****Official Specialty Thread****

Started by Scrubsy
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WhittyPsyche said:
Wait... So what you're saying is you don't want to know when it's "not right", sort of an ignorance is bliss thing? Hahaha
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not even close. i'm just saying gynos know far more than the layman and can probably identify a hell of a lot of **** we can't, that'd probably be ratchet as hell.
 
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Xenoblade said:
Back on track.

I wanna do ortho, but it is so hard (<---hehe)
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lol I edited out my sentence I was on a hurry and messed up on it.
Ortho is cool. I don't mean to be that one guy who wants to choose a specialty based on lifestyle, but I'm leaning on ortho or plastics so I could manage my time better and have time for my future family.
 
The Buff OP said:
lol I edited out my sentence I was on a hurry and messed up on it.
Ortho is cool. I don't mean to be that one guy who wants to choose a specialty based on lifestyle, but I'm leaning on ortho or plastics so I could manage my time better and have time for my future family.
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+1

While I'm keeping my options open, at this point, I'd chose surgery over medicine, with ortho or plastics as my top choices.
 
image187 said:
Peds ER is really cool. It'll be Peds then a fellowship in ER for you..., great lifestyle too I think as with a lot of ER. Kids are so different from adults it's incredible
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Or ER and then a peds fellowship! Or peds-ER combined residency (although those are limited)
 
The Buff OP said:
lol I edited out my sentence I was on a hurry and messed up on it.
Ortho is cool. I don't mean to be that one guy who wants to choose a specialty based on lifestyle, but I'm leaning on ortho or plastics so I could manage my time better and have time for my future family.
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According to orthos, he claims that ortho is a specialty for "workhorses". So I always thought that ortho was a specialty with a lot of hours involved.

I don't know. I am not an authority on this topic. :shrug: I gladly admit my ignorance.
 
Xenoblade said:
According to orthos, he claims that ortho is a specialty for "workhorses". So I always thought that ortho was a specialty with a lot of hours involved.

I don't know. I am not an authority on this topic. :shrug: I gladly admit my ignorance.
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One thing for sure, all surgery specialties will have long hours in residency and practice. However, with ortho and plastics I believe you can manage your practice hours a little better. I heard of a plastic surgeon (cosmetic) who chooses to only operate only two days in the week and the rest of the days he does clinic consultations. I am keeping my mind open, though. I'm pretty sure surgery will stick with me because I want to help people with my hands and not by prescribing a medication.
 
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The Buff OP said:
One thing for sure, all surgery specialties will have long hours in residency and practice. However, with ortho and plastics I believe you can mange your practice hours a little better. I heard of a plastic surgeon (cosmetic) who chooses to only operate only two days in the week and the rest of the days he does clinic consultations. I am keeping my mind open, though. I'm pretty sure surgery will stick with me because I want to help people with my hands and not by prescribing a medication.
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I know plastics has a lot of flexibility, but I have no idea really about orthos practice hours.
 
Xenoblade said:
I know plastics has a lot of flexibility, but I have no idea really about orthos practice hours.
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Depends on your practice setup, location, call schedule, how much $ you want to make (after accounting for covering your overhead and bills), etc. You can be pretty flexible with the appropriate sacrifices in other areas of your life.
 
The Buff OP said:
One thing for sure, all surgery specialties will have long hours in residency and practice. However, with ortho and plastics I believe you can manage your practice hours a little better. I heard of a plastic surgeon (cosmetic) who chooses to only operate only two days in the week and the rest of the days he does clinic consultations. I am keeping my mind open, though. I'm pretty sure surgery will stick with me because I want to help people with my hands and not by prescribing a medication.
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Most general, vascular, and cardiac surgeons I know do the same thing. They operate two days a week and then do clinic. If they are on call, they will have the odd extra case here and there on an "off" day. On the other hand, there are surgeons that operate 3 or even 4 days a week, although I only know one that operates 4 and he does clinic 3 of those days and it runs like a mad house (residents basically run the clinic)
 
mimelim said:
Most general, vascular, and cardiac surgeons I know do the same thing. They operate two days a week and then do clinic. If they are on call, they will have the odd extra case here and there on an "off" day. On the other hand, there are surgeons that operate 3 or even 4 days a week, although I only know one that operates 4 and he does clinic 3 of those days and it runs like a mad house (residents basically run the clinic)
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By any chance do you know what the hours are for an academic plastic surgeon are?

