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[grapefruit17]

Honestly, it kinda does sound like em would be best for you. Not sure about the irregular schedule part, I'm sure there's some places after residency where you could do certain shifts you wanted?

I didn't decide for myself until end of third year.

Another option for you would be hospitalist.

 

[ortnakas]

PM&R has some procedures, and hours are supposed to be pretty good.

 

[postbacpremed87]

Honestly, it kinda does sound like em would be best for you. Not sure about the irregular schedule part, I'm sure there's some places after residency where you could do certain shifts you wanted?

I didn't decide for myself until end of third year.

Another option for you would be hospitalist.

What made you decide Psych in the end?

 

[grapefruit17]

What made you decide Psych in the end?

Lifestyle, less burnout rate compared to other areas, high demand/pay potential, no procedures (besides stuff like ECT), pharm based (my interest), evolving field and different manifestations of the same illness

 

[postbacpremed87]

Lifestyle, less burnout rate compared to other areas, high demand/pay potential, no procedures (besides stuff like ECT), pharm based (my interest), evolving field and different manifestations of the same illness

Your interests sound like mine. I actually hate procedures.

 

[Perfect Hair Day]

Anesthesia.

 

[masaraksh]

I'm kind of undecided between ortho and rads.

 

[ACSurgeon]

Lifestyle, less burnout rate compared to other areas, high demand/pay potential, no procedures (besides stuff like ECT), pharm based (my interest), evolving field and different manifestations of the same illness

Your interests sound like mine. I actually hate procedures.

Just curious- when people say they don't like procedures, what does that mean? Is it because you think you're not good at them? Is it the element of being on call or complications? Something else?

if it's because you think you're not good at procedures, that's normal as no one starts out knowing how to do procedures. Once you've done something a bunch of times, it becomes second nature.

 

[Mountaineer12]

I'm not sure about your competitiveness, but you mention great grades and research so would Derm be an option? Lots of procedures for sure.

I also second Anesthesia. Not really 9-5, but not far off and certainly all of the procedures you could want.


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[grapefruit17]

Just curious- when people say they don't like procedures, what does that mean? Is it because you think you're not good at them? Is it the element of being on call or complications? Something else?

if it's because you think you're not good at procedures, that's normal as no one starts out knowing how to do procedures. Once you've done something a bunch of times, it becomes second nature.

I'm sure I could learn with time a good amount. I actually worked several months in the icu and did art and central lines. But I really didn't enjoy it. It's interesting, I enjoy putting stuff together at home, and building things but hospital procedures I just didn't like to do it. I would rather be working with a patient directly or reading a research article related to a patient case. Would I do procedures if I had to? Sure. But if given the option I'd prefer not to

 

[firstaidforever]

PM&R has some procedures, and hours are supposed to be pretty good.

I looked into pm&r pretty seriously. I've found that sdn misrepresent the reality of the field. It's only really a good fit for people that really really love MSK.


Pros:
-decent residency hours (~55 hours/week)
-nice attendings
- inpatient portion of the job is easier relative to other fields. It's basically Internal Medicine Lite

Con:
-The cases are extremely depressing and emotionally draining
-Pays the same as Family Med (plus/minus 20k). why waste an extra year in residency
-You're down the totem pole of referrals. Ortho always gets first crack at the case
-After ortho, you're competing with Sports Med, Neurologists and so forth for the leftover cases
-Residency is extremely geographically limited

Anesthesiology has most of the same pros and much less cons. As an attending, gas pays double pm&r for the same hours on top. That's quite a few million dollars difference through the career!!

 

[ACSurgeon]

I have been looking into derm as an option and have a great mentor from undergrad that has offered to help me out numerous times, but I may need something that covers more "fundamental/exciting medicine", hence my general interest in EM. That's not too put down derm at all as a field, but I personally think I need a little more excitement/variety. I barely had any exposure to anesthesiology (surgery rotation was really different than most lol), but MANY people have suggested I look into it. I definitely don't need 9-5 hours, I just want a more regular schedule than EM provides. Radiology was thrown at me too, but again, not much exposure and would like to see patients.

I know I am being extremely picky which is not helping one bit, but I am afraid of "settling" on a field and having major regrets after starting residency. I'm sure many felt this way before ultimately throwing their hands up and choosing the field they'll be practicing for the next 30 years..

Part of the problem is you'll never truly know what it's like being in a field until you're in it. You're smart to do your homework and intellectually study the different options, and maybe know what your absolute must have/not have entails. After that, there's an element of blind faith. As long as you pick a field that you think is probably a good fit, it probably will be. Nothing is perfect. Every specialty has its ups and downs. The nice thing is, you'll never know what you're missing since you only experience one field of medicine after Med school.

 

[sunealoneal]

I am an MS4 at a mid-tier school currently taking a few weeks to study for CK/CS, but I am still unsure of specialty choice and am having a very hard time figuring it out.. I managed to obtain great grades and participated in a few quality research projects throughout med school, but have conflicting views on what field to enter. I had a great third year and enjoyed all of my rotations, although none jumped out at me as “the one”. I know that I am not the surgeon type, but I do like procedures and the thrill that comes with certain ones (such as suturing or injections). This allowed me to r/o many fields such as gen surg, neurosurg, ortho, etc. I can r/o OB/GYN as well.

I like the variety and patient relationship in FM, but I don’t know if I would be happy with a lot of the day to day work. Considered IM for a while, but none of the specialties interest me that much to pursue 6 more years, and I am not a big fan of being a hospitalist or rounding. EM was great, except that I am very concerned about the irregular schedule with my family (see below) since I generally like to have a routine schedule.

