What specialty least likely to get crapped on

[GalenAgas]

In what specialty am I least likely to have to take crap from Nurses and Other Doctors?

Emergency medicine is out as I know they routinely take crap from other doctors. IM is out because of the nurses and other doctors. Any ideas?

My Thoughts:
Neurosurg?

ENT?

Ophthalmology?

Radiology?

Pathology?

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[gutonc]

In what specialty am I least likely to have to take crap from Nurses and Other Doctors?

Emergency medicine is out as I know they routinely take crap from other doctors. IM is out because of the nurses and other doctors. Any ideas?

My Thoughts:
Neurosurg?

ENT?

Ophthalmology?

Radiology?

Pathology?

Of all of those, Path and Rads (with NSGY a close 3rd) probably take the most crap from other docs of any other specialty. If you want to be able to go off in a corner, by yourself and just practice your specialty without ever having to deal with another member of the medical or allied health professions (and don't need to rely on referrals for your income), a semi-rural, solo Ophtho practice where you do nothing but LASIK all day is probably your best bet.

Alternatively, you could just do your job well and not give people a reason to give you crap.

 

[DrAwsome]

Of all of those, Path and Rads (with NSGY a close 3rd) probably take the most crap from other docs of any other specialty. If you want to be able to go off in a corner, by yourself and just practice your specialty without ever having to deal with another member of the medical or allied health professions (and don't need to rely on referrals for your income), a semi-rural, solo Ophtho practice where you do nothing but LASIK all day is probably your best bet.

Alternatively, you could just do your job well and not give people a reason to give you crap.

But at least in rads/path, you can be mostly removed from other staff. You may get the annoying, when will that *insert imaging test here* be read? Or was that biopsy been looked at? But you are not working with nurses/other specialties near as much.

You can alternatively work doing nothing but lasers and cosmetics if you live in an affluent neighborhood with derm too as well, and you'll likely never have to see another person in healthcare, but then again you may go broke during a recession if you can't see enough patients or if too much competition.

I agree that ophtho gets minimal contact overall as well, particularly if it's lasik type stuff. But not sure if you can have a lasik only practice these days, lasik has gone down in cost significantly over the past 5 years, to the point where you can get it for $299 per eye on groupon! And if you are in rural town USA you may not have the volume needed, and patients may not be able to afford your prices either or even want lasik.

 

[Doctor Bob]

Emergency medicine is out as I know they routinely take crap from other doctors

Err... well other specialties routinely try to give me crap, but I don't take it.

 

[DIce3]

Private practice primary care (traditional or outpatient). All specialists will be nice to you. Nurses are always friendly to me.

 

[OtoHNS]

Private practice primary care (traditional or outpatient). All specialists will be nice to you. Nurses are always friendly to me.

This is true. I'm a specialist and I'm very nice to all my referring docs since they are the principal source of my business.

The PP world is very different from the academic world. Once you start getting paid to see "dumb consults," they stop being so dumb.

Nurses in private hospitals are also much more pleasant and respectful since they are generally working with attendings, not interns and residents.

 

[dantt]

radiation oncology

 

[Law2Doc]

I think it isn't so much an issue of getting crap but taking it. Let people crap all they want -- it only matters if you take it to heart. Get thick skin and start ignoring the people who aren't useful to listen to. Learn how to tune people out, and every specialty is a love fest.

 

[Top Gun]

In every specialty, someone will try to crap on you. The question is whether you will accept said crap. I personally don't. If anyone tries to fling crap on me, I will fling it back a thousandfold.

 

[Ronin786]

Choosing your speciality based on the least crap you take should probably be very low on the list of Pros/Cons.

 

[Boogie Man]

I think the amount of crap you take will be a direct reflection of your personality and work ethic, rather than the specialty you choose.

 

[cpants]

I think the amount of crap you take will be a direct reflection of your personality and work ethic, rather than the specialty you choose.

Wishful thinking. How much crap you take will be dictated by how your practice interacts with other specialties and how much money you bring into the hospital. Hospital administration will go to bat for the earners every time. It's why tons of surgical patients get turfed to medicine and tons of ortho patients get turfed to trauma/medicine. It's why GI doctors never admit patients at most hospitals. It's all about dollar signs, and they care a lot more about keeping a doc who does 300 knee replacements or 1000 colonoscopies per year happy than a medicine or trauma doc. It's the way of the world.

