Need help picking a specialty!!

[IJL]

Alright, so some things I've learned about myself going through rotations:

1. Really don't like being in clinic - I would like to avoid it altogether or as much as possible

2. I'm somewhat lazy - surgery is interesting, it just seems like too much work

3. Radiology - seems pretty good at this point, my major concerns are how will Obamacare affect this field and will I miss patient interaction... which brings me to my next point

4. I don't really like patients all that much. A few months back I was working with a specialist hospitalist who I thought had a pretty awesome job - only did consults, no clinics. I'm just not sure how common that job is or how well it pays.

So, in summary, I like my free time, I would like to make a decent living, not a huge fan of clinic or patients, I have a great step 1 score and honored most rotations......



Maybe I should just drop out? I really hope I win the lottery tonight.


Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated!!!

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[ijn]

How would you rate your hotness on a scale of 1-10?

Sounds like the solution to your problem is marrying an ugly rich chick and getting her preggers.

 

[NightSwim]

anesthesia seems perfect for you

 

[ArcGurren]

Alright, so some things I've learned about myself going through rotations:

1. Really don't like being in clinic - I would like to avoid it altogether or as much as possible

2. I'm somewhat lazy - surgery is interesting, it just seems like too much work

3. Radiology - seems pretty good at this point, my major concerns are how will Obamacare affect this field and will I miss patient interaction... which brings me to my next point

4. I don't really like patients all that much. A few months back I was working with a specialist hospitalist who I thought had a pretty awesome job - only did consults, no clinics. I'm just not sure how common that job is or how well it pays.

So, in summary, I like my free time, I would like to make a decent living, not a huge fan of clinic or patients, I have a great step 1 score and honored most rotations......



Maybe I should just drop out? I really hope I win the lottery tonight.


Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated!!!

So basically, you want to be rich, do something which requires little work, and hate patients but went into a field which involves patient interaction. Oooookay.

Sounds like typical SDN I guess. Anesthesia is good. Hospitalist medicine is good too, pays quite well considering you work two on/two off in most places.

 

[IJL]

So basically, you want to be rich, do something which requires little work, and hate patients but went into a field which involves patient interaction. Oooookay.

Sounds like typical SDN I guess. Anesthesia is good. Hospitalist medicine is good too, pays quite well considering you work two on/two off in most places.

lol, yeah sounds like you got me.


I'm basically down to anesthesia and radiology. Can't decide.

 

[yesno]

I am interested in many things dealing with IM, including long-term patient relationships and having people recognize me in the community. Same as OP, I am also interested in surgery but would rule it out because I am not into hard, menial labor nor any other peculiarities of that profession. But I have a problem with patients. In my ms2 clinical exam they say that I suck. And their reasons are valid. And sometimes I find them very unpleasant also. I feel if I see 8 pleasant people and 2 unpleasant, I am unhappy.. Does it mean I should also avoid IM?

 

[dally1025]

I am interested in many things dealing with IM, including long-term patient relationships and having people recognize me in the community. Same as OP, I am also interested in surgery but would rule it out because I am not into hard, menial labor nor any other peculiarities of that profession. But I have a problem with patients. In my ms2 clinical exam they say that I suck. And their reasons are valid. And sometimes I find them very unpleasant also. I feel if I see 8 pleasant people and 2 unpleasant, I am unhappy.. Does it mean I should also avoid IM?

You shouldn't let people on SDN tell you what to do. Do your rotation and decide. On my IM rotation there were a lot of unpleasant people and a lot of them have social issues that keep them in the hospital well after they are medically ready to be discharged. If you're not good with patients IM probably isn't the field for you. A good IM doc needs to be able to communicate effectively with his/her patients.

 

[Geebeejay]

I am interested in many things dealing with IM, including long-term patient relationships and having people recognize me in the community. Same as OP, I am also interested in surgery but would rule it out because I am not into hard, menial labor nor any other peculiarities of that profession. But I have a problem with patients. In my ms2 clinical exam they say that I suck. And their reasons are valid. And sometimes I find them very unpleasant also. I feel if I see 8 pleasant people and 2 unpleasant, I am unhappy.. Does it mean I should also avoid IM?

Why don't you listen to their feedback, and try to grow and change? If most of your patients are still saying you suck, don't you think there might be a problem with you and not your patients?

 

[yesno]

Why don't you listen to their feedback, and try to grow and change? If most of your patients are still saying you suck, don't you think there might be a problem with you and not your patients?

