QOTW-April 7th - Medical training choices

[Vanquisher]

Hypothetically, if you were in the driver's seat and making the decisions entirely on your own for your spouse and their medical training knowing what you know now:

1. Would you have them go to med school? If not, what would you choose for them instead?

2. If you were choosing a specialty for them, would you choose the same one? Why or why not?

3. Regardless of your answer to #2, pick something else. What is it? Why?

4. Is there anything else in the process you would have changed in hindsight, e.g., geography, practice type, fellowship, rank list, school choice, etc.?

[mommax3]

1. Yes, I would still encourage him to go to med school (if that's what he wanted).

2. No, I would not choose OB/Gyn for him. The lifestyle....'nuff said.

3. Anesthesia or Dermatology. The lifestyle seems nice and he has expressed an interest in both.

4. I would not have gone the military route, knowing what i know now. However, DH received excellent training, and we met great people along the way.

[alotofyarn]

1. Would you have them go to med school? If not, what would you choose for them instead? Probably - it's a lifestyle I know, because my dad is a physician, and I can't imagine what any other kind of job/lifestyle would be like.

2. If you were choosing a specialty for them, would you choose the same one? Why or why not? A non-surgical specialty would probably be really nice, but at the same time, he's terribly unpleasant when he's doing things that he doesn't enjoy, so it's worth having him work more hours to do something that he lives.

3. Regardless of your answer to #2, pick something else. What is it? Why? Radiology or anesthesia, absolutely for lifestyle.

4. Is there anything else in the process you would have changed in hindsight, e.g., geography, practice type, fellowship, rank list, school choice, etc.? Not really. Most of where we've ended up hasn't been our first choice, but we couldn't be happier with any of it I don't think. We had to make some long distance work along the way, and it took him longer to get into med school than we would have liked, but it has all worked out. In fact, I ended up getting really great job opportunities at both places, and I don't think either would have been possible anywhere else. Well, maybe a couple of places, but without other benefits, like being closer to family.

[Vishenka69]

1. Would you have them go to med school? If not, what would you choose for them instead? I just can't imagine him doing anything else.

2. If you were choosing a specialty for them, would you choose the same one? Why or why not? It's funny that anesthesia has been mentioned as a lifestyle specialty. While it's definitely better than OBGYN or anything surgical, there's still tons of call and he has to prep the patient an hour before the surgeon arrives. I'd love a specialty without call (or may be once a month) and something that didn't start at crack of dawn and woke up the whole house at 5:30 am on almost daily basis.

3. Regardless of your answer to #2, pick something else. What is it? Why? Derm sounds nice but I don't know much about it.

4. Is there anything else in the process you would have changed in hindsight, e.g., geography, practice type, fellowship, rank list, school choice, etc.? I would have let him interview and rank Pittsburg for residency and may be encouraged doing a fellowship.

[MrsC]

1. No. Something else in the sciences or the financial sector. There are a lot of other jobs he would be happy with.

2. Yes, minus the CC or doing it 2 weeks a year. I think it suits him.

3. Radiology. It would still interest him and he'd likely have better hours. I never understood why Anesthesia was considered a lifestyle specialty. Maybe if you're in a same day surgery center all day but those jobs are hard to come by.

4. Fellowship location. I think the other choice would have made for an easier year, if only slightly.



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[OrionGrad]

1. Yes, I just really can't picture him doing anything else.

2. I'd keep it the same. Ortho just fits him,

3. Having no actual knowledge of this, I think derm would be an awesome specialty. Great lifestyle, great pay, maybe some freebies for me, etc. I always say that if I was a doctor I'd go into derm.

4. Maybe we would have stayed I'm Cali for med school, only because being so far from family for 4 years was harder than I'd imagined. But even with that, I'm still happy with his med school choice. Oh, and I wouldn't have had him apply to so many residency programs. So much wasted money.

[SoonerTexan]

1. Would you have them go to med school? If not, what would you choose for them instead?

Yes, med school is fine. If we were older or it was going to be a significant financial burden, maybe not, but we started right out of college at a cheap in state school, so no biggie. He did consider dentistry for a few years (I asked him about it tonight and he said hell no), but I could have also seen him doing very well in my career (IT/Business world)

2. If you were choosing a specialty for them, would you choose the same one? Why or why not?

He loves what he knows of it so far and it seems to afford a pretty good lifestyle so heck yeah.

3. Regardless of your answer to #2, pick something else. What is it? Why?

Umm, Infectious disease, I guess. He always really had an interest in that. Had a dream of working at the CDC. He had a brief interest in derm, but thought it would be boring to him. And he probably wasn't competitive enough. Looking at who applied and got in this year from his school, you basically have to be Jesus to be a dermatologist.

4. Is there anything else in the process you would have changed in hindsight, e.g., geography, practice type, fellowship, rank list, school choice, etc.?

Nope. Texas med schools 4eva. Actually, this specific med school too. My intro threads are funny because we were worried it would be too unfriendly and he wouldn't like it. Now he wouldn't mind being a lifer here.

[Deebs]

1. Would you have them go to med school? If not, what would you choose for them instead?

Maybe. I think there's a lot in engineering DH would have loved, but he knew nothing about it.

