Specialty you're interested in?

[theamazingbil]

Gas is not that competitive. It is similar to IM. Extremely competitive at the top and not so competitive at the bottom.

Yes, you're right. Plenty of Caribbean grads match into Anesthesiology.

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[Poetic Silence]

Money. If you don't mind being a slave, straight neurosurgery pays ~$600k/year. Neurosurgeons who specialize in spinal injuries could probably clear a million a year.

Prestige. People are impressionable by prestige. We all want to be looked up to and admired.

 

[MiracleforMD]

Yes, you're right. Plenty of Caribbean grads match into Anesthesiology.

I think you're being serious haha. I can't tell.

 

[Testosterone]

I always thought the most interesting cases were in Neurosurgery. I thought it was pretty cool that you could operate on the brain while the patient was still awake.

Obviously it depends on the region and hospital, but I thought EM was mostly just alcohol/substance related cases (gunshot/knife wounds, drug abuse etc)

 

[theamazingbil]

no one likes plastics?

 

[theamazingbil]

I think you're being serious haha. I can't tell.

hehehe

 

[RomanTaylor]

Prestige. People are impressionable by prestige. We all want to be looked up to and admired.

And you can't get that with General Surgery?

And the pay in GS is not bad, either. I mean, how much money do you really need?!

...that was a stupid question to ask here, lol.

 

[LogicofMan]

Plastics seems really cool since it's so varied, but there seems to be a pretty significant stigma associated with the field. I guess most people assume it's breast augmentation and face lifts all day, every day. Oh and 7 years after med seems not very appealing.

 

[Poetic Silence]

And you can't get that with General Surgery?

And the pay in GS is not bad, either. I mean, how much money do you really need?!

...that was a stupid question to ask here, lol.

I grew up in poverty. I don't need a cent. Which is fortunate because I likely won't get a cent as a kiddie doctor.

 

[theamazingbil]

And you can't get that with General Surgery?

And the pay in GS is not bad, either. I mean, how much money do you really need?!

...that was a stupid question to ask here, lol.

It's just that to the average person "brain surgeon" sounds like you must be the smartest doctor out there. And yes, I would do GS and then if you want the extra money/prestige, just do plastics after that

 

[RomanTaylor]

I grew up in poverty. I don't need a cent. Which is fortunate because I likely won't get a cent as a kiddie doctor.

Heh, just about the same here.

Not so much poverty, but DEFINITELY not well off. Hell, I've been enlist for the last decade, lol.

 

[RomanTaylor]

It's just that to the average person "brain surgeon" sounds like you must be the smartest doctor out there. And yes, I would do GS and then if you want the extra money/prestige, just do plastics after that

I am thinking General Surgery -> Trauma Fellowship myself. Though I understand that the fellowship is not needed to be a trauma surgeon, it still seems VERY interesting, and very adapt to my skillset.

 

[circulus vitios]

Prestige. People are impressionable by prestige. We all want to be looked up to and admired.

I don't buy into prestige because no one outside of medicine would care that you're a neurosurgeon. Hell, even within medicine the only people who care about neurosurgery are other neurosurgeons...and neurosurgery residency programs are tiny.

 

[RomanTaylor]

I don't buy into prestige because no one outside of medicine would care that you're a neurosurgeon. Hell, even within medicine the only people who care about neurosurgery are other neurosurgeons...and neurosurgery residency programs are tiny.

...a hell of a pickup line, though...

Alright, I will stop hijacking the thread. Apologies.

 

[theamazingbil]

I am thinking General Surgery -> Trauma Fellowship myself. Though I understand that the fellowship is not needed to be a trauma surgeon, it still seems VERY interesting, and very adapt to my skillset.

That sounds really exciting! Also, dermatology and then a Mohs surgery fellowship sounds pretty interesting

 

[Poetic Silence]

I don't buy into prestige because no one outside of medicine would care that you're a neurosurgeon. Hell, even within medicine the only people who care about neurosurgery are other neurosurgeons...and neurosurgery residency programs are tiny.

Ditto.

I feel I can be just as much of a role model as a pediatrician as I could a neurosurgeon. It's not what you do that matters, but how well you do it.

I'm more impressed by the dentists who do their work as if it is what they were born to do than by the neurosurgeons who look like they hate life and everyone in it.

 

[A Nony Mouse]

Probably something in Primary Care-- leaning towards pediatrics, OB/GYN, or internal medicine.

