Radiology guidance...

[luke77]

Hey guys,

Sorry to infringe upon your board but I am an undergraduate considering medical school and I have a radiology-specific question. I’m not a pre-med (yet) and had planned on pursuing a biochemistry PhD until recently, but I have always been very interested in radiology as a career path. My dad is a doctor and I have talked to a few radiologists in the past, so I have a decent idea what they actually do, and I think that the work fits my personality and interests very well. A few months ago, I came to the decision that I would pursue medical school ; however, after lurking on this site for a while I am having second thoughts. In particular, there is a thread on another section of this site entitled “Would you do it again?” (or something like that) where residents and recent graduates basically gripe about how they are dissatisfied with medicine and/or their current positions. In addition, based on other discussions on the site I get the idea that many physicians are dissatisfied with their careers.

I have two questions, I you’ll wouldn’t mind giving your opinion:

First, do you think that the general level of job satisfaction among radiologists is significantly different than physicians as a whole? If you listen to doctors on other sections of the site the general refrain seems to be “I wish I would have done radiology”. Are most radiologists happy with their career? Simply by reading the job description it sounds like you’d have to be crazy to dislike the job - reasonable hours, high pay, good amount of vacation time, little call…but are radiologists truly more satisfied, or is this just a “grass is greener” mentality on the part of other physicians?

Second, is it foolish to go to medical school with a predetermined plan to go into radiology? I am fairly certain that I do not want to be an internist, FP, anesthesiologist, etc…the only specialties that I am passionate about are radiology and, to a lesser extent, oncology. I recognize that these are two of the most competitive specialties and I’m worried that I could go through school, not place into Radiology, and be forced to go into Internal Medicine or something that I don’t want to do. I am fairly bright and I get mostly A’s at a good college without working nearly as hard as my friends, but I realize that everyone is smart in medical school and the competition is stiff. I guess my question is, how well does a student have to perform in order to place into a radiology program (ANY radiology program, even a less desirable program, if such a thing exists)? Is it so competitive that only the top 10 percent or so place, or if one is an average student and expresses an extreme interest is it likely that he will get in somewhere? I guess this is probably an impossible question, but I’m confused as to what “competitive” really means when used to describe radiology programs, and I’d appreciate any insight you can provide.

Thanks in advance.

Luke

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[Koil Gugliemi]

Here's a hard won lesson of life for you kid...everybody bitches about their career choice to some extent. Want a PhD? read this

So a lot of the griping you'll read is from people that wouldn't be happy no matter what they were doing. Either they've got completely unrealistic visions of what life "ought" to be, or they're just plain malcontents.

There's little doubt that becoming a radiologist is a long and, at times, mind-numbingly excruciating painful path. So is doing anything else. The key to being happy is to a) have the expectation that you will have to work hard and sometimes do things that are not 100% fun and b) actually really like the process of becoming a doc and eventually a radiologist. This means liking the pain of taking exams, the 4 AM surgery rounds etc etc. When I'm in the middle of this stuff I probably complain but in retrospect it's kind of cool.

Imagine you're running a marathon. At the 15 mile mark as you're going up a hill in the hot sun and a blister is forming on your foot you'll think to yourself "this totally sucks...I'm not sure why I'm here and I'll sure as hell never do this again". Then two weeks after you finish the marathon you'll tell the story to someone over beers and then start planning your next marathon.

As far as happiness in their careers, most rads I know are very happy. It's a great field with cool expensive toys, a good living, and the chance to improve the health care of your community (as cheesy as that thought is...it's generally true).

Rads is tough to get at the moment, but not crazy. I'd advise you to get into almost any MD school (it's tougher to get as a DO generally), do well on STEP1 of the USMLE, and get good grades as a 3rd year and you'll be all set. By the time you actually apply it could be more or less competitive as these things tend to be cyclical.

Since you're an undergrad I'll go ahead and tell you what everyone else does too. You don't have any idea what doing medicine is until you do it. There's really no way to actually understand it until you do it. That said if you like the idea of entering a career that generally has one of the longest and toughest (from a time invested and emotional investment perspective) paths to training...then do it...it's definitly challenging but most of us couldn't really imagine doing anything else.

