Radiology in military

This forum made possible through the generous support of SDN members, donors, and sponsors. Thank you.

drjthor2

Junior Member
10+ Year Member
15+ Year Member
Joined
Dec 7, 2005
Messages
6
Reaction score
0
I am an older HPSP student with kids at home trying to make that decision about career path/specialty. Considering ortho/rads at this time but would appreciate any input from people in similar situations. I am really being pulled between what would have been a no-brainer if I was 25 without kids versus something I think I would enjoy and possibly have more time for the kids. Any thoughts are appreciated.

Members don't see this ad.
 
In the military I would say ortho. It's not the same as civilian ortho. At least not at NNMC. My reasoning is speaking with retiring MD's they all without fail recommended I would get into ANYTHING that had surgery in its title. These were internist, FP, and peds.

It's not anything concrete to base your decision on. Just what's been suggested to me.
 
can't speak for other places but at BAMC, at least during residency, you won't see your kids and wife if you choose ortho: you will be busy as hell. with RADs, you have set schedules, you pull overnight calls once a while. your kids will remember you.
 
Members don't see this ad :)
This is hard to do, but try not to choose your specialty based on the residency. I think most people would rather work hard at a job they enjoy than work a lesser amount at one they hate. Also, remember that eventually you'll be an attending with more control over your schedule, and even farther down the line, you'll be a civilian with near total control over how much you work.
 
colbgw02 said:
This is hard to do, but try not to choose your specialty based on the residency. I think most people would rather work hard at a job they enjoy than work a lesser amount at one they hate. Also, remember that eventually you'll be an attending with more control over your schedule, and even farther down the line, you'll be a civilian with near total control over how much you work.
This is what the docs I spoke to complained about. They picked their residencies based on length of time & then interest.
 
colbgw02 said:
I think most people would rather work hard at a job they enjoy than work a lesser amount at one they hate.

I hear this from a lot from people interested in surgery. It's a misleading, and frankly bull$h*t quote though. In reality, you're choosing b/w a job that you might enjoy and a job you also might enjoy (but are slightly less likely to). Nobody would ever recommend going into a field that you hate, and I'm sure that the OP doesn't hate radiology, o/w he wouldn't be considering it.

To the OP: The question becomes, when do the cons of training period outweigh the benefits? You've already sacrificed 4 years in med school. Do you really want to give up another 5-6 years of your life? During which time your kids will do a lot of growing up? And btw, don't think that you're suddenly going to have an easy schedule that allows for lots of family time as an ortho attending.
 
Mirror Form said:
I hear this from a lot from people interested in surgery. It's a misleading, and frankly bull$h*t quote though. In reality, you're choosing b/w a job that you might enjoy and a job you also might enjoy (but are slightly less likely to). Nobody would ever recommend going into a field that you hate, and I'm sure that the OP doesn't hate radiology, o/w he wouldn't be considering it.

well, i wasn't really trying to be misleading, and i certainly wasn't attempting to spout bull$h*t. it is really just an opinion of mine, so i guess i'll rephrase: i personally would rather work hard at a job i enjoy than work less at one i don't. also, i used the word 'hate' simply to be more superlative in explaining my thoughts

Mirror Form said:
To the OP: The question becomes, when do the cons of training period outweigh the benefits? You've already sacrificed 4 years in med school. Do you really want to give up another 5-6 years of your life? During which time your kids will do a lot of growing up? And btw, don't think that you're suddenly going to have an easy schedule that allows for lots of family time as an ortho attending.

i think the point should be that a person ought to choose based on all the aspects of a specialty, to include lifestyle. for me, it's just that being unhappy at work doesn't completely make up for having more time to be happy at home. also, certainly an ortho residency is extraordinarily time-consuming, but so are all residencies to one extent or another. OP, just don't think it's going to be banker's hours (that's another reduction, obviously).
 
I appreciate all the input. As one replier mentioned, it's not a matter of choosing something just based on residency or just on family situation. I have preferred ortho since the days of considering med school. But 2 kids later, and a 3.5 year layoff between 2nd and 3rd year for family related issues, I certainly have a different perspective. It may be a matter of giving up something I would love to do (ortho) for something I would like doing (or may end up loving) and having a little more time for family. I am starting to think I am being a little selfish towards my family for even considering making them suck it up for a few more years in a surgical residency. Again, appreciate all the opinions, and I apologize if I turned this into a "woe is me - look at all my problems" thread. take care
 
drjthor2 said:
But 2 kids later, and a 3.5 year layoff between 2nd and 3rd year for family related issues, I certainly have a different perspective.

How tough did HPSP make it to take a year off?

-Pemberley
 
drjthor2 said:
I appreciate all the input. As one replier mentioned, it's not a matter of choosing something just based on residency or just on family situation. I have preferred ortho since the days of considering med school. But 2 kids later, and a 3.5 year layoff between 2nd and 3rd year for family related issues, I certainly have a different perspective. It may be a matter of giving up something I would love to do (ortho) for something I would like doing (or may end up loving) and having a little more time for family. I am starting to think I am being a little selfish towards my family for even considering making them suck it up for a few more years in a surgical residency. Again, appreciate all the opinions, and I apologize if I turned this into a "woe is me - look at all my problems" thread. take care

What's more important to you? Enjoying your job or spending time with your family?

