What to give up?

[CajunGas]

---

Members don't see this ad.

Starting my critical care fellowship soon. Before I left for fellowship talked to the hospital in my home town. Financially these guys are making bank. The hospital would like me to do 1 week a month of icu and the remainder anesthesia. The problem? The ICU is pretty low acuity which they are hoping to increase by my presence and the OR case load is pretty basic. Alot of general ENT ortho. Starting to do spines and maybe some light intracranial work. NO HEARTS. Alot of OB. I guess my question is at least for starting out...is this ok? The pay is good, the lifestyle is good. Am I supposed to be overtrained for the place I work?

 

[periopdoc]

You essentially asked "is this good for starting out?" The answer to that question can only be found after you answer this question...

Where do you want to eventually end up?

Nothing wrong with making bank for a while then moving to your dream job unless you lose skills that you would need at your dream job. I chose to not do this since my dream job and the "make bank" job came along at the same time. I will be okay financially in my dream job and I will get to live the dream for a longer period of time even though I will ultimately make significantly less money in my lifetime (assuming I didn't just piss away the additional money I would have made at the other job)

It is never a bad thing to be "overtrained."

- pod

 

[MTGas2B]

At that point it is all about what you want. If you could find a good private practice gig with OR and ICU in a place you and your spouse if applicable want to live I wouldn't hesitate. I think it really comes down to do you like the group and do you like where you live. Make sure the answer those are yes and yes before you get too caught up in case mix and patient population.

 

[cchoukal]

Maybe what you're asking is, "should I be worried about skill atrophy by taking a job in a low-acuity ICU?" People on this board have certainly advocated avoiding such low-acuity OR/anes jobs right out of residency to avoid atrophy, so I'm sure the same applies.

At the end of the day, though the answer lies within. How comfortable are you with the idea that it would be harder to move up to a higher-acuity job a few years later? Is everything else about the job perfect? I think in med school and residency, there's reinforcement for the bravado behind wanting to take the toughest patients and do complex cases at the big-house all the time, but in reality, that's an internally-motivated thing in the real world and there's no shame in taking a job that makes you happy and satisfies all the other needs you have.