Wound Care Physician?

[SpinDrift]

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I don't know much about it but it seems like a pretty good gig. Most jobs I've seen start out around 300k, the companies you work for offer certification and there seem to be tons of jobs so what gives, why shouldn't this be on my radar?

 

[Means]

Just keep in mind, the general patient population for wound care is exceedingly bad. Patients needing wound care are usually not the type of people you want to be dealing with all day.

 

[Smurfette]

Chronic wounds that don't heal, patient non-compliance, bad caregivers, the smells, lack of prestige, limited scope of practice, etc. It is far from glamorous and you get dumped on by doctors who don't want to deal with these patient's problems. But it is a good job for the right person.

I've usually seen either people who left residency needing a job without board certification or older physicians of retirement age looking for low acuity at a calmer pace do these jobs.

 

[mrbreakfast]

As other posters noted, it's a practice where much of your patient population is noncompliant and/or has a very low quality of life, and has a chronic medical problem of which you can, at most, slow the progression. Chronic wounds can be gross - once in med school several inpatient rooms had to be evacuated because a patient's wounds could be smelled from several rooms away. As noted above, it's mainly a specialty of people who drop out of residency or older physicians who are nearing retirement. And where I practice, most wound care is seen by advanced practitioners.

Still, if you're interested in the pathophysiology, you should at least check it out. I spent a day in wound care clinic in med school with a semi-retired former army surgeon, and learned some things I still remember to this day.

 

[SpinDrift]

Great! Thank you all for commenting, I'll definitely check it out.

 

[CyrilFiggis]

There always needs to be someone walking behind the elephants in the parade.

 

[vanillawafer]

I currently scribe for a wound care doctor. It is as everyone has reported here. You deal with chronic wounds (and can deal with acute wounds) people with other chronic illness that can delay healing of even a single small wound, complex surgical wounds, and sometimes lymphedema. I would describe it as a glorified clinic that can seem some pretty gnarly things. Doctors and APPs conduct bedside debridements, bedside grafting, and bedside wound vac placement as well. There is a lot of progress that can be made for peoples wounds as long as they are treated with care. You have to be able to think critically and understand what diseases may be preventing a wound from healing, what products can be beneficial, and what the patient may or may not be doing to help their wound. I think it is a pretty sweet gig- mostly for retired surgeons or surgeons who don’t want to operate in the OR as much anymore.

 

[deleted1138023]

As a podiatrist.. you posters above are being sissies.

just kidding. I agree with the noncompliance issues as mentioned above.

 

[SpinDrift]

It honestly sounds like a pretty good gig to me, one that I'll investigate further in residency. As far as procedures go I'm looking at debridement, cauterization, grafting and dressings of different sorts? What about suturing, is that a large component of wound care? I'm looking at going into wound care from family med.

 

[Smurfette]

It honestly sounds like a pretty good gig to me, one that I'll investigate further in residency. As far as procedures go I'm looking at debridement, cauterization, grafting and dressings of different sorts? What about suturing, is that a large component of wound care? I'm looking at going into wound care from family med.

generally, there's no suturing as these are chronic wounds

 

[vanillawafer]

It honestly sounds like a pretty good gig to me, one that I'll investigate further in residency. As far as procedures go I'm looking at debridement, cauterization, grafting and dressings of different sorts? What about suturing, is that a large component of wound care? I'm looking at going into wound care from family med.

some grafts in wound care benefit from suturing to secure the graft

 

[LHMD]

Chronic wounds that don't heal, patient non-compliance, bad caregivers, the smells, lack of prestige, limited scope of practice, etc. It is far from glamorous and you get dumped on by doctors who don't want to deal with these patient's problems. But it is a good job for the right person.

I've usually seen either people who left residency needing a job without board certification or older physicians of retirement age looking for low acuity at a calmer pace do these jobs.

how to apply for these jobs?

 

[EthylMethylMan]

I'm a current hyperbaric medicine and wound care fellow. There's a lot of truth to the previous posts. But I'll chime in with a bit more positivity with a few additional points. Chronic wounds are a threat to limb and life, making wound care a hugely important service for these patients. There is value in knowing that about the service you provide. Demand for the service is also pretty abundant, and if you have specialty training in particular, job security is good. Wound care also can be quite chill depending on the volumes you see; working a different specialty primarily with wound care as a side gig (or vice-versa) can be good for physicians stressed by their primary specialty. For me personally, it allowed me to do emergency medicine on a per diem basis right out of residency, which was a huge relief. You also pretty routinely get to work with your hands with tissue debridement and total contact casting. While not for everyone, it's a pretty nice career for the right person, and I wouldn't write it off, though I'm obviously biased.