 

[C5toC9]

ouch

 

[cpants]

ouch

Sorry. Truth hurts. You want to call the shots, you gotta bring home the bacon.

 

[GalenAgas]

I think EM is a good example. If anyone does EM let me ask:

Have you ever had a specialist (usually it's a surgeon) slam the phone/hangup during a consult. How many times do you get unreasonable pushback from an admitting physician. How about nurses who are deliberately working slowly and not getting the orders done on a slow day in the ED. Backbiting nurses and gossipers who are just toxic to the work environment. I see these types of interactions on the EM side with greater frequency than I have in Urology, Ophtho, and ENT. I also worked in the ED for years and can confidently say that the working environment (professionalism / willingness to cooperate / efficiency) for surgical subspecialists is pleasant, even luxious, by comparison.

Some specialties are simply setup such that you will get more crap flung at you. Still, what has been said here is correct. Just because it gets flung at you doesn't mean you have to take it..... or get hit by it for that matter.

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[Winged Scapula]

Wishful thinking. How much crap you take will be dictated by how your practice interacts with other specialties and how much money you bring into the hospital. Hospital administration will go to bat for the earners every time. It's why tons of surgical patients get turfed to medicine and tons of ortho patients get turfed to trauma/medicine. It's why GI doctors never admit patients at most hospitals. It's all about dollar signs, and they care a lot more about keeping a doc who does 300 knee replacements or 1000 colonoscopies per year happy than a medicine or trauma doc. It's the way of the world.

Absolutely.

By way of example, one of our local multi-facility hospitals just hired on a very large Ortho group. These guys have never operated at one of these hospitals before but they are being offered first start times, the ability to run multiple rooms, priority turn-over, etc. When the rest of us, including the Chief of Surgery (who have been operated at said facility for years) complained (mostly about the running multiple rooms), we were told that the OR had been told to give this group priority. Its BS but because Ortho brings in a lot of money, they are being treated like kings.

 

[BobA]

Definitely psychiatry. No one ever has anything bad to say about psychiatry.

 

[cpants]

Absolutely.

By way of example, one of our local multi-facility hospitals just hired on a very large Ortho group. These guys have never operated at one of these hospitals before but they are being offered first start times, the ability to run multiple rooms, priority turn-over, etc. When the rest of us, including the Chief of Surgery (who have been operated at said facility for years) complained (mostly about the running multiple rooms), we were told that the OR had been told to give this group priority. Its BS but because Ortho brings in a lot of money, they are being treated like kings.

Yup, medicine is a business. Those orthopods will have the red carpet rolled out at any other hospital in the area, so if your hospital wants that volume, they have to keep them happy. The way of the world.

 

[Rendar5]

I think EM is a good example. If anyone does EM let me ask:

Have you ever had a specialist (usually it's a surgeon) slam the phone/hangup during a consult. How many times do you get unreasonable pushback from an admitting physician. How about nurses who are deliberately working slowly and not getting the orders done on a slow day in the ED. Backbiting nurses and gossipers who are just toxic to the work environment. I see these types of interactions on the EM side with greater frequency than I have in Urology, Ophtho, and ENT. I also worked in the ED for years and can confidently say that the working environment (professionalism / willingness to cooperate / efficiency) for surgical subspecialists is pleasant, even luxious, by comparison.

Some specialties are simply setup such that you will get more crap flung at you. Still, what has been said here is correct. Just because it gets flung at you doesn't mean you have to take it..... or get hit by it for that matter.

I'm an ER physician, and I can say this can be true in some places and not in others. There are a lot of factors, chief among them is whether you work in an academic center or a community setting. Second depends on your ED director's pull. Some places have great pull, some places get **** on.

I work in a community place now and I will say I have gotten pushback on 3 admits in 3 months. 2 times it was appropriate and they found an acceptable alternative to admission for me. I have only once had a specialist hang up on me after I pushed them to do their job, and then he showed up anyway. I have only once hung up on someone else when I was a resident (known lazy intern trying to push back on an admission to a cardiac unit with a pt with a troponin >0.50)