Rank R.O.A.D.E. specialities on difficulty of obtaining a position...

[SusGob711]

---

Members do not see this ad.

Just curious if anyone had any idea as to how these specialties compare to one another when it comes to competitive matching for residency spots. (1 being hardest, 5 being easier than the others)

 

[muhali3]

1. D
2. R
3. O
4. A
5. E

http://www.nrmp.org/data/chartingoutcomes2009v3.pdf

Go to chart 3 on page 9. It'll show the percentage of US seniors who matched according to the specialty they applied to.

Derm - 70%
Rad Onc (some ppl consider it part of ROAD) - 87%
Rads (Diag) - 86%
Opthalmology - don't have source. just a guess.
Anesthesiology - 92%
EM - 93%

Plastic Surgery still the hardest to match into at 53%. Generally not a lifestyle field though.

 

[cubssox2000]

Since when was Rad Onc and EM on the ROAD? Rad Onc is dominated by research (at least at current time, maybe not in 10 years) and EM is not that great for lifestyle (maybe not terrible compared to the surgeons lifestyle, but not nearly on par with the rest of the specialties.)

 

[SouthernSurgeon]

Since when was Rad Onc and EM on the ROAD?

Since never. "ROAD" is an acronym with historic significance as it has been around for going on 30+ years at this point. It was mentioned in House of God and other medical books, and when you say "ROAD" doctors of all age understand the reference.

 

[vicinihil]

1. D
2. O
3. R
4. A

we should rename is DORA

 

[phospho]

Since never.

yeah, I heard it was mentioned in that book...

hmm, radiology, optho, gas, and derm... these are the only 4 logical ones that have an easy life (at least after matching 😀😀😀)

No way in hell radonc would be on there after the crap they go through to match, and the more crap they go through to stay on top of every new journal article that pops out...

 

[phospho]

Just curious if anyone had any idea as to how these specialties compare to one another when it comes to competitive matching for residency spots. (1 being hardest, 5 being easier than the others)

dude, this isn't premed anymore where your goal is to get into the best school/program you can get into (not that most premeds do that anyways)... this is actually your life now... i.e. the one thing you will do over and over and over again for the rest of your freakin' life. Now think about that for a second, and you will realize how this whole 1-5 business is crap. Basically you're comparing apples to oranges. Yes, specialty A might be more competitive than specialty B, but how in the world does that matter if there's no way in hell I'd ever be interested in doing specialty A? What if C is the least competitive specialty out of everything, but I can't see myself doing anything BUT specialty C? Wouldn't that make your system obsolete?

For example, derm is VERY VERY competitive, but I wouldn't do it if someone paid me 200K to go med school for free, and then guaranteed me a spot in any derm program I wanted. Same goes for ortho, optho, radonc, plastics... hell, if those 5 specialties were the only 5 specialties I can do in medicine, I would drop out of medical school... and I'm not even slightly exaggerating.

 

[JonathanMD]

Since when was Rad Onc and EM on the ROAD?

Since the EM residents wanted to feel better about themselves.

(I want to be an EM resident one day.)

🙁







edit: Actually, "since the pre-med wannabe EM residents wanted to feel better about themselves" is probably more accurate. (I'm not specifically talking about the OP.)

 

[michigator04]

For example, derm is VERY VERY competitive, but I wouldn't do it if someone paid me 200K to go med school for free, and then guaranteed me a spot in any derm program I wanted.

Really? I would take that in a heartbeat. I could learn to love/tolerate it under those circumstances.

 

[muhali3]

From my understanding, when the ROAD acronym was created, the specialties of Diagnostic Radiology and Radiation Oncology were actually under the umbrella of General Radiology ("R") and then later on the two had split into distinct specialties, after the ROAD acronym was coined...so that's why some people consider Rad Onc as part of ROAD. I don't though, although they do have good hours/salary, it is an extremely research oriented field.

 

[Aphtalyfe]

Since when was Rad Onc and EM on the ROAD? Rad Onc is dominated by research (at least at current time, maybe not in 10 years) and EM is not that great for lifestyle (maybe not terrible compared to the surgeons lifestyle, but not nearly on par with the rest of the specialties.)

EM is included because they only work 45 hours a week. Even if the hours are suboptimal. In many cases they only work 4 days a week.


