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

[omgyou8myrice]

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I think if the cards are played right, nearly any specialty can lead to a great lifestyle.

A few years back, I started having insane anxiety attacks completely out of nowhere. Saw my family med doctor, he told me to see a colleague of his who ran a private practice as a psychologist. I spoke to him once, basically an hour of natural conversation that provided me little to no insight on my problem. Went back to my doctor, who insisted i see him again so he could make a diagnoses. Again, the guy provided me no insight and even failed to follow up on some things we had discussed.

Let me tell you, I was absolutely floored when I saw my bill of $680 for two 1-hour talks. I was even more surprised when I went back to re-check his online scheduling system and saw that he had (at minimum) 6 of his 8 hours each day for the entire week booked, two weeks in a row.

Keep in mind this guy rented out two rooms out of a building and employed one (maybe two) person/people to answer the phone. Overhead is low. His 8 hour work day consists of him having a relaxed conversation in his office. Furthmore, he isn't even an MD, he's a Psychologist, so he can't even prescribe meds. Tack all of that on to the fact that he was, at best, mediocre at his job. And yet this guy is banking in (assuming 6 work hours/ day, 5 days a week, 51 weeks a year, before taxes, before expenses) 520k+ a year.

Who would've though Psych (and not even Psychiatry, the arguably inferior Psychology) could be a lifestyle specialty?

 

[Charles_Carmichael]

I think if the cards are played right, nearly any specialty can lead to a great lifestyle.

I agree.

IMO, with a good business sense, you can have a good lifestyle in most specialties.

 

[Geekchick921]

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

That's what I was going to say.

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.

Sweet deal, but in my humble pre-med opinion ENT seems like it has more conventional hours and I'm guessing ENTs, on average, are paid more than EMs.

FTR, both EM and ENT interest me. Not as much as other specialties, but they're definitely something I could see myself considering.

I agree.

IMO, with a good business sense, you can have a good lifestyle in most specialties.

I also agree with this. I am just hoping whatever specialty I fall in love with is one that's easier to pull that off.

There are some other really sweet lifestyle/compensation specialties I can think of, because they are ones I'm really, REALLY interested in. They come after a hellish residency, so they probably aren't worth noting in the "ROAD"/"ADORE" list.

 

[muhali3]

There are some other really sweet lifestyle/compensation specialties I can think of, because they are ones I'm really, REALLY interested in. They come after a hellish residency, so they probably aren't worth noting in the "ROAD"/"ADORE" list.

Reproductive Endocrinology?

There are also a few lifestyle specialties not part of the ROAD that I can see myself doing. Like Allergy/Immunology, Rheumatology, Medical Genetics, Rad Onc...highly intellectual fields with very grateful patients.

 

[Geekchick921]

Reproductive Endocrinology?

There are also a few lifestyle specialties not part of the ROAD that I can see myself doing. Like Allergy/Immunology, Rheumatology, Medical Genetics, Rad Onc...highly intellectual fields with very grateful patients.

REI is exactly what I was thinking. MFM (maternal-fetal medicine, high risk obstetrics) I think is supposed to be pretty good, too.

Medical Genetics supposedly has a great lifestyle but I heard the average pay is on the low end, like somewhere around $150K. Not that that's poor by any stretch, but yeah. That's one that's definitely kicking around in my head. Allergy/Immuno sounds really interesting to me, too.

 

[patel2]

Hasn't ophthamology taken a hit over the past decade with salary? I feel from glancing around the optho board, that compensation has gone down steadily from what it once was, and that many elective procedures like lasik are now paying less, because of the competition. Any ophthos on here care to comment on this... Am I off base?

 

[WingedOx]

reading the specialty boards is a good way to scare you out of a specialty. Everyone LOVES the worst case scenarios down there.

 

[equios]

I would say EM is a cushy specialty, as long as you can deal with the soul-crushing aspect of it. ~30% of your patients will be there for "wants company/wants drugs/hypochondriac that is convinced you're an idiot" type BS. About ~30% will be elderly from SNF's for "peg tube replacement" or "compacted feces" or some other situation that will require you to dig around in p****s and s****t for half an hour. ~30% or so will be normal people with normal problems. ~9% will be something good that and feel awesome after taking care of those patients. ~1-0.1% will be the type of calls will be horrible soul-crushing experiences that you wish you never have to repeat...but will. If you can deal with some of the soul-crushingly horrible aspects of EM (eg work a trauma arrest via assault/blunt force on a 12 year old neglected female, for example) then its a cushy life style. Otherwise, it has its own hidden cost.

 

[DrBowtie]

Derm/Rad Onc > Rads/Optho > Anesthesia

 

[mdeast]

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.

Actually....EM can be a pretty great specialty. You have set hours, no call time. If you want to do over-time and pull in night-time 12 hour shifts you can get paid ridiculous amounts of money to do it. You do have to work erratic hours sometimes...but this becomes easier to navigate around once you're higher up on the totem pole in a hospital.

As with any specialty, do it if you love it. You will find balance between your career and your life outside of your career eventually. That being said, specialty choice is not a gut feeling. It's based upon careful thinking and recognition of personal goals...even if it means realizing that certain specialties may provide intangible benefits to you that others don't even if they aren't what you're gut drives you to.

That's my personal opinion at least.

 

[HealthHare]

reading the specialty boards is a good way to scare you out of a specialty. Everyone LOVES the worst case scenarios down there.

TRUTH! Anesthesiology is the worst board