rounding

[drboris]

I have read over and over again how people don't like to round in internal medicine. Everyone complains that rounding is a waste of time and that is part of the reason that thay want to specialize.

Well, I don't get it! If you have a patient in the hospital, why wouldn't you want to go stop by for 10-15 min and provide the best medical care that you can. Secondly, you are getting paid for it! I do not know if IMs get reimbursed less than for a regular office visit, but they still don't round for free. Finally, rounding gives IMs some diversity in their daily activities. Instead of staying in their office all day long, they can leave and go to the hospital once in a while.

If I am somehow being ignorant and overlooking some very important points, somebody please show me the light. I just don't seem to understand why rounding is so dreadful and boring.

Even a specialist has to round if their patients are in the hospital. The way everyone makes it seem, an oncologist would have the worst of it because a lot of cancer patients have long hospital stays due to chemo complications.

From what I have read, it seems that the only fields of medicine that avoid rounding are anasthesiology, pathology, radiology
-all of which are non-clinical and have no patients of their own

Everyone's thoughts are welcome.

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[VentdependenT]

Have you ever done an internal medicine clerkship or subinternship?

 

[grouptherapy]

i wouldn't mind rounding if they started at 1pm and we were given golfcarts

 

[drboris]

I have not done a clerkship, but a simply two month rotation should not dissuade a person from a future career. I am sure that rounding your patients as an independent attending with a private practice is much different that rounding with attendings as a measley medical student

 

[VentdependenT]

Rounding is like watching televised golf in slow motion. It takes forever. You have to pre round, then round, then post round. As a private doc you have to run to the hospital then round on all your patients yourself at a smaller hospital. Most larger hospitals have hospitalists which is actually a pretty good gig if you are going to do straight IM.

Anesthesia is most definitely a clinical field.

What field are you in?