why is ENT better than ophthalmology?

[freeWillieB]

To an M2 who doesn't know much about the different specialties, ophthalmology and ENT seem to be similar in many aspects. Why is ENT more competitive? Also, does anyone have specific reasons why they chose or will choose to do ENT rather than ophthalmology?

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[otodoctor]

To an M2 who doesn't know much about the different specialties, ophthalmology and ENT seem to be similar in many aspects. Why is ENT more competitive? Also, does anyone have specific reasons why they chose or will choose to do ENT rather than ophthalmology?

In my mind, they are pretty different. Yes both have the detailled anatomy and the emphasis on diagnosis AND therapy of their respective areas, but optho does not come close to the variety that ENT has-- severity of cases, variety of procedures, organ systems... everything really. I guess I just got bored on my optho rotation so it never really appealed to me... But to each his own-- I know awesome people going into both. Good luck!

 

[TheThroat]

In my mind, they are pretty different. Yes both have the detailled anatomy and the emphasis on diagnosis AND therapy of their respective areas, but optho does not come close to the variety that ENT has-- severity of cases, variety of procedures, organ systems... everything really. I guess I just got bored on my optho rotation so it never really appealed to me... But to each his own-- I know awesome people going into both. Good luck!

The biggest difference is the variety of surgical techniques that exist in oto. Endoscopic sinus surgery, microlaryngeal work, open neck dissections, and temporal bone drilling are nothing alike. I was considering ophtho at one point as well, but no matter how your slice it, its still the eye. If you love the eye, great. If you don't love it, well, there's not much else. The main reason oto is more competitive has to do with supply and demand. There is a little more supply of ophthos than otos compared to the demand. Thus, its less competitive.

 

[freeWillieB]

Thanks oto and Throat.

 

[bugmenot]

there is no optomotrist trying to steal your job

 

[I Surgeon]

there is no optomotrist trying to steal your job

Yea, instead you have Dentists (OMFS), and Plastic Surgery competing for same procedures. Optometrists can't do surgery, thus they cannot steal are jobs. Ophthalmology has many surgeries the general lay public, even med students do not know about. We have 6 subspecialties all with different surgeries. Oh and by the way, oculoplastics deal with areas around the eye not just the eye, some even do face lifts. I believe Ophtho has a better lifestyle than oto. There is usually no inpatient care, rare. Most of all, you get the opportunity to give the gift of sight back to patients. Try both specialties out by doing electives and see which you prefer. good luck.

 

[TheThroat]

there is no optomotrist trying to steal your job

There is no field in medicine that isn't involved in turf wars. Beyond OMFS and plastics, otos cross paths with audiologists (ear exams), general surgeons (thyroid/parathyroid), radiologists (otos reading sinus CT's), GI's (esophagoscopy), pulmonologists (bronchoscopy), neurosurgeons (middle and posterior fossa skull base surgery), etc. The list goes on and on.

 

[carrigallen]

ENT is a highly surgery-based field, with a required surgery internship year. Ophthalmology is a procedure-based field, with minor surgeries making up the bulk of practice. The residents usually do a transitional year or prelim year instead of a surgical internship.

 

[I Surgeon]

ENT is a highly surgery-based field, with a required surgery internship year. Ophthalmology is a procedure-based field, with minor surgeries making up the bulk of practice. The residents usually do a transitional year or prelim year instead of a surgical internship.

Mole removal is minor surgery. Surgery involving a sense such as vision (like hearing) is major surgery. It involves more micro surgery than ENT, since the eye itself is small. The only minor procedure in ophthalmology would be foreign body removal and chalazion removal. The reason not to do a surgical intern year in Ophtho is because the surgeries would not involve micro surgical techniques and would be useless. Besides, most surgical intern years, mostly deal with medical management post op, not the surgery themselves. You need to find out what surgeries ophthalmologists do before you just call them just "minor surgeries or procedures". It would not be too minor if it were your vision (your livelihood). It is a field with a great combination of surgery and medicine (hence the prelim. med/transitonal year).

 

[freeWillieB]

more good info. Thanks guys!

 

[wtwei02]

I did rotations in both ENT and Ophtho, and loved both fields. It took me a second ophtho rotation early in my 4th year to decide to apply for ophtho. My main reason was that I liked the precision and detail in the microsurgery that ophtho offered. Plus, I wasn't crazy about the ear. Here is a list of differences (not advantages) that I noticed about the fields. Both are amazing, exciting and incredibly rewarding (hence the competitiveness), and i wish you the best of luck regardless of which one you pick. From my experience, the people in these fields are some of the friendliest and most laid back in the hospital!