We would all like to "have our cake and eat it too". But sometimes that's not possible, especially in medicine. Most medical specialties involve long hours at work away from family and friends. There's only a few specialties that allow for personal time, such as Radiology, Ophthalmology, Anesthesiology, and Derm (ie, "ROAD" to success). For obvious reasons, these ROAD specialties are very competitive. But do you enjoy any of these ROAD specialties? Can you tolerate it for these rest of your career? In the end, you will have to make the decision. For me personally, I will always choose family over my job. But this is your decision and future, not mine.

Good luck :luck:
 
Concerning the LOA from school, the HPSP people were fine for the first two years - I am assuming because my reasons were legit personal things with my family. However, they gave me the boot when I asked for a third year - I was still unsure if I would ever go back to med school given all the b.s. happening in my life at the time. By the time I had inquired as to what I would owe them, how it would be repaid back, etc.. they told me I was back in if I returned to school. They must be having trouble filling spots as of late.
 
swampthing said:
There's only a few specialties that allow for personal time, such as Radiology, Ophthalmology, Anesthesiology, and Derm (ie, "ROAD" to success).

Well, I wouldn't count on any residency allowing alot of "personal time", whatever that is.

All residencies suck, granted radiology may suck less than some, but they all suck.

As 1st-2nd year residents, we were on ovenight call every third night, and at that time meant being up all night dealing with ER cases and doing our own stat sono studies. San Diego had no overnight sono techs, so the residents did every exam after hours, including running the films through the darkroom. If you were lucky, you might be on a rotation where the senior resident would cut you some slack so you could leave the next day around noon. If you were solo, you were stuck.

As 2nd-3rd years, we still took overnight call every third night or so, but only covered in-house cases. That meant you might get 2 hours sleep between 3 and 5 am, if you were lucky, before you had to get ready for the 0730 staff readout.

We may have not spent the same hours at the hospital that the surgical residents did, but any "free time" was usually spent studying.

Realize that the written radiology board exams spend one entire exam afternoon on physics alone the day before the all-day radiology exam.

While a bad day in radiology beat a good day in internal medicine every time, it was no cake-walk, believe me.

ExNavyRad
 
swampthing said:
What's more important to you? Enjoying your job or spending time with your family?

We would all like to "have our cake and eat it too". But sometimes that's not possible, especially in medicine. Most medical specialties involve long hours at work away from family and friends. There's only a few specialties that allow for personal time, such as Radiology, Ophthalmology, Anesthesiology, and Derm (ie, "ROAD" to success). For obvious reasons, these ROAD specialties are very competitive. But do you enjoy any of these ROAD specialties? Can you tolerate it for these rest of your career? In the end, you will have to make the decision. For me personally, I will always choose family over my job. But this is your decision and future, not mine.

Concur.

I'd much rather have a boring job with more time for the important things in life (kids, golf, etc). I don't want to LIVE TO WORK..........my life starts as soon as I leave my job each day. :idea:
 
drjthor2 said:
I appreciate all the input. As one replier mentioned, it's not a matter of choosing something just based on residency or just on family situation. I have preferred ortho since the days of considering med school. But 2 kids later, and a 3.5 year layoff between 2nd and 3rd year for family related issues, I certainly have a different perspective.

Well consider yourself lucky that you had the 3 years to gain some perspective.
 
colbgw02 said:
it is really just an opinion of mine, so i guess i'll rephrase: i personally would rather work hard at a job i enjoy than work less at one i don't.

Well that makes sense, but it's important to keep in mind that the majority of people could find a specialty that doesn't involve ortho type hours, but is still enjoyable for them.

colbgw02 said:
i think the point should be that a person ought to choose based on all the aspects of a specialty, to include lifestyle. for me, it's just that being unhappy at work doesn't completely make up for having more time to be happy at home.

That's a good point. It's very important to consider how happy you'll be in your field. The best way to do that however is to look at the residents, and especially the attendings, that are currently in that field. From my experience it seems that people in fields like gen surg, ortho, ct surg, etc, are ON AVERAGE definitely no where near as "happy" as people in the lifestyle fields. Is it b/c people who went into radiology and derm did it more so out of love for their fields? I doubt it. It's probably b/c they chose fields that would allow them to live a well rounded life. Whereas, a lot of people who got wrapped up in the gen surg attitude while they were young, then later end up bitter later b/c they realize that OR time really doesn't make up for no family time.
 
wow, I did my #2 residency choice because I married a woman with a son during medical school. Had a baby during medical school. Missed lots of their lives during school/internship/rotations/deployments.

If you like 2 specialties, one with 80+ hours/week and one with 60 hours a week and you have a family, sacrifice your top choice and do what is right for the family. Pts will come and go, but your kids are yours forever. enjoy as much time with them as possible because time goes by so fast with them. Don't forget, after 12 or so, they don't like hanging out with the parents. Uncool.
 
Top