To those that did a fellowship, what were your reasons?

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chocomorsel said:
Well, like I said many times before. I probably made less than the median MGMA while I was out.

Didn’t have the contacts to land the best paying PP gig; did not I want to supervise 3-4:1 all the time nor bust my ass at a 60+ hr a week job. I worked hard (50-60hrs) in Vegas for two years doing mostly BS spine cases when I really preferred brain and realized it wasn’t worth it for me. Dealing with some of the crazy, money hungry neurosurgeons was giving me back pain and head pain.

So for me, it’s a job that’s gonna pay me >425K W2 with residents to help with paperwork.
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sounds like you were seriously getting underpaid.. especially if you were doing spine cases
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pgg said:
@facted did a regional fellowship. Maybe he (she?) will comment.
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I feel like this has already been discussed at length in other threads. But personally, thought doing regional was great from a variety of viewpoints but most importantly, in a crowded job market (NE), it helped me land both jobs I've been at.

Unless you want to do academic OB, OB fellowship I think it's absolutely useless.
 
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anbuitachi said:
i hope you at least made some extra money elsewhere in vegas
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Listen, I was making plenty of money to pay bills, have fun and travel. I wasn’t complaining about the money. I didn’t like the work, some of the surgeons, driving around and the hours.

Me complaining of not making $450K is truly a first world problem.
 
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Psai said:
Don't you mean with residents to teach and guide into fine careers???
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Honestly, I am doing it because if will push me to stay on top of stuff. To keep my knowledge base current because that’s required in order to teach residents.

I realized when I went back to fellowship how important that was and how I was getting out of date on stuff since I wasn’t reading as much as I should have been.

So it’s a combination.
 
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Psai said:
Don't you mean with residents to teach and guide into fine careers???
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Every place I have interviewed has had either midlevels or residents. In the real world midlevels are everywhere not just in the ORs. They are truly taking over every aspect of medicine.
I haven't signed a contract yet, but for the same amount of money would I rather work with NP's/PAs or residents?
 
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chocomorsel said:
Every place I have interviewed has had either midlevels or residents. In the real world midlevels are everywhere not just in the ORs. They are truly taking over every aspect of medicine.
I haven't signed a contract yet, but for the same amount of money would I rather work with NP's/PAs or residents?
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Who will provide better care or be more willing to take advice and criticism? Residents are more malleable and atleast your knowledge will pass on to open ears and the future independent physicians
 
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chocomorsel said:
I think he’s serious. Regional is becoming a thing now for fellowship.
For me, I haven’t signed a contract, but it looks like I will be making about 20% more than I was when I did full time anesthesia. So far still interviewing but this is the job I am leaning towards. Of course I will be working half the weekends a year and no real vacation time besides the 26 on/off.
For me, I enjoy being out of the OR and not constantly freezing and not dealing with surgeons all day long. That’s the bigger benefit.
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How is the schedule? 7 days on for 12 hours a day? The other week is 12hours night time?
 
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Current Peds fellow here; I chose the field because I preferred the (generally) more amicable environment that a pediatric hospital can provide, from ancillary staff all the way to surgeons. It allowed to me to find a job in a geographically desirable location for my family, which is probably the most important. I (perhaps naively) cared less about $$ because I have no loans coming out of the military.

If anything, jobs in major cities with large children's hospitals are getting harder to find because they are either not hiring due to a big staff influx over the past 4-5 years or hiring their own fellows [my own program included]. Private practice jobs that are 90-100% Peds (if that's what you want) do exist, but the few really desirable ones that come to mind hire very rarely.

One final reason (though kind of secondary to actually liking the field) goes back to the geography issues and was that I came from a small community program; training at one of the more well-known name allowed me to find that job at a children's hospital that wouldn't have been available at all had I not gone into Peds while also circumventing the bias against smaller, lesser known programs many departments have.
 
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Cardiac for a lot of the same reasons everyone else on here has already said. I always found myself looking at what were the biggest cases with the sickest patients going on that day and wanting to be in that room. ECHO is an awesome skill set to have and learning it really takes your understanding of CV phys/pathophys, as well as the ability to actually diagnose and treat acute problems to the next level. Wanted to feel comfortable with whatever came through the door, no matter how sick. Also always liked the idea of being the guy in the group others called to bail them out when things go sideways.
 
facted said:
I feel like this has already been discussed at length in other threads. But personally, thought doing regional was great from a variety of viewpoints but most importantly, in a crowded job market (NE), it helped me land both jobs I've been at.

Unless you want to do academic OB, OB fellowship I think it's absolutely useless.
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Where I work I think the OB fellowship trained people have the best job. The fellowship isn’t so much useful as it is required...
 
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Peds.
Only subspeciality that interested me outside of pain.
May in 5 years, I will see if the opportunity cost worth it.
Did not think I would be doing academics prior to fellowship, but enjoying it so far.
Follow your interest or passion! it all becomes boring after some time.
 
Katheudontas parateroumen said:
Appreciate all those who did CCM that chimed in! Consensus still sounds like combo PP is tight but full time CCM or academics is still open.
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Yup. Lots of jobs. I never took that full time CCM job because I didn’t want to get locked in to 7/7 schedule without any real time off.
Do locums now in both fields.
 
chocomorsel said:
Yup. Lots of jobs. I never took that full time CCM job because I didn’t want to get locked in to 7/7 schedule without any real time off.
Do locums now in both fields.
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I saw that post and was wondering how one would basically not get vacation. I hope places/people know that 7/7 doesn't equate to "vacation" week. The more I'm doing anesthesia (CA3 now) the more i know i don't want to OR work any more... lol.
 
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Katheudontas parateroumen said:
I saw that post and was wondering how one would basically not get vacation. I hope places/people know that 7/7 doesn't equate to "vacation" week. The more I'm doing anesthesia (CA3 now) the more i know i don't want to OR work any more... lol.
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Doctors can be some of the dumbest people when it comes to how the real world works.
Plenty of people think the week off is a vacation and tout this lifestyle like it’s the golden goose.
 
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I do Anes + CCM.

1st week of month: 7d ICU
2nd week: "post-ICU"/off
Remainder of month: OR Anesthesia

Not for everyone, but perfect for me.
 
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bigdan said:
I do Anes + CCM.

1st week of month: 7d ICU
2nd week: "post-ICU"/off
Remainder of month: OR Anesthesia

Not for everyone, but perfect for me.
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How are you taking vacations with that schedule?
Also, is this academic?
 
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