I also don't think Anesthesiology should even be included anymore. They work as many hours as surgeons in some cases. http://www.medfriends.org/specialty_hours_worked.htm

Also... competitiveness is considered low for anesthesiology. http://residency.wustl.edu/medadmin/resweb.nsf/L/A6E8C6B1BA8C35CB86256F8F0071C74F?OpenDocument


Maybe it should be --> RODE?

 

[SusGob711]

dude, this isn't premed anymore where your goal is to get into the best school/program you can get into (not that most premeds do that anyways)... this is actually your life now... i.e. the one thing you will do over and over and over again for the rest of your freakin' life. Now think about that for a second, and you will realize how this whole 1-5 business is crap. Basically you're comparing apples to oranges. Yes, specialty A might be more competitive than specialty B, but how in the world does that matter if there's no way in hell I'd ever be interested in doing specialty A? What if C is the least competitive specialty out of everything, but I can't see myself doing anything BUT specialty C? Wouldn't that make your system obsolete?

For example, derm is VERY VERY competitive, but I wouldn't do it if someone paid me 200K to go med school for free, and then guaranteed me a spot in any derm program I wanted. Same goes for ortho, optho, radonc, plastics... hell, if those 5 specialties were the only 5 specialties I can do in medicine, I would drop out of medical school... and I'm not even slightly exaggerating.

I understand and I would never enter a specialty under the pretense of lifestyle or money. The reason I asked is because I'm interested in anesthesiology but I wanted to see how it matched up to the other R.O.A.D.E. specialties. It was part interest, part curiousity, lol.

Btw...R doesn't stand for rad onc., it stands for radiology as in diagnostic and interventional radiology.

Thanks to the others...I didn't even think of checking match percentages, lol. Apparently common sense is harder to come by than book smarts for me, lol.

 

[cubssox2000]

Since never. "ROAD" is an acronym with historic significance as it has been around for going on 30+ years at this point. It was mentioned in House of God and other medical books, and when you say "ROAD" doctors of all age understand the reference.

Thats what I was thinking. Thanks for the clarification.

I still think that EM lifestyle is not comparable to the ROAD. Even at 45 hours a week, they are working 10-12 hours a day, usually during off hours, and can't really start up the private practices that you can from Derm, Ophtho, and Interventional Radiology. Even Anesthesia is still good lifestyle because if you ask an Anesthesia doc, they will tell you that 90% of the time it the cushiest job in the world (although that other 10%...😱).

 

[muhali3]

Match percentages aren't entirely accurate either, as nearly all those who apply to ROD specialties are very highly competitive. You can see that the average step 1 score for seniors that did NOT match into Derm was a 231 (pg. 36), which would otherwise be a very competitive score for nearly all other specialties. So people who apply to these specialties are a self-selected group, and among those, these are the percentages reported.

 

[Gabby]

I'm starting my second year of med school in the fall and I'm curious about anesthesiology. I don't necessarily want to go into it, but I'd like to check it out. We get 8 weeks of surgery rotations third year. Do schools allow you to use anes as a surgery rotation by any chance? We don't get any electives until the very end of third year and I'd hate to use up my elective month that year just to discover I don't really like anes.

 

[Antibodies]

EM is included because they only work 45 hours a week. Even if the hours are suboptimal. In many cases they only work 4 days a week.


I also don't think Anesthesiology should even be included anymore. They work as many hours as surgeons in some cases. http://www.medfriends.org/specialty_hours_worked.htm

Also... competitiveness is considered low for anesthesiology. http://residency.wustl.edu/medadmin/resweb.nsf/L/A6E8C6B1BA8C35CB86256F8F0071C74F?OpenDocument


Maybe it should be --> RODE?

I would agree with this. Plus EM residency caps the average work week at 60 hours as opposed to 80.

Some EM places work 8 hour shifts. Aside from working nights, EM has a pretty nice schedule (IMO). Who won't want to work only 3-4 days a week. Anesthesia works nights too (because of call).

 

[FutureCTDoc]

If I were to add an E to ROAD it would be ENT, not EM

 

[deuce924]

If I were to add an E to ROAD it would be ENT, not EM

Agreed. It definitely has a good lifestyle when compared to other surgical specialties.

 

[PharmaTope]

1. D
2. R
3. O
4. A
5. E

http://www.nrmp.org/data/chartingoutcomes2009v3.pdf

Go to chart 3 on page 9. It'll show the percentage of US seniors who matched according to the specialty they applied to.

