What specialty would be good for me?

[sloanp13]

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I am interested in neurology, cardiology, dermatology, and emergency medicine. I am worried about work hours and family time. What is the average day like? What variety of cases do you see? Is it interesting?

 

[SpartanWolverine]

I am interested in neurology, cardiology, dermatology, and emergency medicine. I am worried about work hours and family time. What is the average day like? What variety of cases do you see? Is it interesting?

What is the nature of your interest in these specialties? Do you have experience with any of them? There is a wide range in hours based on each specialty and where you are employed.

Maybe you should look into shadowing some people in the specialties you listed, because that is the best way you will be able to find answers.

You can also Google "A day in the life of a ...." and find decent accounts and even prior posts on SDN.

 

[Dflint]

I can't speak to many of these specialties but I can say that in many if not most fields you are able to partially control your hours once you hit attending status. But the years prior to that are going to be busy no matter what.

Also, whether something is interesting is something you have to ask yourself, some people find pipetting a thousand samples to learn a biochemical pathway interesting.

 

[darkjedi]

There's a reason why they devote so much time for you to rotate around in the clinics. Theres a very good chance you have no idea of what you want to do entering med school. Even if you do, theres a very good chance you will change your mind in clinics. Don't stress out too much now about what you might want to do, just be sure that you want to do 'something' in medicine.

 

[AlteredScale]

I am interested in neurology, cardiology, dermatology, and emergency medicine. I am worried about work hours and family time. What is the average day like? What variety of cases do you see? Is it interesting?

???

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Shadowing will get you probably a 15% understanding of what a physician "does" in a specialty . As an observer, you won't really understand what goes on behind the scenes unless you commit a whole day to shadowing (which most docs don't really seem to enjoy, and most observers find pretty 😴 because a lot of it is sitting in front of a computer writing progress notes, prescribing, catching up, talking to insurance companies, the nitty gritty).

Like the above poster stated, I wouldn't worry about what specialty you want to commit to, get into medical school first. I was very much in your shoes a few years back believing I WAS going to become a neurosurgeon. Now I know not to make such hasty remarks, at least not until I actually receive (I hope!!!) an acceptance letter

 

[Microglia]

*most* people find pipetting a thousand samples to learn a biochemical pathway interesting.

Ftfy 🙂

 

[pietachok]

I am interested in neurology, cardiology, dermatology, and emergency medicine. I am worried about work hours and family time. What is the average day like? What variety of cases do you see? Is it interesting?

You asked a pre-med forum to define the differences in the average days of a variety of physician specialties/sub-specialties. This is the wrong audience for this post. However, it would be best to do some reading as suggested above before you ask these vague, huge questions to busy physicians. It sounds like you are really starting from scratch. Perhaps your school's pre-med advising office can recommend a resource for you if you don't find it here on SDN.

 

[theseeker4]

You asked a pre-med forum to define the differences in the average days of a variety of physician specialties/sub-specialties. This is the wrong audience for this post. However, it would be best to do some reading as suggested above before you ask these vague, huge questions to busy physicians. It sounds like you are really starting from scratch. Perhaps your school's pre-med advising office can recommend a resource for you if you don't find it here on SDN.

Actually, as a pre-med question, it is the perfect place to post the question. Med students, residents, and attendings all frequent this forum to answer pre-med questions. Don't direct the OP or anyone else to post questions in other forums, as posting a question like this in the resident forums/etc. will simply result in the thread being moved here.

 

[ciestar]

If you look at the top of the page, you'll see they added a new feature that matches a specialty based on your answers to some personality based questions. I thought it was pretty cool and not surprisingly, it placed me in pediatrics.

 

[sloanp13]

If you look at the top of the page, you'll see they added a new feature that matches a specialty based on your answers to some personality based questions. I thought it was pretty cool and not surprisingly, it placed me in pediatrics.

Thank you all very much for your input. And thank you for this info on the questionnaire...thing. Haha

Sorry I am just now saying something. I have been a little busy with school. I have shadowed PM&R (Physical Medicine and Rehab) but it doesn't seem interesting for me.

But the work hours are somewhat controllable? This is the big issue for me.

 

[BlueLabel]

If you look at the top of the page, you'll see they added a new feature that matches a specialty based on your answers to some personality based questions. I thought it was pretty cool and not surprisingly, it placed me in pediatrics.

Not as good as this one

 

[sloanp13]

Thanks haha

 

[yehhhboiii]

from http://theunderweardrawer.blogspot.com/p/scutmonkey-comics.html

 

[pietachok]

Actually, as a pre-med question, it is the perfect place to post the question. Med students, residents, and attendings all frequent this forum to answer pre-med questions. Don't direct the OP or anyone else to post questions in other forums, as posting a question like this in the resident forums/etc. will simply result in the thread being moved here.

To clarify, I did not mean wrong SDN forum. I meant wrong venue, etc. Although there are doctors on these forums they are comparatively few and far between -- indeed all the answers thus far have come from pre-meds & students who cannot actually answer this. And, I felt the venue was not just wrong b/c of who is on here, but also b/c of what they are here to do -- the scope of the question is huge, and the likelihood of getting a thorough answer is low even if an M.D. replies, b/c they don't typically have the time to write that long/involved of an answer. Shadowing and reading articles/interviews (there are many on SDN outside of the forums) will help the OP hone questions that are more reasonable to get more useful answers.

OP: Training for everything will be incredibly demanding, and including med school, for the specialties you listed will last as few as 7 years (for EM) or extend to a minimum of 10 years (cardiology). Thereafter lifestyle can vary dramatically even within a given specialty (i.e. neurointensivist versus general community neurologist), so it would be an easier question to answer if you would clarify what type of lifestyle it is you are inquiring about maintaining in the fields you listed (i.e. do you want to be able to relocate every 2 years, or do you want to be able to work short shifts, do you want to work part time, etc.).

 

[Goro]

Try getting into medical school first.

I am interested in neurology, cardiology, dermatology, and emergency medicine. I am worried about work hours and family time. What is the average day like? What variety of cases do you see? Is it interesting?

 

[mcloaf]

Try getting into medical school first.

👍

 

[VisionaryTics]

Try getting into medical school first.

Or maybe not. His #1 priority is work hours and lifestyle. There are plenty of interesting, high-paying careers with far more flexibility with regards to personal life.