I'd like to get some truthful advice about Ob-Gyn. I'm currently in my MS3 Ob-gyn rotation and have loved it - something that I never thought would happen - so I'm starting to seriously consider Ob for a career. I love the procedures, the excitement of deliveries, the possible continuity of care, the medical aspects of it. However, I am very concerned about the stereotype of Ob-Gyn - the awful lifestyle, the endless malpractice lawsuits, the outrageous malpractice insurance premiums, the "malignant" reputation. I feel like I get a different answer about these topics every time I ask an Ob-gyn resident or attending...I mean, is it really this bad? 😕 I don't want to go into a specialty and then regret my decision later down the road...
For those of you in Ob-Gyn: if you were to go back in time, would you choose Ob again, knowing what you know now and having gone through residency/fellowship/working?
Thanks for the advice. I really appreciate it 🙁
I'm a resident and a guy so you can take what I say with a grain of salt as I haven't been out in the "real" world.
Pros:
-Generally dealing with healthier patients, which is nice in terms of management (you don't have to worry about renal failure, CHF etc about your patients most of the time)-
-Mix of surgery, clinic, and office procedures
-Reasonable compensation
Some salary surveys
http://www.alliedphysicians.com/salary-surveys/physicians/
http://www.merritthawkins.com/pdf/2005_Modern_Healthcare_Physician_Compensation_Review.pdf
http://cejka.force.com/PhysicianCompensation
http://www.merritthawkins.com/pdf/2010revenuesurvey.pdf
Cons:
-Malpractice is a big issue. I am doing residency in a state that is generally pretty bad for malpractice. The attendings I have worked with gripe about it from time to time but they manage it. Lawsuits in OB Gyn will happen on both the Obstetric side and Gyn side.
Best thing for this if you decide to go into the field is to be mentally prepared for it when it happens. Do what's best for the patient, keep reading and following practice guidelines, and realize that it's a part of the field of medicine in general.
Also practice in a state friendly to OB Gyns. This makes a decent difference from the attendings I have spoken with.
-Lifestyle will vary. You will generally take in house call and be fairly busy when on call. Just the nature of the beast. The practices in my area have midwives that are on with attendings. If they do have midwife coverage I never see them the entire night unless $hit hits the fan. Otherwise SVD are handled without them. You can find groups like this fairly often.
But remember, when you're on call, you're going to be working which can be physically demanding. But I feel that's going to be true with certain specialities regardless. The trauma guys can get beaten down dealing with ex laps on gunshot victims, the transplant guys have ridiculously long surgeries, etc. These things take a toll on the body.
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It;s like any other speciality. Good and bad. But I wouldn't say the field is horrendous by any stretch. I've enjoyed residency greatly. I've worked heard but always have time to spend with my SO, read/study, and have a few dollars in my pocket. My loans are paid off so if I can pull around $200K a year in practice, I'm more than content, which I'm fairly confident I can pull off.
I think my main gripe with the speciality is being limited in the surgical aspect ie being able to handle certain complications such as bowel perf, uretral injury.
In terms of subspecialities:
MFM
-Very good compensation especially in PP.
-You are doing lots of diagnostic tests (U/S, CVS, Amnios) etc and these generate a fairly healthy income
-No deliveries unless you are at certain academic place where MFM does resident coverage
-Relatively normal hours and ability to take home call
Gyn Onc
-The highest earners out of the 4 fellowships (shown in some studies)
-Administering own chem etc generates big money
-Sick patients. Big surgeries. Very competitive fellowship
-More of your typical gen surg lifestyle
-Deal with death and significant morbidity on a fairly consistent basis
REI
-Can be very lucrative (In the Columbia medical system, the number 2 and 3 earners at over a million $$ a year were REI guys with busy IVF practices)
-Again this isn't the norm but shows you the potential
-IVF/infertility is generally a big business and pays fairly well.
-Generally low stress. Mainly clinic based. Microsurgery for tubal reanastomosis. Open myomectomies. Diagnostic laparoscopy and D+C are bulk of your procedures.
-Intellectually stimulating in terms of the endocrine aspect. REI know a ton of stuff
-No real call duties
Urogyn
-Relatively new field on the block
-Can tell you too much about compensation, but mainly GYN heavy.
-No real urogyn emergencies so call isn't a big issue.
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In response to certain things that BVE388 has said;
No field is immune to malpractice. Ob does get the brunt of it, but in my epxerience you will see a fair bit of this in many specialities (trauma, gen surg, peds, FP, and yes radiology-Who gets named if an image gets read incorrectly which does happen)