Derm - 70%
Rad Onc (some ppl consider it part of ROAD) - 87%
Rads (Diag) - 86%
Opthalmology - don't have source. just a guess.
Anesthesiology - 92%
EM - 93%

Plastic Surgery still the hardest to match into at 53%. Generally not a lifestyle field though.

but it sure is interesting as all heck!

 

[FutureCTDoc]

Plastics can be a lifestyle field if you strictly do cosmetic work.

 

[tremulousNeedle]

If I were to add an E to ROAD it would be ENT, not EM

I am biased, but EM is most definitely a relaxed and lifestyle oriented specialty.

In the area where I am training (the Midwest), a 3 year residency training program leads to an attending position that compensates the provider ~$300K for 32-38 hours per week. Granted some of those hours are overnight, but that is true with a lot of specialties. Also, I will never be on call to cover patients overnight.

It is going to be a glorious career.

 

[muhali3]

I am biased, but EM is most definitely a relaxed and lifestyle oriented specialty.

In the area where I am training (the Midwest), a 3 year residency training program leads to an attending position that compensates the provider ~$300K for 32-38 hours per week. Granted some of those hours are overnight, but that is true with a lot of specialties. Also, I will never be on call to cover patients overnight.

It is going to be a glorious career.

I have to admit that is pretty baller.

 

[vicinihil]

I am biased, but EM is most definitely a relaxed and lifestyle oriented specialty.

In the area where I am training (the Midwest), a 3 year residency training program leads to an attending position that compensates the provider ~$300K for 32-38 hours per week. Granted some of those hours are overnight, but that is true with a lot of specialties. Also, I will never be on call to cover patients overnight.

It is going to be a glorious career.

I think for EM to break 300K is pretty rare where as it's conventional and proposterous if ROAD doesn't.

 

[brooklynblunder]

dont know how many EM docs are making 300k since many of them have to be affiliated with academic institutions but its probably a better lifestyle than most of those other fields (exept maybe radiology, but that **** can be stale)

derm and optho provide the most versatility

 

[drizzt3117]

Anesthesia is one of those fields where you have an important role, but the amount of time where you're doing something critical isn't super long, while when the s**t hits the fan, it REALLY hits the fan. 99% of the time i've shadowed anesthesia they either look frighteningly bored or super laid back/chilling but in the rare occurrence something goes wrong with airway or breathing their role changes to mission critical in a split second.

 

[morning]

Since when was Rad Onc and EM on the ROAD? Rad Onc is dominated by research (at least at current time, maybe not in 10 years) and EM is not that great for lifestyle (maybe not terrible compared to the surgeons lifestyle, but not nearly on par with the rest of the specialties.)

EM is considered a good lifestyle because a lot of people prefer shift work over unpredictable hours and CALL. There's obviously a lot more to a "lifestyle" specialty than that, but again, some people just seem to prefer shift work over anything else.

 

[TooMuchResearch]

I would agree with this. Plus EM residency caps the average work week at 60 hours as opposed to 80.

Some EM places work 8 hour shifts. Aside from working nights, EM has a pretty nice schedule (IMO). Who won't want to work only 3-4 days a week. Anesthesia works nights too (because of call).

I am biased, but EM is most definitely a relaxed and lifestyle oriented specialty.

In the area where I am training (the Midwest), a 3 year residency training program leads to an attending position that compensates the provider ~$300K for 32-38 hours per week. Granted some of those hours are overnight, but that is true with a lot of specialties. Also, I will never be on call to cover patients overnight.

It is going to be a glorious career.

Shh... The more you spread the good word about EM, the less chance I have of matching into it several years down the road 😉

 

[tremulousNeedle]

I think for EM to break 300K is pretty rare where as it's conventional and proposterous if ROAD doesn't.

It is NOT rare as long as the group you join operates at a set of hospitals with a good payer mix. In the greater metropolitan area where I am training, greater than 80% of the non-academic EM attending physicians make ~$250K or greater (this includes the groups that practice at the inner city ED's).

You also have to remember that all of this is for 32-38 hours per week. I know for a fact that some groups practicing a couple hundred miles away offer programs where their doctors can greatly increase their pay. For example, if the physician elects to participate, they can enter a several week cycle where they bump up their hours to 45-50 per week (still close to, if not better than most specialties). During this period their salaries nearly double. There are some younger attending physicians (new grads) that work this many hours for nearly the whole year and bring in between $400K and $500K. And I haven't even begun to discuss Locum Tenens, where EM docs can make over a half million dollars(again, obviously at the expense of some of the lifestyle perks).