ENT
1. Extra year of residency and surgical internship
2. More OR time than Ophtho, with more traumas and inpatients to round on
3. More call in residency, overnight call
4. Longer Surgeries
5. Tubes and Tonsils are your bread and butter during residency
6. More head and neck anatomy covered

Ophtho
1. Less OR time, more clinic time, home call
2. Shorter surgeries (except retina)
3. More instant gratification, cataracts, PK, lasik, etc
4. Opportunity to do a transitional year
5. Cataracts are your bread and butter during residency
6. Limited to the eye, and area around the eye

 

[mytirf]

There is no field in medicine that isn't involved in turf wars. Beyond OMFS and plastics, otos cross paths with audiologists (ear exams), general surgeons (thyroid/parathyroid), radiologists (otos reading sinus CT's), GI's (esophagoscopy), pulmonologists (bronchoscopy), neurosurgeons (middle and posterior fossa skull base surgery), etc. The list goes on and on.

I got one for you....No internal med doc is going to intubate, line and stabilize a 24 weeker...neo or pedi only, and don't say NPs because I have never seen only a NP at a bad, crash c-section. But other than that, you're right...

 

[Fah-Q]

My main reason was that I liked the precision and detail in the microsurgery that ophtho offered. Plus, I wasn't crazy about the ear.

This is a little confusing to me. Otology is probably the most similar to ophthalmology because both fields involve microsurgery. So, what did you not like about the ear?

I picked ENT because I like variety. Ophthy was just too narrow in scope for me, but it is a great field.

 

[wtwei02]

i dunno, I just didn't find the ear as exciting as the eye. I have no real reason for it. to each his own i guess...

 

[fife]

The reason not to do a surgical intern year in Ophtho is because the surgeries would not involve micro surgical techniques and would be useless. Besides, most surgical intern years, mostly deal with medical management post op, not the surgery themselves.

This statement is false and obviously written by someone who never did a General Surgery internship. The purpose of a surgical internship is to acquire basic skills in the OR and to learn how to care for a surgical patient. And contrary to what I Surgeon thinks, it doesn't deal with the "medical management" of post-op patients. There is a reason why Internal Medicine residents have absolutely no clue how to take care of a surgical patient. Everyone in a surgical field knows that there is a fundamental difference in philosophy that differentiates Medicine and Surgery. I think the aggressive approach I learned in my surgical internship has been beneficial and absolutely necessary in my training in Otolaryngology. I have another question for you: How many surgeries did you perform as a transitional intern? I scrubbed into a ton of surgeries as an intern, with me as primary surgeon on many of them. I can't imagine starting as a PGY-2 in ophtho and not being comfortable with basic suturing techniques or knowing how things work in the OR. Call me crazy, but I would think that anyone who wants to be a surgeon would prefer to do an internship in which they get to operate.

The truth is that ophthalmologists would have less of a problem convincing everyone that they are surgeons if they would just incorporate a surgical internship into their training.

 

[medonly]

What is the point of all this? ENT people do a year in general surgery becuse they have too. If they had a choice then the debate would not exist. If you tell me that surgical skills gained in surgery prelim year are crucial to your ENT career you are kiding me and your self. i am going into ophtho and doing a surgery prelim year. Besides the ocassional suturing and hernia repair, the only thing beneficial to me would be the development of clinical reasoning in the OR, pre-op and post-op which are very important for a physician(don't forget we all are physicians). In medicine prelim year one does a lot of referrals and consults and you do not have to make a lot of quick and precise decisions inhibiting development of your clinical decision making. So every body chill out and find something better to do with their time.
By the way, orbit and the eye have beautiful anatomy. Ear, nose, throat, most of them are prety nasty.

This statement is false and obviously written by someone who never did a General Surgery internship. The purpose of a surgical internship is to acquire basic skills in the OR and to learn how to care for a surgical patient. And contrary to what I Surgeon thinks, it doesn't deal with the "medical management" of post-op patients. There is a reason why Internal Medicine residents have absolutely no clue how to take care of a surgical patient. Everyone in a surgical field knows that there is a fundamental difference in philosophy that differentiates Medicine and Surgery. I think the aggressive approach I learned in my surgical internship has been beneficial and absolutely necessary in my training in Otolaryngology. I have another question for you: How many surgeries did you perform as a transitional intern? I scrubbed into a ton of surgeries as an intern, with me as primary surgeon on many of them. I can't imagine starting as a PGY-2 in ophtho and not being comfortable with basic suturing techniques or knowing how things work in the OR. Call me crazy, but I would think that anyone who wants to be a surgeon would prefer to do an internship in which they get to operate.

