Oversaturation of Orthopedics Surgeons

[878956]

---

Members do not see this ad.

From an anecdotal standpoint, it appears as if everyone and their mama wants to pursue orthopedics. Just wanted SDN's opinion on the possibility of this specialty being oversaturated. Is that even a thing?

I understand that we will have an increasing amount of elders that will need care. However, will that balance out the increasing amount of orthopods? Especially in popular urban cities (NY, LA, Philly, SF, Atlanta, Houston etc)?

 

[Pagan FutureDoc]

Just because they want to go Ortho doesn't mean they will make it. Ortho slots are still limited by the number of ortho residencies.

 

[DelayedGratification]

If im not mistaken ortho residencies have always been 100% matched....since they aren't really growing residencies you won't have any more orthopedic surgeons

 

[HomeSkool]

The number of orthopedic residency spots is capped by the number of internal medicine spots, because someone needs to know how to care for those patients. 😉

 

[imxpandanese]

really? because from my anecdotal standpoint, every premed I know of and their mom wants to go into derm...and these are easygoing individuals who want an "easy" lifestyle, and quite frankly, are not sure if they are competitive enough for med school

whereas the actual med students i know who are gunning for derm scares me... and when i do speak to them, it's between every few months :/

 

[mistafab]

Everyone "says" they want ortho and derm. Again and again they go IM/FM/Surg/peds

 

[LoveBeingHuman:)]

The number of orthopedic residency spots is capped by the number of internal medicine spots, because someone needs to know how to care for those patients. 😉

How about the opposite case: How common is it for initially aspiring IM's to end up in ortho?

 

[infectiousdisease101]

There's a residency match database that tells you how many seats are available in each residency. I personally think as a pre-med, it's better to find a common element in all of medicine you enjoy, regardless of the specialty like underserved and community health because if you're interested in a competitive residency and live only for it, you're screwed if you don't get that residency.

 

[HomeSkool]

How about the opposite case: How common is it for initially aspiring IM's to end up in ortho?

No idea. I was just making a dig at orthopedists.

 

[getdown]

really? because from my anecdotal standpoint, every premed I know of and their mom wants to go into derm...and these are easygoing individuals who want an "easy" lifestyle, and quite frankly, are not sure if they are competitive enough for med school

whereas the actual med students i know who are gunning for derm scares me... and when i do speak to them, it's between every few months :/

Hence why it's called anecdotal. The data says otherwise. Every jock and power-tool loving person wants to go into ortho but thankfully it's competitive and only has a fixed number of slots per year.

 

[holdthemayo]

From an anecdotal standpoint, it appears as if everyone and their mama wants to pursue orthopedics.

You are describing an oversaturation of naive premeds.

 

[OrthoTraumaMD]

In my residency, we had 600 people vying for 5 spots. So many may want to pursue ortho, but few will actually make it. The limiting factor is number of residency spots.


Sent from my iPhone using SDN mobile

 

[CloverBale]

remember kids do does not mean doctor of orthopedics