Psych vs ??

[Howard7]

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Hello, Im having a tough time trying to decide berweeen Psych vs Allergy. I know allergy is after medicine residency. Hoever im willing to go to internal medicine to do it. If you could let me know of your thoughts i would deeply appreciate it. Also family medicine, endocrinilogy, and rheumatology are also attractive. If you have any thoughts on these fields please let me know thank you very much.

I am an extremely hard worker that has a family therefore would like to choose lifestyle above all else.

 

[whopper]

Hard to answer your question because so much of which field you choose needs to be based on you. We don't know much about you.

There are several threads here where the members mentioned what we like and dislike about psychiatry.

In short-and this is very abbreviated, here's what at least for me I like about psychiatry that may appeal to many.

-You get to know your patients better.
-You can't ignore their emotional needs.
-You have more control over call schedules and work hrs.
-It really does not pay less vs other fields of medicine, just that other fields of medicine typically work doctors more hours (which is why if you look at average salaries, psychiatry seems lower. It really isn't by the hour).
-It will not physically run you ragged vs having to stand for 8 hrs straight in a surgery or have walked a few miles in medicine a day

Here's what I liked about it that is more specific to me:
-I loved psychology. I knew I wanted to go into a behavioral science related field.
-I love trying to figure people out.
-I love the law and thinking I helping the good guys. Psychiatry interfaces with the law the much more than most medical fields.
-Psychiatry doesn't seem like work to me as much vs the other fields because I love it. I'll spend an entire weekend studying it and loving it, while I've seen several others never have cracked a book in years. As a doctor you will have to continue your education. If you go into the a field you love, it won't seem like work.

Here's some things I didn't like:
-You won't use medicine as much as the other fields, though it still is very important you remember medicine.
-Several go into the field because it is easier and much more subjective. As a result several of your colleagues in your community that you may work with may bug you. I've had that problem since residency onwards. I don't claim to be the smartest guy in the world, but on a daily basis, I read through a patient's chart and think WTF when I see the work some doctors do. I think it happens in all fields, but it seems to me to happen more in psychiatry. I could of course be biased because I'm in the field so I see other psychiatrist's work more often.

 

[TexasPhysician]

I talked to an allergist about his field, and he told me that it was the one specialty in IM that may completely die out. He thought a vast majority of his job could now be done by FM with recent advances in medicine.....

This is the opinion of only 1 person however.

 

[kazuma]

I talked to an allergist about his field, and he told me that it was the one specialty in IM that may completely die out. He thought a vast majority of his job could now be done by FM with recent advances in medicine.....

This is the opinion of only 1 person however.

I met an allergist at a medical conference last year and he had the same thoughts about the future of his field. He loves it, but he doesn't recommend going into allergy in this day and age. He has been practicing for ~30 years so he has seen the field change a lot over the years.