The truth is that ophthalmologists would have less of a problem convincing everyone that they are surgeons if they would just incorporate a surgical internship into their training.

 

[fife]

What is the point of all this? ENT people do a year in general surgery becuse they have too. If they had a choice then the debate would not exist. If you tell me that surgical skills gained in surgery prelim year are crucial to your ENT career you are kiding me and your self. i am going into ophtho and doing a surgery prelim year. Besides the ocassional suturing and hernia repair, the only thing beneficial to me would be the development of clinical reasoning in the OR, pre-op and post-op which are very important for a physician(don't forget we all are physicians). In medicine prelim year one does a lot of referrals and consults and you do not have to make a lot of quick and precise decisions inhibiting development of your clinical decision making. So every body chill out and find something better to do with their time.
By the way, orbit and the eye have beautiful anatomy. Ear, nose, throat, most of them are prety nasty.

Actually, I think this discussion is valid. My major point is that a surgical internship is a NECESSARY part of otolaryngology training, whether we all like it or not. You are kidding yourself if you think otherwise. And for me, I did a lot more than 'occasional' suturing during my internship. And hernias may not be terribly exciting for those going into ENT, but they do teach you about tissue dissection. I'm not really sure what your point was about the medicine prelim year, so I won't even respond to that.

Nothing you will ever say will convince me that someone entering a surgical specialty should be exempt from completing a surgical internship.

 

[medonly]

I agree with all you said about surgery internship and that is why i am doing one, but it sounds to me that you think of your self as more of a surgeon than the rest of us because you have done a prelim. surgery year. You just love the word surgeon associated with your name, don't you? Just because I am doing a surgery year does not mean that i will be better at occuloplastics than some one who did medicine. And please explain why this conversation is valid besides wanting to call yourself a real surgeon and ophthlmologists not so. Fine I will say it for you. i am not a surgeon, I am an ophthalmologist and love it. I know much more about otolaryngology than you will ever know about the eye.

Actually, I think this discussion is valid. My major point is that a surgical internship is a NECESSARY part of otolaryngology training, whether we all like it or not. You are kidding yourself if you think otherwise. And for me, I did a lot more than 'occasional' suturing during my internship. And hernias may not be terribly exciting for those going into ENT, but they do teach you about tissue dissection. I'm not really sure what your point was about the medicine prelim year, so I won't even respond to that.

Nothing you will ever say will convince me that someone entering a surgical specialty should be exempt from completing a surgical internship.

 

[I Surgeon]

This statement is false and obviously written by someone who never did a General Surgery internship. The purpose of a surgical internship is to acquire basic skills in the OR and to learn how to care for a surgical patient. And contrary to what I Surgeon thinks, it doesn't deal with the "medical management" of post-op patients. There is a reason why Internal Medicine residents have absolutely no clue how to take care of a surgical patient. Everyone in a surgical field knows that there is a fundamental difference in philosophy that differentiates Medicine and Surgery. I think the aggressive approach I learned in my surgical internship has been beneficial and absolutely necessary in my training in Otolaryngology. I have another question for you: How many surgeries did you perform as a transitional intern? I scrubbed into a ton of surgeries as an intern, with me as primary surgeon on many of them. I can't imagine starting as a PGY-2 in ophtho and not being comfortable with basic suturing techniques or knowing how things work in the OR. Call me crazy, but I would think that anyone who wants to be a surgeon would prefer to do an internship in which they get to operate.

The truth is that ophthalmologists would have less of a problem convincing everyone that they are surgeons if they would just incorporate a surgical internship into their training.