And remember this is all after a 3 year residency. As suggested, Derm and Ophtho are great fields. For Radiology, most places require that you do some form of a fellowship, either accredited or non-accredited; this turns radiology into, at best, a 6 year endeavor, which can easily translate into a $600K loss (depending on the lifestyle you are accustomed to, that can easily be a huge chunk of your retirement fund, a really nice house, vacations for the rest of your life, 10 awesome cars, 4 really awesome cars, need I go on?).

Finding the sweet path is a balance, but for starters you really should enjoy what you're going to do for the rest of your life.


…and by the way, ROAD usually DOES break $300K.
Radiology: "The annual salary for radiologists ranges from $386,755 to $600,000"
Ophtho: "The annual salary for ophthalmologists ranges from $150,000 - 351,000 for full-time medical school faculty"
Anesthesia: "The annual salary for anesthesiologists ranges from $311,600 to $446,994"
Derm: "The annual salary for dermatologists ranges from $287,832 to $385,953"

EM: "The annual salary for emergency medicine physicians ranges from $216,000 to $300,000"

This is all 2008 (probably collected in 2007) data posted on the AAMC website. The numbers that I discussed regarding EM in an earlier post and at the beginning of this post are more recent and come from EM specific sources, which is why there is a difference. EM is projected to steadily increase in pay over the next several years.

 

[MaryLennox]

Plastic Surgery still the hardest to match into at 53%. Generally not a lifestyle field though.

why is that? i mean- if the lifestyle sucks, why do people want it so bad, just because you can make a lot of money??

 

[Superfrost]

Get that EM outta here. If you leave it in you might as well start tossing in psychiatry, path, fp, etc...

 

[auburnO5]

why is that? i mean- if the lifestyle sucks, why do people want it so bad, just because you can make a lot of money??

$$$$$$$$$$$$

 

[tremulousNeedle]

Get that EM outta here. If you leave it in you might as well start tossing in psychiatry, path, fp, etc...

classy

 

[Superfrost]

And remember this is all after a 3 year residency. As suggested, Derm and Ophtho are great fields too, but they will take you 2 extra years

??? 2 extra years?

 

[tremulousNeedle]

why is that? i mean- if the lifestyle sucks, why do people want it so bad, just because you can make a lot of money??

Supply and demand. There are relatively few spots for the number of people interested, even though that absolute number may not be that extraordinary.

??? 2 extra years?

Sorry, many people where I train have a pseudo-fellowship / research / academic-pursuits year as an option and most take it. I will adjust my previous post.

 

[morning]

Get that EM outta here. If you leave it in you might as well start tossing in psychiatry, path, fp, etc...

Why not psych? They make great money and have great hours.

Path would be a lifestyle field if people could find jobs to begin with.

 

[MaryLennox]

Supply and demand. There are relatively few spots for the number of people interested, even though that absolute number may not be that extraordinary.

that occurred to me after i posted. is that 53% just for integrated plastics programs? i bet a lot of people who don't match just do it the longer way and do gen surg + plastics fellowship

 

[fahimaz7]

The E= ENT.

PDORE (Plastic, Derm, Ortho/opthal, Radiology, ENT)

Anesthesia isn't that competitive compared to the others.

 

[tremulousNeedle]

The E= ENT.

PDORE (Plastic, Derm, Ortho/opthal, Radiology, ENT)

Anesthesia isn't that competitive compared to the others.

ROAD was never intended to group the competitive specialties together, it was originally developed to group together specialties with nice lifestyles.

"Great Pay for Great Hour"
​

I do agree that ENT isn't too shabby either.

 

[drizzt3117]

The E= ENT.

PDORE (Plastic, Derm, Ortho/opthal, Radiology, ENT)

Anesthesia isn't that competitive compared to the others.

Anesthesia and rads (not so much rads anymore) are programs where it's not so competitive to match SOMEWHERE but the top programs and ones in competitive locations are real competitive.

 

[phospho]

Really? I would take that in a heartbeat. I could learn to love/tolerate it under those circumstances.

I'm a nontrad... I was in finance doing way too well to even think about switching fields. If I could learn how to tolerate something, I would have stayed where I was.

Life is too short though.

