Which medical specialties have the most laid back personalities

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Just a few thoughts:

1) There are often many different personalities within the exact same specialty. Or at least there are often going to be enough exceptions to the rule that it makes it hard to have a set rule in the first place (e.g. neurosurgery might be considered to have less laidback personalities, but I know of very laidback neurosurgeons).

2) It also depends on what you mean by "laidback". For some people, a "laidback" specialty is a specialty where they can work hard but then go home and not have long term care for their patients. For others, a "laidback" specialty has no patients at all, or very little patient contact. For still others, a "laidback" specialty is a specialty where they can work with people they get along with really well. For yet others, a "laidback" specialty is a specialty where they are their own boss and have a more controllable schedule. Etc. So it really depends what you think is "laidback" for you.

3) All that said, I wouldn't necessarily pick a specialty just because it has laidback personalities, and I wouldn't necessarily not pick a specialty just because it has intense personalities. In general I'd prefer to pick a specialty out of interest for the field. A possible exception is if certain personalities drastically affect you and your ability to perform well in the specialty, then I'd take that into consideration.

4) My personal answer is anesthesia and EM. They tend to be the most "laidback" for me, in my opinion. But they are absolutely intense when they need to be, such as when a patient is crashing, which is precisely when they should be intense and not laidback. But in general, they seem to be the most laidback to me. If you asked me "friendliest" in a more outgoing way, I'd probably say pediatricians. If you asked me "friendliest" in a more reflective manner, I'd probably say oncologists. Etc.
 
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I agree laidback is a pretty loose term without a definitive meaning. For me a laidback specialty is one where the attendings are more chill, less anal about minutia, and more personable. Basically people you would want to grab a drink with after work. I have found such people in all specialties but FM seems to have more and was a deciding factor for me when deciding between IM and FM.
 
If your definition of "laid back" is the opposite of Type A, then in my experience, pathology wins by a mile. I have yet to meet an uptight pathologist.
 
For me, the cake goes to academic general ophthalmologists. Not a worry in the world.

I specify academic bc i've noticed vast differences in private. I specify general bc even in academics I've noticed differences between retina and general
 
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This is a really tough question to answer as obviously it varies significantly person to person and in different settings. My experience both in and out of medicine suggests that happier people tend to have better attitudes than miserable people. I would look to fields where people are generally happy as places where more content laid back people are more likely to be found. There's some decent data on this which might give you some places to start looking. Just remember that, for better or worse, what you see at your institution may not be the reality elsewhere. You will invariably have a small sample size relative to the overall number of people in that field.
 
I have not yet met a podiatrist that isn't as chill as can be. I also haven't met one that is not health conscious or is inactive. The physician I shadow told me he got interested in podiatry after his father (an OB/GYN) told him,"You wanna see the happiest doctor in the hospital? Go shadow a podiatrist."
 
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....continuing my insightful reply...

Each specialty is a mixed bag really.

I would not play into stereotypes. I have met surgeons who are some of the nicest people I have ever met, on the other hand I know some anesthesiologists who are complete dinguses to the staff they work with. There are exceptions everywhere.

How "laid back" a particular specialty is also depends on their work environment. I've seen laid back physicians really get in the zone when they have 30+ patients to round on in 1 day and they are on call in the ER.
 
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ranvier said:
Recently graduated urologists....not the gray haired
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Wouldn't the younger urologists be more A-type considering that you have to be a super competitive applicant to match?
 
Q: Which medical specialties have the most laid back personalities?
blub1212 said:
OBGYN
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mj-laughing.gif~c200
 
It will vary by group. In my experience groups tend to hire similar personalities.

At the hospitals I worked at, everyone knew without a doubt that all the urologists were the biggest dinguses on the planet, meanwhile, the hand surgeons were some of the nicest physician interactions I've ever had.
 
Psai said:
All the ents I've met are good people
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Seriously though, you're right, Treebeard was pretty chill. I mean, until he got hella mad at Saruman, but dude was totally cruisin for a bruisin.

Obviously, though, there is no answer to this question. Individual responses to situations vary based on context. In my lab, I'm a laid back dude. Put me in an ICU, and I'm there to do business, and people would have a hard time believing there's another side to the coin. I've met some incredibly wound-up PM&R and psych people, and I'm very good friends with several laid back neurosurgeons. I don't know any laid back trauma surgeons, but that's because I don't hang out with them on off-days, when I can guarantee many of them are a blast to hang out with.

It may be that low-acuity specialties tend to attract people who don't like harsh situations, but you never know from one person to the next what their definition of harsh is going to be.
 
Dentists who don't try be more than what they are and accept their second place status
 
W19 said:
We get it by now! You don't like dentists. GEEZ!
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y'all need to thank me for not letting these second place folks from getting on your nerves. They wanna challenge you and take your first place.
 
libraryismyhome said:
y'all need to thank me for not letting these second place folks from getting on your nerves. They wanna challenge you and take your first place.
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I like dentists. They are cool, they respect us and their schooling is high quality.
 
Yes we all dislike NPs. But i also dislike not cool dentists who hate on us and claim that they are better than us. So i kick their ass
 
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