Neurologists are introverts???

[deleted1139416]

Would y’all say this is true? I’m socially awkward AF and often say stupid things when I’m nervous. I’m really worried I’m gonna say something stupid during my residency interviews (currently an MS3 so I’ll be doing interviews Fall 2023).

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[xenotype]

You'll fit right in then. Every other specialty thinks we are total dorks. Just make sure you like actually seeing patients, because if you don't you need to do rads or path.

 

[Aldertonghen]

During my neuro interviews, a question such as “tell me about your weakness” was considered a tough question. The bar is super low- they just don’t want freaks (and for us IMGs, they want to see if they can understand our English).

 

[Thama]

IMO neurologists are extroverted nerds - the kind of people you might in other contexts find happily socializing at a Star Trek convention. It's hard to be happy as a true introvert when you're seeing patients all day - those people gravitate to specialties like pathology, radiology, lab medicine as the human interaction requirements are much lower.

 

[Aldertonghen]

IMO neurologists are extroverted nerds - the kind of people you might in other contexts find happily socializing at a Star Trek convention. It's hard to be happy as a true introvert when you're seeing patients all day - those people gravitate to specialties like pathology, radiology, lab medicine as the human interaction requirements are much lower.

The interactions can be minimized with certain subspecialties, eg: epilepsy, NIR.

 

[xenotype]

The interactions can be minimized with certain subspecialties, eg: epilepsy, NIR.

Still have to see patients in clinic for both of these, and the most common NIR job when you aren't in the cath lab is neurocritical care. You always need a day job to fill the gaps if you aren't getting enough cases.

 

[Postictal Raiden]

OP, you'll fit right in. Neurology has a fair share of intelligent but very "socially awkward" people.

In fact, that was one thing that nearly deterred me from pursuing neurology until I found neurologists who were like me, loud, very opinionated, and blue-collar type of personality.

 

[Thama]

Still have to see patients in clinic for both of these, and the most common NIR job when you aren't in the cath lab is neurocritical care. You always need a day job to fill the gaps if you aren't getting enough cases.

Indeed - for NIR either you're generating cases by being on stroke call (which also means you're seeing a high volume of inpatient stroke), doing a NCC/NIR combo package, or having an outpatient clinic where people refer you aneurysms and the like. More than likely you're doing a combination of all of these, and still might need to see some general neurology depending on volume.

For epilepsy, I know zero epileptologists who don't spend at least half their time in outpatient clinic, and even when primarily reading EEGs there is still the mandatory interaction with your admitted video EEG patients, etc.

Neurology is a clinical field, which means human interaction. Those who hope to avoid human interaction should look elsewhere.

 

[Aldertonghen]

Still have to see patients in clinic for both of these, and the most common NIR job when you aren't in the cath lab is neurocritical care. You always need a day job to fill the gaps if you aren't getting enough cases.

That’s true, but these are atleast two specialties where a non-insignificant amount of time is spent not talking to patients. If zero patient contact is preferred then I can’t think of any neuro field.

 

[ShanitaTHauck]

I don't think so.



Healthcare

 

[deleted1081396]

I've spent way too much time hyperfocusing on perfecting the formatting of notes because it was slightly off...