225-250k is the standard starting salary for non anesthesia pain docs not employed by hospitals in the northeast. Manhattan maybe higher because a cup of coffee costs $20 there
Med student thinking about Pain...
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Starting salaries are usually regionally dependent, with those in the Midwest and South generally higher than those in the Northeast and West.
To the OP, I would say that pain, for all the doom and gloom espoused on this thread, is still a pretty good field in medicine because it is one of the few non-primary care fields nowadays where you still can be completely autonomous and truly own your own practice. Do not get me wrong, you will be dealing with a challenging patient population, especially if you want to make it in the private practice world in a competitive market, as you will most likely be managing opiates and not just be doing procedures all day. Pain is also probably the only field in medicine where you are trying to keep patients from coming back to see you too often rather than the other way around. Patients may not come back to see you because of their uncontrolled diabetes or high blood pressure, but if they are in pain, they will have a constant reminder to come back to see you sooner rather than later.
To the OP, I would say that pain, for all the doom and gloom espoused on this thread, is still a pretty good field in medicine because it is one of the few non-primary care fields nowadays where you still can be completely autonomous and truly own your own practice. Do not get me wrong, you will be dealing with a challenging patient population, especially if you want to make it in the private practice world in a competitive market, as you will most likely be managing opiates and not just be doing procedures all day. Pain is also probably the only field in medicine where you are trying to keep patients from coming back to see you too often rather than the other way around. Patients may not come back to see you because of their uncontrolled diabetes or high blood pressure, but if they are in pain, they will have a constant reminder to come back to see you sooner rather than later.
Where in the midwest? I am going to start looking mid-way through fellowship. I have a recruiter who has sent me a number of really good jobs (or so they appear) in the area where I want.
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You're in here talking about money and you're a resident?
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And using a recruiter.
Hey kid, you got a lot of reading to do. Use the search button. Buy a copy of WCI and get educated.
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If I had to do it again and I had a choice, I’d do optho or derm or anesthesia. You will need to put in some call no matter what, but when you are young it’s no biggie. As you approach 40 or 50 you can find the lifestyle that you want.
Ps stay away from recruiters/headhunters.
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I wouldn't recommend going through a recruiter. Lies and misdirection. They make money on placing ppl in jobs, not honoring the ad for the job. Contract shows up and it is quite a bit different than the ad. The practice itself has zero obligation to honor the job ad...Show up expecting a salary of X, and they offer you X - 60k.
I'm an attending. The med student is the OP asking about money.
This is plain silly. People saying "I would have done derm" is just ridiculous. Derm is incredibly hard to get into. Most people cannot get into derm. Well qualified people can't get into derm. To suggest or assume that most people can just *do* Derm is absurd.
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you ignore the context and certain words....but ok
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