Specialty competitiveness

[Esmolol]

Hey party people!

Please help me. Maybe I am generally down and the challenging schedule of year 3 is just wearing me out but... am I crazy or has literally every specialty become very competitive?!?!

I get that anesthesiology is somehow a more popular specialty and thus is going to become more and more competitive. I heard psychiatry is getting more competitive as well. What is going on?!

I am doing fine with grades etc. and I'm getting seriously worried about what's coming up.

Am I going crazy or what?!

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[voxveritatisetlucis]

School expansion plus implosion of EM

 

[LunaOri]

More people wanting work-life balance, being attracted to specialties with more manageable schedules.

 

[Putkernerinthehall]

Step 1 P/F may be making some students wary of going full bore for a super competitive specialty that might be unobtainable once they get a scored Step 2. And then have to scramble to a new / different specialty.

 

[sloop]

Hey party people!

Please help me. Maybe I am generally down and the challenging schedule of year 3 is just wearing me out but... am I crazy or has literally every specialty become very competitive?!?!

I get that anesthesiology is somehow a more popular specialty and thus is going to become more and more competitive. I heard psychiatry is getting more competitive as well. What is going on?!

I am doing fine with grades etc. and I'm getting seriously worried about what's coming up.

Am I going crazy or what?!

Can’t talk about anesthesiology much but I can answer for psych:

- Applicants are more focused on lifestyle than previously. Psych generally has a good work-life balance in most practice settings. It is also very flexible. If you want to cobble together a couple of part time gigs or leave yourself time to pursue a particular interest or side hustle or raise kids, psych makes it pretty easy to do that.
- If you don’t like being on call, you don’t have to be. You can find jobs where you’ll never have to work outside of business hours for the rest of your life after residency.
- Compensation in psych is getting better. If you’re willing to take a locums job plus possibly some sort of telepsych gig or similar and work like a surgeon, I know several psychiatrists making like half a million per year or more. If you want a more reasonable job, in most markets it’s easy to make around $300K with a relatively normal work schedule.
- Psych is losing its stigma and more people are willing to work with the mentally ill.

 

[PathNeuroIMorFM]

More people wanting work-life balance, being attracted to specialties with more manageable schedules.

Rads/psych/PMR/gas hopefuls all simultaneously posting "tHe SeCrEt iS OuT" after every new Charting Outcomes lmao

 

[jambro]

Rads/psych/PMR/gas hopefuls all simultaneously posting "tHe SeCrEt iS OuT" after every new Charting Outcomes lmao

it is though... as someone who was interested in rads since before med school its really surprised me to see how much the landscape has changed since i started (M3 now)

 

[odyssey2]

Rads/psych/PMR/gas hopefuls all simultaneously posting "tHe SeCrEt iS OuT" after every new Charting Outcomes lmao

There was a 12% drop in the radiology match rate between 2020 and 2022 for US MDs. Used to be almost anyone who wanted to do rads could do it, not anymore

 

[ChordaEpiphany]

There was a 12% drop in the radiology match rate between 2020 and 2022 for US MDs. Used to be almost anyone who wanted to do rads could do it, not anymore

I think rads has "always" (at least the last ~20 years) been pretty competitive with high stats (e.g., step 1 > 240). The big difference between rads and something like ENT or ortho is that there are tons and tons of programs, including lots of community programs that wouldn't hesitate to take a low-tier MD or DO with average stats if the personality fit was right. So while it's undeniably tough to match academic rads (and has been), match rates into the specialty were high because those community programs could pick up the stragglers and train them.

In the last two years, I think people are seeing the possibility of WFH with rads and flocking towards it. Ngl, it's a pretty appealing concept. Rads is definitely a gamble though. There are a ton of things that look great for the future of rads, like WFH, inability of mid-levels to perform the job, and increased mid-level usage leading to far more imaging. There are also some very concerning trends in rads like massive infiltration of PE and better technology that will increase reading efficiency (and decrease demand for individual radiologists). Also, PE infiltration inevitably leads to overtraining. Larger PE firms and corporate hospital groups see opening new residency programs as a win-win. You get cheap labor and you get to undercut your current workforce with an influx of new physicians willing to work more for less.

 

[holdthemayo]

Hey party people!

Please help me. Maybe I am generally down and the challenging schedule of year 3 is just wearing me out but... am I crazy or has literally every specialty become very competitive?!?!

I get that anesthesiology is somehow a more popular specialty and thus is going to become more and more competitive. I heard psychiatry is getting more competitive as well. What is going on?!

I am doing fine with grades etc. and I'm getting seriously worried about what's coming up.

Am I going crazy or what?!

I can confirm that anesthesiology is getting more popular, but I think you are asking the wrong questions.

What do you actually want to do?

Yes anesthesia and psych are both getting more competitive, but they are really different fields. Both are great careers, but what do you actually like?

 

[Esmolol]

I can confirm that anesthesiology is getting more popular, but I think you are asking the wrong questions.

What do you actually want to do?

Yes anesthesia and psych are both getting more competitive, but they are really different fields. Both are great careers, but what do you actually like?

Oh, I know what I want to do...

I am just trying to cope with the anxiety of the 3rd year and the "what ifs" - what if I am not competitive enough? What if I can't match what I want to match? Am I even going to be able to match specialties that historically were considered "non-competitive"? Everything is becoming so competitive - what if I am not good enough for anything?