Edit: Are you doing your residency in Houston by any chance?
 
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mimelim said:
Most general, vascular, and cardiac surgeons I know do the same thing. They operate two days a week and then do clinic. If they are on call, they will have the odd extra case here and there on an "off" day. On the other hand, there are surgeons that operate 3 or even 4 days a week, although I only know one that operates 4 and he does clinic 3 of those days and it runs like a mad house (residents basically run the clinic)
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Jebus! The CT surgeons I work with average 2-3 surgeries a day, plus clinic, plus emergencies. Also, the one whom I work with the most came here mainly because it was a more "chill" practice.
 
mimelim said:
It depends on hospital dynamics. CV runs the show at a lot of the big houston hospitals (this may change over the next decade as the old guard rotate out) and they have a lot of control over when they operate. It isn't crazy for some of them to run multiple rooms and do 4-8 cases in a day.
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Interesting. The CT guy I mentioned left a private practice out of Houston because he was sick of all the out reach (oddly he came to one of the rural-est parts of the country and has pretty much no out reach obligations). CT definitely runs the OR here too. Also, he seems happiest on his 2+ OR cases a day, days. Is that reasonable or odd?
 
mimelim said:
Depends, at the hospital I'm at there are 15 plastic surgeons in the main group. They cover 3 big hospitals (900+ beds). Within that practice the hours vary tremendously. For all practical purposes, they make their hours unless they are new to the practice in which case they take more call and generally take more cases on to get their name out there.I'd say they range 30-60 hours/week. They definitely operate 2-3 days a week each with a pretty regular schedule.
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Sounds pretty cool to me. 👍

mimelim said:
And yes, I'm in Houston 😛.
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The Michael E. Debakey quote gave it away lol.

mimelim said:
It depends on hospital dynamics. CV runs the show at a lot of the big houston hospitals (this may change over the next decade as the old guard rotate out) and they have a lot of control over when they operate. It isn't crazy for some of them to run multiple rooms and do 4-8 cases in a day.
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Sounds like Hopkins lol.
 
mimelim said:
Not sure what you mean by "all of the out of reach"? And yes, if you don't enjoy the OR, you shouldn't go into surgery. There are so many other more reasonable specialties.
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By "out reach" I was referring to having to travel to nearby communities that have less services. He was having to travel to cities/towns up to 2-3 hours away several times a week for clinic visits etc. It was a private practice though, so that likely had something to do with it.
 
I've shadowed three surgeons for about 30 hours and I don't think I'm drawn to the field, at this juncture. The personality type that general surgery + subspecialties attracts seem to be extraverted, type-A perfectionists and I don't fit in with that crowd. I also don't find the OR or the work done there very exciting -- it's cold and you have to stand around and the patient is sedated ... not super into it. I like talking with and trying to understand patients. And, I'd like to work with adolescents and adults.

I'm excited to shadow in FM and neurology, though -- especially the latter. I think I'm more attracted to the non-procedural, cerebral specialties. I'll probably go into school with a bent toward neuro, rheum, endo, IM, allergy/immuno (my SO has severe food allergies), psych or maybe even preventive medicine.
 
I'm leaning surgical, either general or urology specifically. (Currently favoring Uro)

If I do the medicine route, I'm strongly considering ID and working primarily with HIV cases.
 
General Surgery or Cardiothoracic Surgery (with Transplant if possible)
If I went the medicine route it wold definitely be emergency medicine
 
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double EM/CC (absolutely love the pace and environment which seems the most down to earth) then maybe, possibly internal (hospitalist or PCP) ---> distantly cards
 
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Derm- dermatologists have saved both of my parents lives, and I would love the opportunity to do the same for others.
 
Aggie95 said:
Derm- dermatologists have saved both of my parents lives, and I would love the opportunity to do the same for others.
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I don't think I've ever heard of wanting to save lives as a reason for going into derm before. I'm not even sure I can think of a condition that would apply. Do you mind sharing what the derms did?
 
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