 

[Ischemic]

I am biased, but EM is most definitely a relaxed and lifestyle oriented specialty.

In the area where I am training (the Midwest), a 3 year residency training program leads to an attending position that compensates the provider ~$300K for 32-38 hours per week. Granted some of those hours are overnight, but that is true with a lot of specialties. Also, I will never be on call to cover patients overnight.

It is going to be a glorious career.

I don't know which area of the "midwest" you're referring to but the lesser populated i.e. areas NO ONE wants to go to compensation is very much higher than the average. I read somewhere that surgeons (can't remember what type) were getting paid almost 800k to come to North/South Dakota to practice.

Also, ROAD is a historical term and should be treated as such. All this PDORE, ROADE, etc variation means nothing and actually sounds pretty stupid.

 

[MaryLennox]

I don't know which area of the "midwest" you're referring to but the lesser populated i.e. areas NO ONE wants to go to compensation is very much higher than the average. I read somewhere that surgeons (can't remember what type) were getting paid almost 800k to come to North/South Dakota to practice.

seriously?? i would love to live in the middle of nowhere, i just figured the only way to pay back your loans is to practice in a more populated area. you sure you cant remember where you read that? (not cause i dont believe you, i just want to read it myself) 🙂

although i suppose if you're like, the only neurosurgeon in a 100-mile radius, that would be a pretty terrible lifestyle.

 

[Law2Doc]

EM is included because they only work 45 hours a week. Even if the hours are suboptimal. In many cases they only work 4 days a week.


I also don't think Anesthesiology should even be included anymore. They work as many hours as surgeons in some cases. http://www.medfriends.org/specialty_hours_worked.htm

Also... competitiveness is considered low for anesthesiology. http://residency.wustl.edu/medadmin/resweb.nsf/L/A6E8C6B1BA8C35CB86256F8F0071C74F?OpenDocument


Maybe it should be --> RODE?

EM is not included. This is an acronym of historic origin, and EM was barely a specialty when it was coined. Additionally, the cush hours and moderate level of competitiveness of EM are a very new development, and that field is still very much finding its way in terms of shift work, privatization and the like. It will be a few more decades before we know exactly how EM is going to be regarded. Until then, it is very premature to talk about adding it to ROAD.

An above poster is correct, Rad Once was a part of radiology at the time that term was coined, so it was always within the R, although once they stopped being a part of radiology technically the acronym didn't follow them. Anesthesia has always been a very cyclical profession, moving from cushy and competitive to hard working and not so competitive. It recently bottomed out a few years back and is actually on the upswing of late, and so will probably be back to ROAD caliber soon. But you have to bear in mind that ROAD is not evaluated year to year -- it has to do with being at a certain level over many decades, and so momentary dips in competitiveness tend to be averaged out.

The ROAD fields are fields which all share several components: They are fairly competitive, they have lifestyle hours, they have solid pay, and they are fields that have maintained all of these things over many decades. They also share the notion that folks should be generalists first before specializing, and as a result all generally require a prelim/transitional internship year. Lots of similarities.

EM falls short on several counts, but is most obviously missing the boat because it is a very new specialty and its shiftwork lifestyle and solid pay are a very new development, and it's unclear whether this field will hold its course. You don't get to undo a historic acronym based on such a short track record. I actually have heard quite a few big names in the field utter concerns about whether residents are being adequately trained given the lesser hours involved at some programs, so don't write off the possibility of a whipsaw effect in the not too distant future.

So it's ROAD without an E. In 20 years if EM is still the same cushy, lucrative field it is at present, maybe you have a case. But short of that, you really don't get to revise an acronym that was derived decades ago. This is of historic significance more than anything else, and not only that, it's a phrase that is known in the profession. Adding an E may be popular on SDN, but practitioners who don't play on this site are going to stare at you like you are a *****. "ROAD" is pretty much a term of art, known by practitioners in the field for generations. You don't get to change a term of art just because you think an E or another R ought to be part of the mix.

 

[morning]

But short of that, you really don't get to revise an acronym that was derived decades ago.

Language changes all the time.

 

[cubssox2000]

Language changes all the time.

Language does in the sense that words gain and lose meanings and sentence structure can change. Abbreviations and acronyms are not really language, just a way of grouping a list together into a mnemonic.

Of course, you could come up with a completely new acronym, but then you have created a second grouping, not really changing the language.

 

[Slack3r]

but no one will have good salaries with obamacare!!!!

