Still cant decide - IM vs. Anesthesia

[BlueManGroup]

How's this for stress.

AN OVERNIGHT RADIOLOGY RESIDENT ON CALL HAS THE POTENTIAL TO KILL MORE PATIENTS THAN ANY OTHER SPECIALTY.

A radiology resident is in the reading room by him/herself at night. And all emergent studies on the floor and in the ER is read by a radiology resident. The attendings staff the radiology residents in the mornings so the on call resident is there with all of the responsiblity/liability on his back by him/herself with no help.

And if you are wrong on an emergent case, the patient dies because you missed the diagnosis on a "wet" read. Therefore, you concentrate extremely hard on every study ALL NIGHT not to kill someone. Even chest xrays you search hard to not miss a subtle 3 mm lung cancers that could get you sued in the future. A radiologist is responsible for everything on an image regardless of the clinical history. A Chest X ray with a history of chest pain will get you sued if you miss a subtle 3mm spiculated pulmonary nodule anywhere in the lung field.

After concentrating all 3rd shift on close to 200 radiology studie, your brain is completely fried. Doing a radiology call is like taking USMLE Step 1 and you have to concentrate all night and not miss a single question. You have to answer all of the questions right with no misses. In fact, every single day in radiology your brain is fried because all radiologists are expected to get a 100% accuracy.

Ask yourself this. Radiologists read 20,000 to 30,000 studies a year. What are the odds that a radiologist did not miss anything in all of these studies?

This is why radiology is one of the most sued specialties. It is a numbers game.

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[wild0ne]

You are a freakin medical student and I am a current radiology resident.

Really? As of about a month ago, you were a medical student interested in Psychiatry:

Please forgive my ignorance because I am a medical student. I am considering Psychiatry as a career but I heard the field is dangerous. More specifically one works with a volitile patient base that might hold grudges. Furhtermore forensics is interestinf but wouldnt a convicted criminal seek retribution for expert legal testmony against the criminal. I even heard some patients have killed their psychiatrists due to anger. Are these rumors true?

 

[BlueManGroup]

Really? As of about a month ago, you were a medical student interested in Psychiatry:

You got me! I made up everything about radiology....HAHA.

 

[serenmoon]

I never suggested students choose fields out of anything except interest, so no need to preach to the choir. Bottom line is that radiology is still a good field in terms of compensation, pays more than many surgery subspecialties, so I see no need to discourage students on the basis of low compensation and lack of 'prestige'.

As you are an experienced radiology resident, I am sure you would have taken your own advice and switched to neuro by now if it was as bad as you claim.

I think you need to stop acting like as a radiology resident you are in a worse position than other people in medicine. Unfortunately we all have to deal with the stress of making mistakes in our work with serious consequences. As you said, the attending will review your work in the morning and I doubt the patient will die of their lung cancer overnight, so I think you can relax a bit about those nodules as a resident.

Btw, I notice you posted the same diatribe on auntminnie.com and no one there was impressed either

 

[FutureDocDO]

Really? As of about a month ago, you were a medical student interested in Psychiatry:

Ouch!

 

[WholeLottaGame7]

Really? As of about a month ago, you were a medical student interested in Psychiatry:

Haha BURN. I love SDN.

Anyways, back to anesthesia vs IM. I agree with everybody that's posted about not making a decision based on income/lifestyle. It's so hard to predict. In the mid-90s it sounds like no one was going into anesthesia. On all my interviews, there is a HUGE drop-off in class pictures; many classes did not fill. You just can't make a decision based on what seems "IN", or what reimbursements/hours are right now.

It boils down to what you enjoy doing. To steal a line from my wife (different specialty choice), I'd rather do anesthesia for PCP money than PCP work for anesthesia money. Stress is relative. To me, wading through 30 clinic patients or dealing with ED patients is much more stressful than managing acute issues in the OR (what little experience I've had).

 

[GoodmanBrown]

Really? As of about a month ago, you were a medical student interested in Psychiatry:

Bravo!

That's the best SDN burn I've ever seen. Made even better by the fact that he tries to play it off as if he had pulled a trick on you.

 

[LawNonTrad]

Don't count on it. Anesthesia reimbursement is on the chopping block. I suggest you spend some time in the Anesthesia forum here on SDN.

Links? I've seen the rumors but I haven't seen any substantiation. I've heard other unsubstantiated rumors about rad onc being cut more, etc. I wasn't aware that these impending specialty reimbursement cuts were going to impact any one field more tremendously than the next. My uneducated opinion is that if you see any specialty cuts, they will probably affect most, if not all, of the fields and will be at least somewhat uniform.

 

[IMforme]

Bravo!

That's the best SDN burn I've ever seen. Made even better by the fact that he tries to play it off as if he had pulled a trick on you.

While you on the other hand is completely innocent, trying to push people away from radiology....

 

[deleted87716]

Links?

Do your own research. Or visit SDN's anesthesia forum.

My uneducated opinion is that if you see any specialty cuts, they will probably affect most, if not all, of the fields and will be at least somewhat uniform.

Key word there is "uneducated."

 

[dragonfly99]

As the gov't gets more and more involved in medicine, would expect there to be downward pressure on anesthesia reimbursement, as well as likely other specialists' reimbursement. Radiology, ortho, interventional cards would all be logical targets, as these are among the higher paid specialties. They can't really get away with cutting reimbursements to people like family docs and pediatricians, as a lot of them wouldn't be able to stay in business.

 

[Labslave]

Btw, I notice you posted the same diatribe on auntminnie.com and no one there was impressed either

Nobody was impressed because BlueManGroup is really p53, and everyone and their brother is tired of his philosophical diatribes about money traps in medicine and how miserable of a career radiology is. He's clearly a bitter human being with numerous regrets and no real friends, so he comes to SDN and AuntMinnie under various handles to draw attention to himself. He believes negative attention is his only option for interaction.

In other words, he needs to get a life. Ignore his posts and move on.

 

[Labslave]

It boils down to what you enjoy doing. To steal a line from my wife (different specialty choice), I'd rather do anesthesia for PCP money than PCP work for anesthesia money. Stress is relative. To me, wading through 30 clinic patients or dealing with ED patients is much more stressful than managing acute issues in the OR (what little experience I've had).

This is some of the best advice on this thread.

 

[MrBurns10]

This is some of the best advice on this thread.

haha! You just unintentionally complimented me (I'm said wife). Try taking it back now, Labslave. I have you quoted!

 

[Labslave]

haha! You just unintentionally complimented me (I'm said wife). Try taking it back now, Labslave. I have you quoted!

Aw, shucks. I done gone and messed up again. I should have chosen surgery after all - I could have worked with your better half.

 

[MrBurns10]

Aw, shucks. I done gone and messed up again. I should have chosen surgery after all - I could have worked with your better half.

Well, now you run the risk of ending up in residency with me. Haha, sucks to be you!

 

[OneFellSwoop]

unintentional post