 

[MedPR]

Gas is not that competitive. It is similar to IM. Extremely competitive at the top and not so competitive at the bottom.

Thats what I thought, but everyone keeps telling me it's competitive.. median step 1 is around 225... not competitive at all.

Sent from my SGH-T999 using SDN Mobile

 

[mimelim]

I wanted to do EM when I entered medical school because that was all I really knew of clinical medicine. Then I wanted to do Neurosurgery because of an interest group presentation on the technology used in a craniotomy. That lasted for 4 months when I spent my MS1 summer on trauma and critical care at Northwestern memorial. I wanted to do Trauma surgery until I did my Vascular surgery rotation in the middle of MS3. Unlike the specialties prior, every day I realize how much more I want to do Vascular Surgery.

1) The Surgeries
Endovascular, open, big whack aortas, small job fistulas. No shortage of variety and interesting cases. Critical cases, reasonable number of emergency, heart racing cases. I could easily focus on complex access, aortic disease or even venous and be happy. And if you haven't seen a carotid endarterectomy, you haven't seen sexy.

2) The Patients
I'm a weird surgeon. I like continuity. We don't cure our patients. But we improve and extend their lives. The nature of their disease dictates that they will return. Today I was on stroke call, just happened to be passing through in patient dialysis and I knew 1/3rd of the patients in getting treated. I could walk down the line saying 'hi' to everyone.

3) The Prestige
There is a saying among Gen Surg and ER residents at my hospital, when in trouble, call Vascular. When IR, IC, IN, get in trouble, who do they call? Ever walk into a room with a patient's arm shooting blood 5 feet across the room, hitting the wall on the other side, with everyone running around and being the badass who stops the bleeding with two fingers, throws a figure of 8 while calmly telling the nurse to call the OR to prep for a ruptured fistula? I have. And I'm an intern. Yes, other professions require just as much skill/thinking, but there are few things as dramatic as stopping a patient from actively exsanguinating.


The hours suck. The expectations are high. But, I can't imagine something more rewarding for me.


ps. #3 isn't a reason to go into Vascular. It is just the feel good you get at the end of the day .

 

[MedPR]

I wanted to do EM when I entered medical school because that was all I really knew of clinical medicine. Then I wanted to do Neurosurgery because of an interest group presentation on the technology used in a craniotomy. That lasted for 4 months when I spent my MS1 summer on trauma and critical care at Northwestern memorial. I wanted to do Trauma surgery until I did my Vascular surgery rotation in the middle of MS3. Unlike the specialties prior, every day I realize how much more I want to do Vascular Surgery.

1) The Surgeries
Endovascular, open, big whack aortas, small job fistulas. No shortage of variety and interesting cases. Critical cases, reasonable number of emergency, heart racing cases. I could easily focus on complex access, aortic disease or even venous and be happy. And if you haven't seen a carotid endarterectomy, you haven't seen sexy.

2) The Patients
I'm a weird surgeon. I like continuity. We don't cure our patients. But we improve and extend their lives. The nature of their disease dictates that they will return. Today I was on stroke call, just happened to be passing through in patient dialysis and I knew 1/3rd of the patients in getting treated. I could walk down the line saying 'hi' to everyone.

3) The Prestige
There is a saying among Gen Surg and ER residents at my hospital, when in trouble, call Vascular. When IR, IC, IN, get in trouble, who do they call? Ever walk into a room with a patient's arm shooting blood 5 feet across the room, hitting the wall on the other side, with everyone running around and being the badass who stops the bleeding with two fingers, throws a figure of 8 while calmly telling the nurse to call the OR to prep for a ruptured fistula? I have. And I'm an intern. Yes, other professions require just as much skill/thinking, but there are few things as dramatic as stopping a patient from actively exsanguinating.


The hours suck. The expectations are high. But, I can't imagine something more rewarding for me.


ps. #3 isn't a reason to go into Vascular. It is just the feel good you get at the end of the day .

I thought vascular had decent hours compared to other surg? Was I lied to?

Sent from my SGH-T999 using SDN Mobile

 

[deleted303591]

I am fascinated by neurology, and I would like to specialize in neuromuscular diseases (I have a nm disease).

I am also interested in anesthesiology. I like medical devices and I am very technical.

However, I like preventative medicine also.