I listen to their feedback and as I said their feedback is fair enough. I suck. So avoid IM? I do find the subject interesting and I like to listen to medical problems and to discuss it, especially with other medical students or professors. Also I enjoy "clinical vignettes" as in that Robbins question book. Those questions seem to describe typical data obtained from a primary care history+physical+labs.

 

[yesno]

You shouldn't let people on SDN tell you what to do. Do your rotation and decide. On my IM rotation there were a lot of unpleasant people and a lot of them have social issues that keep them in the hospital well after they are medically ready to be discharged. If you're not good with patients IM probably isn't the field for you. A good IM doc needs to be able to communicate effectively with his/her patients.

I know I'll decide on my own. Just interesting to hear different thoughts.

 

[ArcGurren]

I am interested in many things dealing with IM, including long-term patient relationships and having people recognize me in the community. Same as OP, I am also interested in surgery but would rule it out because I am not into hard, menial labor nor any other peculiarities of that profession. But I have a problem with patients. In my ms2 clinical exam they say that I suck. And their reasons are valid. And sometimes I find them very unpleasant also. I feel if I see 8 pleasant people and 2 unpleasant, I am unhappy.. Does it mean I should also avoid IM?

If you have issues with patients being unpleasant, I can say right now you should rule out psychiatry pretty much immediately. Psychotic patients will drive you nuts. And unfortunately for every ten pleasant patients in IM there's always going to be 1 or 2 malingering jerks. It's a judgment call, since you seem to enjoy pathology and pathophysiology.

I dunno what you mean by "your clinical exam skills suck". Are you unable to pick up wheezing on a lung exam or are you just unable to estimate the level of JVD at the right angle/recognize pulsus paradoxus? Very different levels of clinical exam skills. Depends on who is grading you and what they're saying

 

[dally1025]

I listen to their feedback and as I said their feedback is fair enough. I suck.

why do you suck? certain aspects you will improve at when you start 3rd year (ie history taking, efficiency, assessment/plans, etc). Other things are more innate to a person's personality such as empathy or ability to communicate. It sounds like you understand why you suck so keep trying to improve it if you think IM is for you.

 

[duckie99]

You don't like clinic and you're lazy you say? I say anesthesia... not to say they don't work hard but compared to other residents, well, they don't. Sure you have to get in at 6 am or so to work up your first case but there are plenty of breaks, down time in long cases, and you go home at 3:30 or 4 pm. Also there is no clinic, you have a decent medical knowledge, and patient interaction is very limited as well. Field is also fairly procedural and you have the option of working code teams, practicing critical care medicine, etc if your heart so desires.

Personally not sure of the final practice structure at the attending or private practice level but from what I've seen a basic anesthesiologist has 4 CRNAs (or residents in academics) in the OR and he/she goes between 4 ORs while working up the new cases. The physician is usually there when the patient is put to sleep. Call may suck sometimes (though what field doesn't have bad call every now and then?) but it doesn't seem like the workload is that bad.

 

[IJL]

You don't like clinic and you're lazy you say? I say anesthesia... not to say they don't work hard but compared to other residents, well, they don't. Sure you have to get in at 6 am or so to work up your first case but there are plenty of breaks, down time in long cases, and you go home at 3:30 or 4 pm. Also there is no clinic, you have a decent medical knowledge, and patient interaction is very limited as well. Field is also fairly procedural and you have the option of working code teams, practicing critical care medicine, etc if your heart so desires.

Personally not sure of the final practice structure at the attending or private practice level but from what I've seen a basic anesthesiologist has 4 CRNAs (or residents in academics) in the OR and he/she goes between 4 ORs while working up the new cases. The physician is usually there when the patient is put to sleep. Call may suck sometimes (though what field doesn't have bad call every now and then?) but it doesn't seem like the workload is that bad.

Interesting. How does the work load and pay compare between rads and anesthesia?

 

[duckie99]

Interesting. How does the work load and pay compare between rads and anesthesia?

personally not totally sure but this is something you can easily find out on your own. Right now probably say radiology but who knows where it will be in 10 years.

But here's a few pointers regarding pay:
1. often more pay = more work in many different aspects (e.g. think running your own private clinic vs hospitalist salary)
2. more money = more taxes
3. some docs make huge sums (neurosurgeons) but in reality they don't have the time to even enjoy/appreciate the lifestyle afforded by such a salary.

 

[sibitrum]

You don't like clinic and you're lazy you say? I say anesthesia... not to say they don't work hard but compared to other residents, well, they don't. Sure you have to get in at 6 am or so to work up your first case but there are plenty of breaks, down time in long cases, and you go home at 3:30 or 4 pm. Also there is no clinic, you have a decent medical knowledge, and patient interaction is very limited as well. Field is also fairly procedural and you have the option of working code teams, practicing critical care medicine, etc if your heart so desires.