Ok , lets see where to begin here...you're right surgical internship is to acquire basic skills in the OR, however, most of the time one is on the floor taking care of post op patients. These all important skills include whether they are afebrile (remember the 5 W's), drain output, and whether incision is healing. Its not that complicated, since most surgeons write "one liner" progress notes. I'm glad you enjoyed your surgical intership...but did you have a choice? The reason that surgical internship is not needed is that we rarely have post op surgical inpatients( which is a blessing!). I believe it is beneficial for you to have surgical internship to learn how to dissect gross tissue, but to be honest how would it help us when we do nearly all of our surgeries through a microscope and use suture no thicker than one of your pubic hairs. It makes no sense and a waste of resources.
How many surgeries did you actually perform? Most of the time, it is directing the lap camera or holding retractors...wow how beneficial. In a transitional year you can structure your year to include as much surgery as you want through electives including ENT. Most people probably don't because its not helpful. We are required in my program to have a general surgery rotation for 1 month.

I don't believe most ophthalmologists believe if you think what we do is surgery or not. I mean if its not surgery then what is it? No one is trying to prove anything here. Ophthalmology is a great field with highly specified and difficult microsurgery dealing with (as Galen stated) "the most divine organ of the body". Again, there is no reason to do a surgical internship. It just would not be helpful in primarily outpatient microsurgery. we learned our way around the OR and how to suture in medical school. Now go hold that retractor. thanks.

 

[cdql]

I like the idea of the transitional year as well. I think it would allow you to structure your schedule more to your liking. And I have heard from past students that it is typically easier than a prelim year in med or surgery.

 

[toofache32]

I Surgeon can pee farther.

 

[I Surgeon]

I Surgeon can pee farther.

you have a classy avatar...

 

[toofache32]

you have a classy avatar...

I try.

 

[fife]

Ok , lets see where to begin here...you're right surgical internship is to acquire basic skills in the OR, however, most of the time one is on the floor taking care of post op patients. These all important skills include whether they are afebrile (remember the 5 W's), drain output, and whether incision is healing. Its not that complicated, since most surgeons write "one liner" progress notes. I'm glad you enjoyed your surgical intership...but did you have a choice? The reason that surgical internship is not needed is that we rarely have post op surgical inpatients( which is a blessing!). I believe it is beneficial for you to have surgical internship to learn how to dissect gross tissue, but to be honest how would it help us when we do nearly all of our surgeries through a microscope and use suture no thicker than one of your pubic hairs. It makes no sense and a waste of resources.
How many surgeries did you actually perform? Most of the time, it is directing the lap camera or holding retractors...wow how beneficial. In a transitional year you can structure your year to include as much surgery as you want through electives including ENT. Most people probably don't because its not helpful. We are required in my program to have a general surgery rotation for 1 month.

I don't believe most ophthalmologists believe if you think what we do is surgery or not. I mean if its not surgery then what is it? No one is trying to prove anything here. Ophthalmology is a great field with highly specified and difficult microsurgery dealing with (as Galen stated) "the most divine organ of the body". Again, there is no reason to do a surgical internship. It just would not be helpful in primarily outpatient microsurgery. we learned our way around the OR and how to suture in medical school. Now go hold that retractor. thanks.

1. Ophthalmology is a fantastic specialty, and most certainly one of the most technically-demanding.
2. It's true that taking care of surgical patients is not that difficult, but it's also not as easy as you made it seem.
3. The reason surgeons write one-liner progress notes is because we are busy doing other more important things. I would go crazy sitting around like the Medicine residents writing notes all day instead of actually doing things that are more challenging, like operating.
4. Maybe my internship was different, but I actually did a lot of operating. The lap cameras and retractors were for the med students. I did not hold a camera once. I only scrubbed on cases where I actually did something, which even included vascular cases. I even sutured a fem-pop anastomosis once, which isn't easy without loupes.
5. Listen, I work with medical students every day, and they do NOT adequately learn their way around the OR by the time they graduate. I've seen enough students and interns to also know that they also don't teach students to suture very well in medical school. They are incredibly deficient in this area.
6. I don't even know how to respond to medonly's last post. How does someone going into ophtho not know how to spell oculoplastics? But I will say that I doubt his/her last statment. I have a lot of ophthalmology friends, and they need to know literally nothing about ENT on their boards.

Again, I'm not bashing ophthalmology. It's a great field. I just think that anyone who operates in the OR should do a surgical internship. I certainly respect the fact that you may disagree.

 

[OMFSCardsFan]

I Surgeon can pee farther.

I heard that the microsurgeons are better at urinary penmanship than the general surgeons...

 

[OphthalmicPilot]

The truth is that ophthalmologists would have less of a problem convincing everyone that they are surgeons if they would just incorporate a surgical internship into their training.

