Otolaryngology vs Urology

[millepora]

I am not sure which forum to put this in, since I see more attendings and residents posting in this forum, I figured I give this question a try here.

Besides the obvious - the organs in which your treat and the procedures you actually do - what are some differences between practicing in each field?

Things I was specifically curious to hear the contrasting sides on...

Medical to surgical ratio?
Average hours worked?
Likelihood of being called in the middle of the night?
Compensation? ... I hear they are very similar, but is either one headed for a larger hike in cuts?

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[aashkab]

I am not sure which forum to put this in, since I see more attendings and residents posting in this forum, I figured I give this question a try here.

Besides the obvious - the organs in which your treat and the procedures you actually do - what are some differences between practicing in each field?

Things I was specifically curious to hear the contrasting sides on...

Medical to surgical ratio?
Average hours worked?
Likelihood of being called in the middle of the night?
Compensation? ... I hear they are very similar, but is either one headed for a larger hike in cuts?

i also was wondering if people could compare and contrast the two fields as i am deciding in between them as well

 

[gstrub]

I rotated on both services at our hospital.

Case wise, the major differences I found is that 1: in urology, someone's junk is always in your face in the OR. 2: Uro had a lot of "underwater" type cases. However, the Uro guys got to use the davinci robot a lot which is awesome. Also for uro, more than half of our clinic was erectile dysfunction management. In the end, it's just your preference for anatomical location and bodily fluid. For me, seeing copious amounts of blood coming from a penis during a bladder irrigation was more than enough to rule uro out.

From what I heard from the residents, the uro guys were slightly less busy from day to day (less inpatients, less emergencies). This is likely program dependent.

In both cases, all residents/attendings seemed to really like their jobs, enjoyed teaching, and were an overall great group of people. This was in stark contrast to some other surgical specialties I rotated on. I think the nature of the people is a major draw to both of these specialties.

As far as pay, from what I hear, the uro guys may make a but more. Again, this is completely dependent on your scope of practice. Rotate on both services and you should have a feel afterwards what your preferences are...

 

[robosurgeon]

thanks, this helps a lot. i think you are right, that whether or not the anatomical locations bother me and my overall general "feel" of each specialty will come when i rotate through both. a few questions I have that I think may NOT be answered during is -

1) Is ENT more competitive to get into? I'm not trying to be lazy but the nrmp and careers in medicine websites have NO data on urology so its hard to compare. I feel that I may have better chances of being slightly more choosy in my location with urology (but of course, either one is mostly a crap shoot and am happy to just match anywhere).

2) Isn't there more risk involved in going for ENT because you have to take Step 2? Urology has their early match so you aren't inclined to take it if you did well on Step 1.

3) I always try to gauge/assess the very difficult question of where the field will be in 20 - 30 years. Do you guys have any ideas on how ENT and urology compare/contrast in the future? I've heard that urology has more technology incorporated but less creativity into its surgical procedures. Also, are ENTs doing the face transplants?

Thanks, I'm glad to be in this position but it sure is a tough decision. And rotating through will definitely seal the deal one way or another but I'm trying to jump on research projects now in whatever field I THINK I may be interested in.

 

[gstrub]

thanks, this helps a lot. i think you are right, that whether or not the anatomical locations bother me and my overall general "feel" of each specialty will come when i rotate through both. a few questions I have that I think may NOT be answered during is -

1) Is ENT more competitive to get into? I'm not trying to be lazy but the nrmp and careers in medicine websites have NO data on urology so its hard to compare. I feel that I may have better chances of being slightly more choosy in my location with urology (but of course, either one is mostly a crap shoot and am happy to just match anywhere).

2) Isn't there more risk involved in going for ENT because you have to take Step 2? Urology has their early match so you aren't inclined to take it if you did well on Step 1.

3) I always try to gauge/assess the very difficult question of where the field will be in 20 - 30 years. Do you guys have any ideas on how ENT and urology compare/contrast in the future? I've heard that urology has more technology incorporated but less creativity into its surgical procedures. Also, are ENTs doing the face transplants?

Thanks, I'm glad to be in this position but it sure is a tough decision. And rotating through will definitely seal the deal one way or another but I'm trying to jump on research projects now in whatever field I THINK I may be interested in.

1. Both are extremely competitive. Because URO is not on the NRMP Charting Outcomes datasheet, I can't give you exact numbers. The uro guys will tell you ENT is more competitive, but I would assume they are about equal.

2. Step II doesn't matter...yes I suppose if you bomb it it could hurt you, but typically people's scores go up from Step I. If you are getting good enough M3 grades for either specialty, you should have no problem doing well on Step II.

3. I am biased, but I see more depth to ENT. There are just so many things going on with that specialty. Face transplants would be facial plastics, so yes, that would be ENT (as well as PRS). Also tracheal/larynx transplants are coming, as well as robotic endoscopic procedures. There is extensive neuro-otology research in nerve regeneration for hearing, taste, and smell disorders, and on and on. Urology always seems to have cool toys to play with (but so does ENT), and they do a lot of cutting edge stuff as well.

I think both specialties are excellent...it's going to come down to where you feel you fit in (both socially and anatomically).
-G

 

[TeamZissou]

As another student trying to gather info contrasting the two fields; this thread has been helpful. Thanks to those who contributed.