Personally not sure of the final practice structure at the attending or private practice level but from what I've seen a basic anesthesiologist has 4 CRNAs (or residents in academics) in the OR and he/she goes between 4 ORs while working up the new cases. The physician is usually there when the patient is put to sleep. Call may suck sometimes (though what field doesn't have bad call every now and then?) but it doesn't seem like the workload is that bad.

Not sure about the no clinic thing in anes. Maybe it depends on how your practice is setup, but anesthesiologists are involved with pre-surgical assessments. In addition, certain subspecialties such as pain medicine have a lot of clinic time.

 

[S@xplayer]

You don't like clinic and you're lazy you say? I say anesthesia... not to say they don't work hard but compared to other residents, well, they don't. Sure you have to get in at 6 am or so to work up your first case but there are plenty of breaks, down time in long cases, and you go home at 3:30 or 4 pm. Also there is no clinic, you have a decent medical knowledge, and patient interaction is very limited as well. Field is also fairly procedural and you have the option of working code teams, practicing critical care medicine, etc if your heart so desires.

Personally not sure of the final practice structure at the attending or private practice level but from what I've seen a basic anesthesiologist has 4 CRNAs (or residents in academics) in the OR and he/she goes between 4 ORs while working up the new cases. The physician is usually there when the patient is put to sleep. Call may suck sometimes (though what field doesn't have bad call every now and then?) but it doesn't seem like the workload is that bad.

I have news for you med students...most anesthesia programs do not get their resident out of the OR by "3:30-4". My average day is 12 hours, usually 13. I'm rarely out of the OR before 6, with the next days patients to pre-op yet. If you choose anesthesia for an easy lifestyle "time wise" you will be sorely disappointed.

 

[tco]

I have news for you med students...most anesthesia programs do not get their resident out of the OR by "3:30-4". My average day is 12 hours, usually 13. I'm rarely out of the OR before 6, with the next days patients to pre-op yet. If you choose anesthesia for an easy lifestyle "time wise" you will be sorely disappointed.

So because your experience is different, it means that "most programs" are this way? They're not...

 

[Disinence2]

If you have a good scene a humor, like the outdoors, and are fast... then it sounds like EM is the field for you

 

[diagonal]

Psychiatry (aka "mind derm") is a sweet gig if you truly enjoy your free time, a life outside of medicine, hate clinic, don't like sticking your finger into the asses of the obese...I could go on.

I know you said you don't like patient interaction very much. Fine. But I can tell you the interaction FEELS very different in psych. Nothing like IM - the armpit of medicine. I would literally rather get stick-raped than be a hospitalist.

 

[GadRads]

Psychiatry (aka "mind derm") is a sweet gig if you truly enjoy your free time, a life outside of medicine, hate clinic, don't like sticking your finger into the asses of the obese...I could go on.

I know you said you don't like patient interaction very much. Fine. But I can tell you the interaction FEELS very different in psych. Nothing like IM - the armpit of medicine. I would literally rather get stick-raped than be a hospitalist.

What's so bad about IM? I'm thinking of IM--->fellowship (cards, GI, etc).

 

[bauber]

4. I don't really like patients all that much.

Do a rotation in pathology.

 

[ArcGurren]

What's so bad about IM? I'm thinking of IM--->fellowship (cards, GI, etc).

I dunno why he's complaining about hospitalist medicine either. Paid on average 160-200k for working one week on/one week off throughout the year - decent pay with amazing quality of life. It's hard work, but not bad.

 

[tkim]

If you have a good scene a humor, like the outdoors, and are fast... then it sounds like EM is the field for you

Doesn't want to work hard. Doesn't like clinical interactions. Dunno know about you, but when I'm working, I'm running around and seeing patients.

 

[IJL]

Psychiatry (aka "mind derm") is a sweet gig if you truly enjoy your free time, a life outside of medicine, hate clinic, don't like sticking your finger into the asses of the obese...I could go on.

I know you said you don't like patient interaction very much. Fine. But I can tell you the interaction FEELS very different in psych. Nothing like IM - the armpit of medicine. I would literally rather get stick-raped than be a hospitalist.

I've contemplated psych, my interaction with them is pretty much all professional and medically focused (also only attendings) so I haven't gotten to ask any of the lifestyle questions. How much do they make?

 

[duckie99]

How much do they make?

bro we've already told you that you can look this stuff up for yourself. It takes maybe 5 minutes.

 

[J ROD]

I would recommend Anes, Rads, or Patho