Pulmonary without critical care

[ucsb101]

Hi I am currently a second year Internal Medicine resident at a community program in Nor Cal. I think IM is ok. I don't think I can do IM by it self and want to specialize. The thing is that I do like pulmonary but I do not want to do critical care. There are a few programs in the country that offer pulmonary without critical care.

I am wondering what the job market is like for Pulmonary ( I would like to settle down in SoCal - where I grew up)? My Pulm/CC attendings tell me that doing Pulm by itself is not a good idea because I will have a really tough time finding a job. Basically they say that most people higher newly Pulm/CC graduates to work 70% CC and 30% Pulm, and the more senior you become the more Pulm and less CC you do. Is this true?

I find it hard to believe that it is hard to find work and be a Pulm only doc.

any thoughts? suggestions?

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[LoudBark]

I find it hard to believe that it is hard to find work and be a Pulm only doc.

any thoughts? suggestions?

There is a reason it is hard to find work as a pulmonary doc only. If you join a group and there are pulm / CC in the group, they expect you to share call with them and CC docs have to take call in the hospital. You would not be able to do this as just a pulm doc and therefore they would not consider even hiring you for one second to join their group.

 

[gutonc]

I find it hard to believe that it is hard to find work and be a Pulm only doc.

any thoughts? suggestions?

Outside of academia (or large integrated health systems like Kaiser) it will be difficult (if not impossible) to find a pulm only job for the reason that LoudBark states. One possible way to do it would be to get additional training in interventional pulm which would give you an advantage that might be worth overlooking the fact that you can't run the ICU.

But the easiest way to deal with this is to do what all your Pulm/CC attendings are telling you to do.

 

[jdh71]

There is a reason it is hard to find work as a pulmonary doc only. If you join a group and there are pulm / CC in the group, they expect you to share call with them and CC docs have to take call in the hospital. You would not be able to do this as just a pulm doc and therefore they would not consider even hiring you for one second to join their group.

Outside of academia (or large integrated health systems like Kaiser) it will be difficult (if not impossible) to find a pulm only job for the reason that LoudBark states. One possible way to do it would be to get additional training in interventional pulm which would give you an advantage that might be worth overlooking the fact that you can't run the ICU.

But the easiest way to deal with this is to do what all your Pulm/CC attendings are telling you to do.

Exactly. As time goes by the unit becomes the large steaming turd floating in the punch bowl that would otherwise be your frucking amazing life.

I'd be ballsy these day, but you could pull a solo-practice move as a lung only doc off in the right market. You'd probably need local hospital support, because no one's going to give you the kind of loans you need to start-up a pulmonary practice from scratch with out the back-up of the local hospital. But, like gutonc was saying, you'd have to bring PROCEDURES to the table - things the hospital could bill insurance carrying people for, and that means an interventional skill set.