Ophthalmology residents often avoid surgery intern years because it's not required by ophthalmology residencies. So they try to get the easiest and cushiest medical internship. This sometimes breeds a bit of selective laziness in ophthalmology residents. In fact, there's a thread about ophthalmology residents being a lazy bunch. The people who are writing in that thread may be half correct but they certainly don't know one ENT resident who I worked with that is the laziest person on the planet. He kept avoiding work and needlessly consulting others, including ophthalmology, and would not come in to see the patient until those consults were done (and he got some more sleep).

 

[TheThroat]

I just think that anyone who operates in the OR should do a surgical internship. I certainly respect the fact that you may disagree.

Many fields, including oto, are recognizing that the "old days" of true surgical internships (controlled by g-surg depts) are largely obsolete these days. Ortho has largely taken control of their own interships. Many oto programs have taken control of their interships. My intership was controlled by general surgeons and included a month on cardiothoracic, 3 vascular months, and 2 uro months. I learned more during my first month of oto than I did in my entire year of intership. Our dept, two years ago, took control of our internship and now our interns rotate on anesthesia, ICU, H&N rads, ED, and OMFS, in addition to g-surg rotations. So much better.

People who spend time during procedures without doing general surgical interships: Mohs derm surgeons, ophtho, ob/gyn, GI, interventional rads, interventional cards, ER docs.

Those that want to call themselves surgeons do so because that is how they define themselves (skin surgeons, eye surgeons, gyn surgeons). As long as their education stands up to review, I don't care how they spend their first year out of medical school.

 

[esclavo]

Many fields, including oto, are recognizing that the "old days" of true surgical internships (controlled by g-surg depts) are largely obsolete these days. Ortho has largely taken control of their own interships. Many oto programs have taken control of their interships. My intership was controlled by general surgeons and included a month on cardiothoracic, 3 vascular months, and 2 uro months. I learned more during my first month of oto than I did in my entire year of intership. Our dept, two years ago, took control of our internship and now our interns rotate on anesthesia, ICU, H&N rads, ED, and OMFS, in addition to g-surg rotations. So much better.

People who spend time during procedures without doing general surgical interships: Mohs derm surgeons, ophtho, ob/gyn, GI, interventional rads, interventional cards, ER docs.

Those that want to call themselves surgeons do so because that is how they define themselves (skin surgeons, eye surgeons, gyn surgeons). As long as their education stands up to review, I don't care how they spend their first year out of medical school.

This is very interesting. I agree that a year of various rotations on surgical and intensive medical specialties would probably be more beneficial that a solid year of general surgery.... this sounds like an interesting trend.... probably a step forward in education...

 

[PDT4CNV]

1. Ophthalmology is a fantastic specialty, and most certainly one of the most technically-demanding.
2. It's true that taking care of surgical patients is not that difficult, but it's also not as easy as you made it seem.
3. The reason surgeons write one-liner progress notes is because we are busy doing other more important things. I would go crazy sitting around like the Medicine residents writing notes all day instead of actually doing things that are more challenging, like operating.
4. Maybe my internship was different, but I actually did a lot of operating. The lap cameras and retractors were for the med students. I did not hold a camera once. I only scrubbed on cases where I actually did something, which even included vascular cases. I even sutured a fem-pop anastomosis once, which isn't easy without loupes.
5. Listen, I work with medical students every day, and they do NOT adequately learn their way around the OR by the time they graduate. I've seen enough students and interns to also know that they also don't teach students to suture very well in medical school. They are incredibly deficient in this area.
6. I don't even know how to respond to medonly's last post. How does someone going into ophtho not know how to spell oculoplastics? But I will say that I doubt his/her last statment. I have a lot of ophthalmology friends, and they need to know literally nothing about ENT on their boards.

Again, I'm not bashing ophthalmology. It's a great field. I just think that anyone who operates in the OR should do a surgical internship. I certainly respect the fact that you may disagree.

Quite a heated discussion here.
Fife, I disagree with you that a surgical internship would be beneficial in ophthalmology. There is some surgery in a surgery pre-lim year, but most places this is not a lot (often hernias, lumps and bumps, etc.) Also, many ENT programs the "surgical prelim" year is not a full year of surgery but more like 4-6 months of "surgery", and the rest is ENT, ER, and other stuff for the rest of the year.

