Residents Expressing Most Regret; Psych Ranked 5th

[Dreamstoo]

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It is definitely possible to involve "tech" into medicine for those who were talking about it earlier. Healthtech is definitely an upcoming thing in psychiatry too. I know a niche fellowship trained psych DO who does this and absolutely loves it (joined a startup and formerly taught at a top 5 MD program/top 10 program).

Psychiatry is super lifestyle friendly and I know this doc loves their job. Definitely works less intense hours than their parent whose a PCP. On the other hand, I do know another psychiatrist who prefers a long work week (50-60 hour weeks) but that's just by preference. Arguably the most flexible specialty out there IMO.

 

[caxoo]

Read the full article on JAMA. Only 3.4% of psych residents regret their speciality choice (among the lowest). The AMA article referenced puts psych in the top five of career (not speciality) regret. It looks pretty common across many specialties for about 15-20% of physicians to regret becoming a doctor (but I’m always curious what they would prefer to do).

I’ll add, this feels like kind of sloppy, click-baity, science reporting from the AMA.

1/5 of doctors hate their job? Cotdam

 

[Dreamstoo]

1/5 of doctors hate their job? Cotdam

It's definitely a minority. Majority of them understand why someone may give up in the process but some of the old school doctors don't get why a lot of people complain nowadays (oblivious to an extent of how competitive it has gotten).

Most doctors I met love their job or found a niche that they liked - definitely helps if you have other skillsets (ie. I know a radiologist whose a former software developer so he consults for healthtech startups and could jump over to the tech side of medicine without much of a hitch - definitely helps he has a MD as that would garner him a fair request for a 6 figure salary or so at the least).

 

[SeniorWrangler]

So my response to that is that there are many older psychiatrists who ended up in psych because they initially wanted to be a physician but couldn't do anything else. After practicing for years, they realize they didn't actually want to be a physician but were happy they were in psych because they can still make better money than 95% of other jobs and still only work 40 hr/wk or less. Thus, highly satisfied with the field they ended up in, but not happy that they are docs. I've had several physicians express this sentiment to me, and a lot of them said something along the lines of "well at least I ended up in psych and don't have to work surgeon hours."

Physician status and autonomy have been declining steadily for the whole of my career. The money has also gotten word, but is still pretty good. Hence the discrepancy.