This is bothering me so much as I am still very passionate about medicine and all that we can do- but want a field where I can see my family and come home feeling fulfilled with my work. Maybe there is no perfect field for me and that real life medicine isn’t what I always pictured it to be? I have a very supportive wife who works 9-5 and is willing/able to move anywhere with me (along with our 10 month old son).

Was anyone in a similar position as me this late in the game? If so, what ultimately helped you decide? Looking back, are you happy with your decision?

I was in the same-ish boat as you. Going for anesthesia now.

Felt the exact same way about surgery. I had a lot of fun improving (slowly) in suture skills, but fundamentally did not want to be a surgeon.

I also liked the variety and patient interactions with FM. I'm actually meeting with my family medicine preceptor tomorrow to get a letter from him.

I decided I'd be happy with anesthesia because it is intellectually stimulating, procedure heavy. And since I usually like patient interaction, the social work component of critical care doesn't scare me off as much. With all my med student idealism, a job where I can spend half my time in OR doing general anesthesia and the other half as a critical care doctor would be the closest I could have to the "perfect" career. If not, then maybe pain or peds anesthesia instead.

 

[Mr Roboto]

EM, then work at an urgent care.

 

[Redpancreas]

I am an MS4 at a mid-tier school currently taking a few weeks to study for CK/CS, but I am still unsure of specialty choice and am having a very hard time figuring it out.. I managed to obtain great grades and participated in a few quality research projects throughout med school, but have conflicting views on what field to enter. I had a great third year and enjoyed all of my rotations, although none jumped out at me as “the one”. I know that I am not the surgeon type, but I do like procedures and the thrill that comes with certain ones (such as suturing or injections). This allowed me to r/o many fields such as gen surg, neurosurg, ortho, etc. I can r/o OB/GYN as well.

I like the variety and patient relationship in FM, but I don’t know if I would be happy with a lot of the day to day work. Considered IM for a while, but none of the specialties interest me that much to pursue 6 more years, and I am not a big fan of being a hospitalist or rounding. EM was great, except that I am very concerned about the irregular schedule with my family (see below) since I generally like to have a routine schedule.

This is bothering me so much as I am still very passionate about medicine and all that we can do- but want a field where I can see my family and come home feeling fulfilled with my work. Maybe there is no perfect field for me and that real life medicine isn’t what I always pictured it to be? I have a very supportive wife who works 9-5 and is willing/able to move anywhere with me (along with our 10 month old son).

Was anyone in a similar position as me this late in the game? If so, what ultimately helped you decide? Looking back, are you happy with your decision?

I think you'd be happy with Family medicine. It's actually a very cerebral field in that you'll not only deal with the HTN/COPD/CHF/Drug seeking but you'll all types of diagnoses, learn to practice the art of medicine with use of medications vs. counseling vs. referall. Frankly with FM, the sky is the limit which I see as a unique thrill. There's always room for improvement and you will learn to develop a lot of general knowledge about a lot of different fields not only in medicine but outside of medicine when you meet your patients. Go to a good residency program and never undersell yourself and your level of training. I love FM and it would be my 2nd/3rd choice after IM.

 

[Stagg737]

Just curious- when people say they don't like procedures, what does that mean? Is it because you think you're not good at them? Is it the element of being on call or complications? Something else?

if it's because you think you're not good at procedures, that's normal as no one starts out knowing how to do procedures. Once you've done something a bunch of times, it becomes second nature.

For me, the problem with procedures is exactly the bolded. I enjoyed most of my surgery rotation, but by the end of the month I wasn't really looking forward to scrubbing in to my 8th lap chole or 10th gastric sleeve. I think it would become tedious doing the same thing over and over with minimal variation. Not every procedure/surgery heavy field is like that (trauma comes to mind), but working with surgeons before med school and doing rotations things just seemed really repetitive after a while. It was interesting for a bit, but I couldn't see myself doing that for a career.

 

[ACSurgeon]

For me, the problem with procedures is exactly the bolded. I enjoyed most of my surgery rotation, but by the end of the month I wasn't really looking forward to scrubbing in to my 8th lap chole or 10th gastric sleeve. I think it would become tedious doing the same thing over and over with minimal variation. Not every procedure/surgery heavy field is like that (trauma comes to mind), but working with surgeons before med school and doing rotations things just seemed really repetitive after a while. It was interesting for a bit, but I couldn't see myself doing that for a career.

And that's fine, with the caveat that watching your 8th lap chole sucks, doing your 80th lap chole can still be very exciting and even stressful. It's hard to decide as a student, but I was curious as I'm sure some people think they're inherently bad at procedures. That shouldn't be the reason to avoid procedure bases specialties.

 

[Stagg737]

And that's fine, with the caveat that watching your 8th lap chole sucks, doing your 80th lap chole can still be very exciting and even stressful. It's hard to decide as a student, but I was curious as I'm sure some people think they're inherently bad at procedures. That shouldn't be the reason to avoid procedure bases specialties.

I agree, I think we all inherently suck at whatever we go into at some point, otherwise we wouldn't need all of med school then X years of residency before we could practice. I'll also add that I really did enjoy my surgery rotation, and I even came into med school about 90% sure I wanted to go into a surgical field and was really excited the first few times I got to scrub in. By the end of the rotation though, scrubbing in just started turning into a chore and my knees were feeling awful. So that was another reason I ruled surgery out. I will say, I did really like the few emergent/trauma cases I got to scrub in for, and felt like that would have been a lot less tedious than the typical scheduled procedures. I value sleep and my off time too much to do trauma though.