 

[TooMuchResearch]

I don't know which area of the "midwest" you're referring to but the lesser populated i.e. areas NO ONE wants to go to compensation is very much higher than the average. I read somewhere that surgeons (can't remember what type) were getting paid almost 800k to come to North/South Dakota to practice.

Also, ROAD is a historical term and should be treated as such. All this PDORE, ROADE, etc variation means nothing and actually sounds pretty stupid.

I don't know...PDORE sounds pretty funny to me.

 

[morning]

Language does in the sense that words gain and lose meanings and sentence structure can change. Abbreviations and acronyms are not really language, just a way of grouping a list together into a mnemonic.

Of course, you could come up with a completely new acronym, but then you have created a second grouping, not really changing the language.

Yeah, but to say this acronym should only change every 50 years (like he said - it first came into being 30 years ago, and "20 years down the road" we can decide whether to add EM to it) is silly. Specialties change, new specialties arise, and no one has any claim to this acronym. And to say that rad-onc shouldn't be included seems silly too. Rad-onc seems to have better pay, lifestyle and job satisfaction than anesthesia.

I've also heard it referred to as ADORE, again including EM.

I don't know...PDORE sounds pretty funny to me.

How about DOPER?

 

[tremulousNeedle]

For starters, I have to admit that this is a little bit of a thread hijack, but in response to a previous post. Oh, and by the way, I am not arguing that EM should be included in the ROAD acronym (it is what it is).

I am not exactly sure where you get your information from. I am not trying to be too argumentative, rather trying to convey the current climate of the specialty of EM.

Additionally, the cush hours and moderate level of competitiveness of EM are a very new development, and that field is still very much finding its way in terms of shift work, privatization and the like. It will be a few more decades before we know exactly how EM is going to be regarded. Until then, it is very premature to talk about adding it to ROAD.

I agree, EM is a relatively new specialty; its development began greater than 40 years ago and was recognized as an official specialty greater than 30 years ago. However, there really isn't any "finding its way" going on, possibly with the aggressive incorporation of new technology, such as sonography in everyday care, but nothing really to do with the industry as a whole. The concepts of shift work and privatization have really been unchanged since the initial models were developed in the mid to late eighties (of course there has been tweaking along the way, but that is true of any specialty).
"It will be a few more decades before we know exactly how EM is going to be regarded", I am not sure exactly what you mean by this statement, all specialties are in a constant state of flux, though I’ll give you, some more than others. For instance, the face of anesthesia may change with the emergence of more nurse anesthetists (with the need to decrease costs) or the face of radiology may change with the ability to outsource film reading overseas. And as far as the future of EM, projections are that the need for EM physicians will continue to increase over the next 10-15 years (regardless of Obama-care). With that demand, the compensation is not likely to decrease in the near future. EM is lucky because federal law basically makes it a requirement that hospitals provide emergency care. Hospitals can survive without a radiologist (outsource), a cardiologist (transfer when necessary), a surgeon, etc, but all hospitals have to have an Emergency Department (EMTALA).

I actually have heard quite a few big names in the field utter concerns about whether residents are being adequately trained given the lesser hours involved at some programs, so don't write off the possibility of a whipsaw effect in the not too distant future.

While I cannot comment on what you did or did not hear from "big names in the field". I can assure you, as well as the other readers of this thread, that the concern of insufficient training is held by a small minority. Nearly 95% of the EM programs out there are 3 year programs versus the other 5% that are 4 year programs. And of these 4 year programs, most of the extra year is not filled with core EM training, but filled with extra time for academic/research pursuits or more elective time. Furthermore, of all the 3 year programs out there, only one has decided to increase its training to 4 years, and that was to give residents an extra year to pursue other interests in EM and not feel so rushed in residency. To date, the Society of Academic Emergency Medicine, the American Academy of Emergency Medicine, and the American College of Emergency Physicians all agree that a three year residency program is sufficient to produce competent and successful EM physicians. There isn't even a whisper of increasing the length of programs because the training is insufficient.

 

[TX515]

Emergency medicine is not that cushy. Majority of positions require alternating shifts from days to nights, holiday shifts, and long shifts. It does pay well and does give you some days off per week but I just don't enjoy the off balance shifts. Anesthesiology and radiology both require a fair amount of overnight call. At least with radiology you can take call from home.

I think dermatology and pathology are the most lifestyle friendly followed by ophthalmology.