 

[drscholls]

Does anyone see the irony of defending pre-meds interested in ortho, then spending 2 pages wiping the floor with people interested in Neurosurg?

That being said, I find that I am hesitant to sell myself on any specialty while still trying to get into medical school. It seems a bit like planning what I want my college major to be while in middle school. It all seemed cool when I was in 8th grade. A lot changed by the time I was a senior in high school.

 

[mimelim]

I thought vascular had decent hours compared to other surg? Was I lied to?

Sent from my SGH-T999 using SDN Mobile

Like most things in medicine, it is what you make of it. But our Vascular guys work 70-100 hours a week (n=6). Granted many of them are doing non-clinical things, research, education, administrative etc. But, on average I would say that it is on par with GS.

 

[Frazier]

Psych
Heme/Onc
RadOnc

Looking forward to rotations so I can iron things out.

 

[gasblaster]

Gas is not that competitive. It is similar to IM. Extremely competitive at the top and not so competitive at the bottom.

Thats what I thought, but everyone keeps telling me it's competitive.. median step 1 is around 225... not competitive at all.

It's in the middle range in terms of competitiveness. If you have good board scores, grades, etc. and come from an MD school you have a decent chance of matching. However, in contrast to IM, there are much fewer number of programs. Almost all anesthesia programs are university/academic based and coming out of residency, if you want to get the highly sought after jobs (pay+schedule), you have to go to a reputable program and getting into those programs is very competitive. In IM, it's different and basically only matters about where you last trained. You can go to a whatever program for residency and then land fellowship at a strong program and be set.

 

[linebacker57]

It's in the middle range in terms of competitiveness. If you have good board scores, grades, etc. and come from an MD school you have a decent chance of matching. However, in contrast to IM, there are much fewer number of programs. Almost all anesthesia programs are university/academic based and coming out of residency, if you want to get the highly sought after jobs (pay+schedule), you have to go to a reputable program and getting into those programs is very competitive. In IM, it's different and basically only matters about where you last trained. You can go to a whatever program for residency and then land fellowship at a strong program and be set.

Forgive my ignorance, but aren't all residency programs university/academic based? I mean that's the point of a teaching hospital, right?

 

[gasblaster]

Forgive my ignorance, but aren't all residency programs university/academic based? I mean that's the point of a teaching hospital, right?

Nope residencies are typically divided into community or university programs (although some cross-over via affiliations).

Community programs are still teaching programs with similar structure of residents, teaching attendings, etc, but are not considered university or academic programs.

 

[huskydock]

C&A Psych
Hospice & Palliative care (so I guess primary care?)
Neurology

My top choices. I look forward to exploring my options however, but all my exposure with those three specialties/subspecialties have been nothing but incredibly positive and rewarding.

 

[deleted103644]

I wanna be a neuroopthourologist.

You want to look at penises?

 

[deleted103644]

...a hell of a pickup line, though...

Alright, I will stop hijacking the thread. Apologies.

Neurosurgeons don't have time to date...

 

[Postictal Raiden]

I want to be the next Debakey. Whether it's a dying field or not, I want to do CT surgery. Vascular is also high up there.

I liked EM for a while, especially during my volunteering at a busy ER, but it is not surgery. The irony of cutting people open to save/improve their lives has always been fascinating to me.

 

[cuculici1]

I understand the "ortho pre-med" stigma you're referring to. I thought it would be that way when meeting other pre-meds, but I honestly have been surprised to find that I've only met a few that want to do ortho as well. I became interested in ortho way before I knew the kind of money they made or how competitive it is.

Now I'm thinking I still like ortho and sports med. But, I also may consider family medicine with a fellowship in sports med or possibly even emergency med with a sports med fellowship. Or possibly even just EM.

I try to keep an open mind and understand a lot can change in the next 4-5 years, and that there are a ton of directions to go in medicine.

Can you elaborate a bit on what you can do with an EM + sports med fellowship? I'm interested in pursuing a sports med fellowship but was always under the impression that it was only done after family medicine, pm&r, and ortho residencies.

 

[DAPI]

Interested in peds hem/onc but also becoming more interested in a med-peds residency followed by a combined peds/adults hem/onc fellowship focusing on adolescent and young adult bone marrow and stem cell transplants and long term follow up. Get myself quadruple board certified

 

[bigdogrob4284]

I'm interested in some kind of surgery.