The truth of the matter is that most surgery inpatients end up having medicine or medical subspecialty consults. Most of us who did not do surgery internships can verify this to be true as we did these consults--which are numerous.

During my internship it was in fact the medicine and transitional residents who ended up answering calls at night in the Cardiac, Surgical, and Neuro-surgical ICU. And at my current institution, the SICU is staffed by anesthesiologists, and the TBICU patients have a list of consultants involving just about every specialty in medicine. So don't preach about surgical management of patients, we all know how well surgeons manage patients.

So the question is, is the small amount of extra surgery that a surgery intern year provides beneficial. Well, I do agree that learning basic surgical techniques is beneficial. A transitional year is not devoid of surgery though, and I did quite a bit of suturing and surgery both on my ER rotations and surgery electives. But, most ophthalmology programs you will learn the surgical techniques you need to know during residency if you do not know them yet.

Dont take offense to this, but don't overstate the "surgical" nature of ENT. You are really putting yourself and ENT up on a pedestal. The truth is that the bread and butter of the community general ENT surgeon involves procedures such as myringotomy tubes (5 minutes), tonsillectomies, adenoidectomies, deviated septums with the occasional sinus surgery, UP3, or head/neck case.

The temporal bone cases and head/neck cases are pretty cool, I must admit--but having been involved in those and now with eye cases, I wouldn't say they are necessarily harder or longer. Some of these eye cases with 20 gauge pars plana vitrectomy/lensectomy/temp keratoprosthesis/RD repair with drainage of SRF/GFX or silicon oil/indirect laser/+/-scleral buckle/penetrating keratoplasty has been known to take a good 6 hours and are pretty cool too.

ENT clinic can be the pits with things such as allergies, ear infections, colds, sinus infections, strep throat and mono, ear wax cleanings, hearing evaluations, reflux disease...things a nurse practitioner can treat. On the flip side, there are some things about ophthalmology clinic that can be irritating, but most people don't go into either specialty for the clinic--its the surgeries that make each specialty pretty cool.

I like ENT, I like it a lot and almost did it...but it doesn't make you more of a "sugeon" that you are doing ENT or that you did a "surgical" internship and certainly there is no basis for saying that ENT is somehow better than ophthalmology. They are both great fields with a wide variety diseases, cool surgeries, and a lot to know. The really crappy thing about ophthalmology is that most physicians and the public too, know very little about what ophthalmology actually involves. And there actually is a lot of overlap between ophthalmology and ENT--I've operated in the maxillaries, the nose, the ethmoids, fixed facial fractures, harvested fat from the abdomen, used fascia lata, ear cartilage, skin grafts, cranioplast, titanium plates, medpore for reconstructive type work, and of course orbit stuff--so its not all microsurgery, its a pretty good variety and I feel my "macro" surgical skills are at least close to those of the ENT residents.

Anyway, the point is that you may be overstating the utility of a surgical internship and also minimizing the amount of surgery that ophthalmology does.

 

[wtwei02]

This thread should have been titled, "How is ENT different from Ophthalmology". As stated previously, they're both great fields, producing skilled physician-surgeons. I'm all for open discussion, but lets not let this regress into a pissing contest like so many other X vs. Y discussions.

 

[mysophobe]

I don't get the point of saying one field is better than the other. I hope you like your field better--after all, it is the field you chose. It's different when you're just comparing fields, but the things said on this thread about how optho and ent are better than each other cause of blah blah, and we do a surgical internship so we're more of surgeons or we don't so we're better doctors, blah blah. What a waste of time.

 

[wakeboarder]

Good point, Mysophobe.

Imagine what the lay person's awe at reading this thread would be.

Remember all those "wasted" lectures in medschool about taking thorough histories and understanding the full biopsychosocial model of a patient? How "works well with a team" was vital on a LOR? Maybe that's because we tend to wall ourselves off in ours, the "Chosen Field", as if one day there could only be one kind of doctor and we need to pick which specialty it will be.

The IM resident laughing at a surgeon's floor management and the surgeon scoffing that he is a "doctor that operates" and IM is a waste of time, will hopefully one day be things of the past. More and more hospitals are integrating multidiscipline approaches; many ortho and GS groups use IM groups to manage their inpatients, with the result of shorter, less morbid (and mortal) hospital stays.

We all started in the same medical schools. Although specialty training gives us some special skills, it also gives us unique limitations. Try embracing a team approach and watch how all our - and more importantly, our patients' - lives improve.