KG

 

[Docmike2006]

KG,

That's a very interesting article that you posted. Really sheds the light on the subject.

Also, I agree with the last paragraph. You don't know what medicine is like until you are in it, neck-deep

 

[MossPoh]

Well...there was an article in one of the radiology journals last november I think saying that within 20 years radiologists are one of the most dissatisfied with their job. (Note that I am not a radiologist nor in medical school yet..my dad is rad though) or have the highest percentage..I'm not going to quote it exactly because I don't know the exact details. I'm in spain now and it is on my laptop but anyway. they explained the main reason was just a slow feeling of detachment from the job since they don't see the direct doing of their actions as much. Also they generally get involved slightly less in community affairs according to the article. That being said the main reason was that the people that are really dissatisified were the ones that did it for money and what not..not the ones that were truly interested in it. When I get back to berlin i can try putting the article up if anyone wants it. It was quite nice insight into just becoming a doctor in general....i guess the reason my dad sent it to me!

 

[Koil Gugliemi]

I'd like to see that paper.

I've looked around a bit at various doc satisfaction surveys and have found that they're kinda weird generally. For many of the ones where they look at all docs, like this one they do wacky analysis to try to show something...the one above looks at which specialties are likely to report being "very satisfied" but use income as a covarient. Since higher income is correlated with high satisfaction it just seems weird to me...(not surprisingly OB/GYN is on the bottom of that list...). But many don't look at radiology compared to other specialties. This one of women only found that women radiologists were less likely to report that they would become docs again...but at the same time they reported a much lower than average desire to change specialties. Go figure.

I don't know what most of this means but I figure if you go into it with the proper expectations and do it 'cause it's all that you could see yourself doing than you'll probably be happy. Ask me in 30 years.

 

[cliffhanger]

After college, I worked for a couple of years at a pharmaceutical company, and it was the bane of my existence. There wasn't one position in the entire company that I believed would ultimately make me happy. I debated whether or not I should take the plunge and go to med school. Thank goodness I did... I've never once regretted the decision and now wonder why it wasn't more obvious to me before. As one previous poster mentioned, it's just plain impossible to fully understand what medicine is until you've experienced it. Also, while you may hear a lot of docs complain about the profession, I really think some of them have no idea how good they have it. Speaking in generalities... good compensation, respect (doesn't compare to any other profession except maybe the clergy), intellectual challenge, colleagues of exceptional caliber and character, and employable anywhere in the country. The hours for some docs may be pretty bad, but expect to sacrifice just as much of your life if you want to be successful in many other high profile professions (ie, law, executive management, wallstreet, politics, starting your own business, etc.). My father was a mid-level engineer/project manager and often had to travel overseas upwards of 25% of the year. That's a LOT of time away from your family. Most of my childhood, he earned at most half as much as I expect to earn in ANY field of medicine. Medicine is a major sacrifice up front, but has a big payoff later on. If you're intelligent, interested in science, and have an interest in dealing directly with people's problems... medicine offers you the possibility of a very satisfying career.

 

[MossPoh]

I'd like to see that paper.

I've looked around a bit at various doc satisfaction surveys and have found that they're kinda weird generally. For many of the ones where they look at all docs, like this one they do wacky analysis to try to show something...the one above looks at which specialties are likely to report being "very satisfied" but use income as a covarient. Since higher income is correlated with high satisfaction it just seems weird to me...(not surprisingly OB/GYN is on the bottom of that list...). But many don't look at radiology compared to other specialties. This one of women only found that women radiologists were less likely to report that they would become docs again...but at the same time they reported a much lower than average desire to change specialties. Go figure.

I don't know what most of this means but I figure if you go into it with the proper expectations and do it 'cause it's all that you could see yourself doing than you'll probably be happy. Ask me in 30 years.

Yea..this wasn´t like a hardcore statistical analyse or anything. They mentioned OBGYN as well. It was more of the don´t pick a speciality by the pay type deal. Once again..when I get back to Berlin I´ll send it. PM me with your email.

 

[ariwax]

You have so much time to change your mind, it's ridiculous. Don't go in to med school thinking you know anything about the various specialties and what they mean, or what they will mean five years from now. That is something you learn in med school. Stay open-minded and flexible.