 

[Birdnals]

Surgical oncology. The teamwork involved with the other cancer docs on the tumor boards is awesome. The work that takes place before surgeries and preparation is interesting to me as well. I also just love working with cancer patients!

 

[ShenanigansMD]

I'm still going with NASA Flight Surgeon. I've been adamant about this in all of my interviews so far.

Orthopaedics is my back up.

 

[YouNeverKnow22]

Originally Neurosurgery, but after shadowing a service several times, I hated it. Bunch of dbags who sounded like they did not give a **** about their patients during rounds.

Ortho, Urology and ENT had some awesome people though. Really approachable and cool senior residents and attendings at least at the hospital I was at.

They don't, and I say this from experience as a patient. Though I trust them as capable surgeons, I hate them as people. One of them even laughed as he showed me a new spine tumor on an MRI. WTF?!

I used to want to be a neurosurgeon too, but then I realized I am not a psychopathic killer. The practice of medicine should not be so one dimensional.

ENT's have always been my favorites of the surgeons. They've always had the best bedside manner and they seem to care about your life outside the hospital.

One of my mentors is an ENT and the man is one of the kindest, most social doctors I've ever met.

Ophthalmologists are also usually pretty chill, as are orthos. Uros, I wouldn't know, but when your job centeres aroung penis eyes, I imagine you have to have a sense of gumor about it.

Uhhh seriously? You guys had bad experiences, that doesn't mean you have to generalize the whole field. Everybody I've meet in the field have been nothing short of amazing.

 

[HSUReddie]

As of right now...

Pediatric Infectious Disease

I'm sort of an infectious disease nerd right now anyway... decided to get an MSPH in trop med. Out of all the peds subspecialties I've shadowed, I liked it best. I liked that in the inpatient setting you serve as a consult service for the other physicians - so if you get to see patients all over the hospital. In a clinic setting, you still get to form long-term relationships with some patients like those children who are HIV positive. You have a good mix of extremely interesting, rare cases and run-of-the-mill bread and butter cases. I'm also interested in academic medicine, and I think it's a subspecialty that really lends itself to that. Also, from what I have learned about some diseases, the symptoms often present differently in children than they do in adults. I think the physiological implications behind that are interesting. Then there's the challenge of diagnosing a child who in reality can't really communicate what's wrong with them very effectively... And the teenage boy who doesn't want to talk about his bowel movements because there's a 22 year old girl following the attending around (true story).... Mix that with cute kids, and I think it's a pretty cool speciality.

 

[CaliGirl14]

dermatology, just want my own clinic.

 

[deleted103644]

dermatology, just want my own clinic.

You're so superficial.

 

[Fivo]

Plastic Surgery. I'd ideally like to help those who suffer from things such as their eyes being too far apart or their elbows being too pointy, etc...

 

[ShenanigansMD]

You're so superficial.

Not sure if this is a pun but I'm laughing my butt off any way.

 

[Poetic Silence]

Plastic Surgery. I'd ideally like to help those who suffer from things such as their eyes being too far apart or their elbows being too pointy, etc...

The first would actually be oculoplastics.

The second, what? Your ambition in life is to find a cure for pointy elbows? [Bleep] cancer and AIDS, I've got a pointy elbow to attend to!

 

[theWhat]

Hollywood medicine. I wanna be dr. Oz.

 

[Poetic Silence]

Victoria's Secret gynecologist.

 

[FutureDoctor719]

Maternal-Fetal Medicine!

 

[RTN]

EM or IM, but I'm sure it will change.

 

[toxicwombat]

Emergency medicine, splitting my time approximately 50-50 between a regular ED and pediatric ED.

 

[JLC]

This is utterly ridiculous. Neurosurgeons can be jerks just like physicians in any other specialty. The first physician I ever shadowed with was a neurosurgeon, and I spent quite a few days with him, and even some time in the OR on a case. He was one of the nicest people I have EVER met, not just in a medical setting.

You are generalizing an entire group of people based on your interactions with a few.

agreed but generalizations about neurosurg are still true. Surgery in general attracts people who generally exhibit very diff personalities in comparison to other specialties.

 

[femoralgirl]

Hmm... Psychiatry, Neurology, Forensic Path ?
I'll know when I get there, I suppose.

Be careful about mentioning forensic pathology in a PS/secondary/interview. I interned at a medical examiner's office and was told that saying you want to be a forensic pathologist is basically the kiss of death for your application.