2. If you were choosing a specialty for them, would you choose the same one? Why or why not?

DH has actually mentioned going back to train in anesthesia (his salary would go up considerably), or intensive care fellowship. He loves to do things like regional blocks that most EPs just don't really do. The current state of EM is really frustrating it him, and a ton of that is because it's a "new" specialty which, ironically, is a big part of why he went into it.


4. Is there anything else in the process you would have changed in hindsight, e.g., geography, practice type, fellowship, rank list, school choice, etc.?
I knew all along, but I think he would have gone into a community setting first, rather than academia, and then settled into academia.


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[Vanquisher]

1. Would you have them go to med school? If not, what would you choose for them instead?

No. I'm not sure what I would have chosen for him, but not this.

2. If you were choosing a specialty for them, would you choose the same one? Why or why not?

No. Ortho sucks. The hours never get better!

3. Regardless of your answer to #2, pick something else. What is it? Why?

Derm. Hands down. Though he might have had trouble matching in it. Maybe rads or PM&R.

4. Is there anything else in the process you would have changed in hindsight, e.g., geography, practice type, fellowship, rank list, school choice, etc.?

Rank list. Wouldn't have even applied to our residency program. Might have changed specialties.

[SuzySunshine]

1. Yes, he loves what he does and funny enough Deebs he's an engineer by training and feels that he uses it a lot but says he would never want to be an engineer.

2. Yes again he's a natural at what he does and when he's not swamped by the administrative side he's a happy guy.

3. Neurology I guess because the brain is so interesting.

4. I would have tried to live life better in fellowship, I feel like that year set both our marriage and my parenting back

[Ladybug]

I would not send him to medical school because he said he wouldn't do it again. He'd rather be a fireman.

I'd probably pick interventional radiology. It's still procedure-oriented but a better lifestyle and salary.

Forensic pathologist.

I would have lived within our means and minimized the debts we carried into attendinghood. He had awesome residency and fellowship experiences in a fun metropolitan areas. I wish I had spent more of my free time while he was busy exploring hobbies and interest that I wouldn't have time for once we entered parenthood.

[ladymoreta]

1. Would you have them go to med school? If not, what would you choose for them instead?
Yes, he loves it, and overall our experience hasn't been too bad.

2. If you were choosing a specialty for them, would you choose the same one? Why or why not?
Absolutely. He loves what he does, and we lucked into one of the more lifestyle anesthesia jobs. He does go in at the buttcrack of dawn, but he handles it well, and he's usually home in time to cook supper.

3. Regardless of your answer to #2, pick something else. What is it? Why?
Probably radiology. Very similar personalities and a nice schedule.

4. Is there anything else in the process you would have changed in hindsight, e.g., geography, practice type, fellowship, rank list, school choice, etc.?
Not really. I like where we are and where we've been, but once the kids are out of the house, I'd love to move to a bigger city.

[Pollyanna]

Interesting topic!

I would still encourage med school and MFM because it's such a great fit for him.

If I had to choose a specialty it would be trauma or gyn/onc (which he chose not to do because of lifestyle and he really likes MFM). He loves to be on L&D all the time.

I can't think of anything I would change aside from selling our AZ property when the market was hot so we wouldn't have any debt.

[Curegirl]

1. Whatever makes him happy and he's passionate about, I'll support him. He expressed interest in teaching and I think he'd be great at that too.

2. I don't know...he likes the rush of EM but ultimately, it's worn him down a lot and it's disheartening knowing that it's already affected him so much.

3. I'm gonna go with derm because of the hours and it would be really good to see him less stressed sometimes. And he can work on me

4. We're not done training yet but relationship-wise, I wish we lived closer because long distance is really difficult sometimes, especially when one or both of us is having a hard time and we're far away from each other.

[WolfpackWife]

Hypothetically, if you were in the driver's seat and making the decisions entirely on your own for your spouse and their medical training knowing what you know now:

1. Would you have them go to med school? If not, what would you choose for them instead?

Honestly, I think this is what he's meant to do. If I had known what I know now maybe I wouldn't have been so overly enthusiastic during the application process, etc., but yeah...I just don't think there's another career for him. That said, I'd probably encourage engineering of some type, if I were to encourage him away from medicine.

2. If you were choosing a specialty for them, would you choose the same one? Why or why not?

We haven't "chosen" anything officially yet. Though he swears that interventional cardiology is usually ranked as having sufficiently content lifestyle whenever Medscape releases those reports. I hope it will be a decent balance in the end. That said, I definitely see the draw of specialties with shift work, even though my uncle swears that EM is completely soul sucking. Shift work would be a plus! I'm glad he avoided anything surgical, though when he first decided to head down the med school path, he dreamed of CT. Thank god that changed.

3. Regardless of your answer to #2, pick something else. What is it? Why?

Hmm...interventional radiology or EM, despite my uncle's warnings! Maybe family medicine too.

4. Is there anything else in the process you would have changed in hindsight, e.g., geography, practice type, fellowship, rank list, school choice, etc.?

I'm not far enough in to say, yet. But I do wish I had been more prepared for exactly what the whole thing involves. I wasn't prepared. I was a little cavalier in thinking we'd never hit any bumps in the road and did not at all set myself up to experience any disappointment. And as luck would have it - our journey started out WITH disappointment...moving to VA!