sports game or hit happy hour, and that's on the few weeks they actually work. Etc. Each person liked their specific lifestyle over others. Just find something you can imagine yourself being happy doing.

 

[irwarrior]

https://interventionalnews.com/ir-competitive-2018-usa/

Was Interventional Radiology the Most Competitive Speciality? – SIR RFS

rfs.sirweb.org

Here are a couple of articles about the Interventional match this past year. One thing that comes up is that program directors want to see how passionate one is about the interventional field. Though Step scores seem to be important it is not emphasized as much as enthusiasm about the field. It is far different from radiology and is not a lifestyle specialty. It is more similar to surgery/ surgical subspecialty.

 

[Chibucks15]

A surgeon with clinic one day a week?



This is basically the take-home message. Pick the salary you want, and find the way to get that in the lifestyle that works for you. You can make a lot of money in clinic, working shift work (hospitalist/EM), or doing surgeries. The absolute highest paid physicians I know an orthopod and a neurosurgeon, but also a psychiatrist, a neurologist, and a pain guy. It's all in how you practice.

Every EM doc I've met loves their job, working 12 hour shifts at every imaginable hour. The neuro-interventionalists at the hospital work Q2 and absolutely love their jobs. My FM clerkship preceptor saw 20 patients a day and loved it. The trauma GS I worked with loved taking trauma call in the middle of the night. Worked with hospitalists who got in at 8, rounded, wrote orders, ate lunch, rounded again, signed notes, and left in time to go to their kid's sports game or hit happy hour, and that's on the few weeks they actually work. Etc. Each person liked their specific lifestyle over others. Just find something you can imagine yourself being happy doing.

Exactly. It’s not a cut and dry scenario you can find anything if you’re willing to compromise a bit. It’s the people that expect 350-400k for normal 8-5 that only look for “lifestyle” that end up getting disappointed in the end.l

 

[Dr. Doctor MD]

Also out of curiosity you would put IM (hospitalist) same or higher prestige than Derm and Ophtho? I know its a ballpark but if youre rating it higher there must be some reason to make you think theyre in the same ballpark lol thats wild

When I'm talking about prestige, I'm not talking about what medical students and other doctors think, but rather what patients think.

When it comes to the general public, people aren't going around saying "wow OMG my eye doctor or skin doctor is so cool" or "tell me all about the crazy cases you see" but there always seems to be this pervasive fascination with surgerons, cardiologists, and emergency medicine doctors where you get that "Wow" reaction from patients normal people in day to day conversations. Maybe sometimes with OB or Anesthesia to an extent.

If you asked patients or the general public to rank specialties by prestige, I think Derm/Ophto/FM/Peds/IM would all be right around the same. No one knows that it takes top 10% boards and multiple publications to match derm over peds. In the eyes of the general public they're all the same.

That being said, I think public prestige for your field should be given 0 weight when picking your field. You shouldn't care what the general public thinks about the prestige of your specialty.

 

[68PGUN]

students should be able to pursue their interests, not lock themselves in their rooms cramming for standardized exams or trying to pump out research to reach x-amount. I would like to donate my time, but according to the match outcome published it looks like I would be better served in my room after x-amount research.
I won't knock this prestige boost, I worked hard to earn it from a lower-ranked"" undergrad. I'm only curious if the compensation from who-you-know would allow me to volunteer more.

Also out of curiosity you would put IM (hospitalist) same or higher prestige than Derm and Ophtho? I know its a ballpark but if youre rating it higher there must be some reason to make you think theyre in the same ballpark lol thats wild

ROFL. Hospitalist work should be at the bottom on this list. Maybe there are crappy hospitalists out there who punched in the hours and get out by 5 PM sharp. But, the hospitalists that I work under round up on patients all the way to 7-8 PM everyday. You go into IM for sub-specialization, not to be a lifelong intern who calls and organizes arrangement for all services in the hospital. This is coming from someone who loves IM, but refuses to be a lifelong intern for the rest of my career.

Lastly, all the Ortho docs that I know have great lifestyle. The ones with crappy lifestyle are making min 1 mil a year.

 

[Deecee2DO]

ROFL. Hospitalist work should be at the bottom on this list. Maybe there are crappy hospitalists out there who punched in the hours and get out by 5 PM sharp. But, the hospitalists that I work under round up on patients all the way to 7-8 PM everyday. You go into IM for sub-specialization, not to be a lifelong intern who calls and organizes arrangement for all services in the hospital. This is coming from someone who loves IM, but refuses to be a lifelong intern for the rest of my career.

Lastly, all the Ortho docs that I know have great lifestyle. The ones with crappy lifestyle are making min 1 mil a year.

Love IM too unfortunately all the subspecialties I like (other than GI which is probs my fave rn) pay like crap-endo rheum and ID. I know you shouldnt pick a specialty based on salary but idk how good of an investment ID and Endo are when youre making the same as general IM (sometimes less) and can essentially do the same thing

 

[68PGUN]

Love IM too unfortunately all the subspecialties I like (other than GI which is probs my fave rn) pay like crap-endo rheum and ID. I know you shouldnt pick a specialty based on salary but idk how good of an investment ID and Endo are when youre making the same as general IM (sometimes less) and can essentially do the same thing

ID is crap. Who tells you that Endo and Rheu are making the same or less than general IM? They're lying or don't know what they're talking about. Try 50-100K more and 1 day per wk of additional vacation in comparison to general IM.

 

[Deecee2DO]

ID is crap. Who tells you that Endo and Rheu are making the same or less than general IM? They're lying or don't know what they're talking about. Try 50-100K more and 1 day per wk of additional vacation in comparison to general IM.

Neither of the two do procedures so it made sense to me and from my personal research I am reading they make around the same. Why would ID make less than endo what makes endos make more? anything in particular? If you were to tell me that most endos bring in 320+ thats the first Ive heard or read

 

[68PGUN]

Neither do procedures so it made sense to me and from my personal research I am reading they make around the same. Why would ID make less than endo what makes endos make more anything in particular?

You're severely misinformed about # of procedures equating to more money. It's also about the workup that you must do that will result in hospital revenue. There are other perks involved that I don't want to write here on an online forum, but lifestyle and money are def better than general IM.

 

[Deecee2DO]

You're severely misinformed about # of procedures equating to more money. It's also about the workup that you must do that will result in hospital revenue. There are other perks involved that I don't want to write here on an online forum, but lifestyle and money are def better than general IM.

gotcha. did not know that. Thought procedures are what really makes the money. Good to know and glad that you mentioned that

 

[deltaJ]

...This is basically the take-home message. Pick the salary you want, and find the way to get that in the lifestyle that works for you. You can make a lot of money in clinic, working shift work (hospitalist/EM), or doing surgeries. The absolute highest paid physicians I know an orthopod and a neurosurgeon, but also a psychiatrist, a neurologist, and a pain guy. It's all in how you practice.

Every EM doc I've met loves their job, working 12 hour shifts at every imaginable hour. The neuro-interventionalists at the hospital work Q2 and absolutely love their jobs. My FM clerkship preceptor saw 20 patients a day and loved it. The trauma GS I worked with loved taking trauma call in the middle of the night. Worked with hospitalists who got in at 8, rounded, wrote orders, ate lunch, rounded again, signed notes, and left in time to go to their kid's sports game or hit happy hour, and that's on the few weeks they actually work. Etc. Each person liked their specific lifestyle over others. Just find something you can imagine yourself being happy doing.

Sage advice, just in case anyone glossed over it