The Specialty Thread

[mommax3]

What is your spouse's specialty?
OB/Gyn

What residency did he/she complete? How long was it? 4 year active duty military residency 1997-2001

If you can remember, how many residency programs did your spouse apply to? How many interviews? How competitive was it? He had lined up 6-8 civilian residencies before he found out the military had selected him (he had an HPSP scholarship for med school). He remembers that OB/Gyn was fairly competitive that year. He did not go through an interview with the program he ended up in.

What fellowship? How long? none

What personality type fits well in this specialty? DH is the type of person that can't hold still. He is fairly quiet, a good listener, intuitive, and enjoys surgery. He is also calm in a crisis.

What are the post-training working hours like? I just asked him, because I was afraid I would inflate them. He asked if call counted 😳 and I said yes. He thinks he averages 80 hr. work weeks. He has been an attending for 13 years.

How is the job market for this specialty these days? No idea. We are very happy with his current position and feel like he is well paid for his specialty, especially since we live close to a major metropolitan area...of course, there are the hours. 😐

Any other thoughts? This is definitely not a lifestyle specialty, but it is a happy specialty most of the time. DH is in private practice as part of a large, multi-specialty group. He and his partners are autonomous and I think that greatly contributes to his satisfaction.

[oceanchild]

What is your spouse's specialty?
Pediatric Critical Care Medicine

What residency did he/she complete? How long was it?
Pediatrics - 3 years.

If you can remember, how many residency programs did your spouse apply to? How many interviews? How competitive was it?
I think he applied to 12, interviewed at 8, ranked 7, and matched his top choice. Top peds programs are competitive, but peds is overall not competitive.

What fellowship? How long?
Peds critical care - 3 more years.

What personality type fits well in this specialty?
Critical care is a field for people who like to solve complex puzzles and prefer to see the sickest patients. Peds tends to attract people who are good-natured and friendly and yes, who like kids. Pediatricians are generally not intense, and they don't take themselves too seriously. Peds is also like 75% female now.

What are the post-training working hours like?
We aren't there yet quite, but DH says the standard arrangement is to be on service (in the hospital) 13 weeks of the year. I think you're on call that whole week, and in-house call is becoming the norm. So I guess he'll just live at the hospital for those 13 weeks? Obviously, the ICU always has to be covered. Plus research or admin time.

How is the job market for this specialty these days?
It seems reasonably good. Primary care peds is pretty wide open. Subspecialties are a little trickier, but there seem to be plenty of jobs. Of course, the big problem in peds is compensation. Critical care is on the high end for peds compensation, but all peds is low compared to adult medicine.

Any other thoughts?
Not really.

[MsSassyBaskets]

Thanks for all the replies so far! Keep them coming!

[samssugarmomma]

What is your spouse's specialty?
Pediatric Emergency Medicine

What residency did he/she complete? How long was it?
Pediatric residency - 3 years
Pediatric Emergency Medicine fellowship - 3 years

If you can remember, how many residency programs did your spouse apply to? How many interviews? How competitive was it?
Residency - applied to 6 and was granted interviews at all 6, interviewed at 4
I think Peds has a reputation for not being competitive but I think it depends on where you want to go. We went to the #2 or 3 hospital in the country so I guess you could call that competitive. 8 )
Fellowship - applied to 2 or 3 and was granted interviews at all of them, interviewed at 2, ranked 1 (suicide match!)


What fellowship? How long?
See above

What personality type fits well in this specialty?
Easy going, laid back, able to work on multiple patients at a time, able to work with tons of distractions, able to alternate between days and nights easily, able to work alone (as in - when my DH works, he is the only MD in the peds ER so if there are 2 patients or 15 patients, he is responsible for all of them), quick thinking,

What are the post-training working hours like?
It depends on the hospital. We are in a small private hospital and work 12 hour shifts at one location. The adult docs work a variety of shifts raining from 7 - 12 hours depending on which shift and the location (they cover multiple hospitals).
At the hospital where we did fellowship, the shifts were between 4, 8, or 10 hours I think at two locations.

How is the job market for this specialty these days?
Providers are in demand!

Any other thoughts?
This isn't the lifestyle specialty that others lead you to believe. It might work nicely when the kids are little, but once they start going to school from 8-3, it's not that helpful to have dad home in the morning on a random Tuesday.... or any other day during the week. The kids are only home in the afternoons and on weekends and those are the primary hours that my husband works. In most hospitals where there is multiple physicians working at a time, its during the early evening and nighttime hours. He gets two weekends off a month which is exactly the same number we got when we were in residency working Q4 for 3 years.

Also, in our state, EM docs are independent contractors so we are responsible for all of our insurance and retirement funding. That's something to consider when job hunting. We also don't get any paid time off.

On the upside, shifts can be swapped so when something comes up unexpectedly a switch can usually be made. When you are home, you are home - there is no charting, dictating, etc. Also no call so unless one of the other docs has an emergency, once the schedule is set up, we know when he will be coming and going.

[alotofyarn]

What is your spouse's specialty? Urology

What residency did he/she complete? How long was it? Urology, 5 years (in progress still)

If you can remember, how many residency programs did your spouse apply to? How many interviews? How competitive was it? He applied to 60, I think? He interviewed at 14 (turned down a few due to scheduling). Obviously very competitive. I want to say it was about a 60% match rate his year?

What fellowship? How long? None yet, but still TBD. Potentially 1-2 years, either urologic oncology or maybe endourology.

What personality type fits well in this specialty? I'd say go-getters, but not as aggressive as general surgery. They're generally pretty laid back and nice, but hard working.

What are the post-training working hours like? I'll let you know when we get there! I expect it to be relatively good though, for a surgical specialty (not a ton of emergencies).

How is the job market for this specialty these days? I believe it's good, but again, I'll let you know when you get there.

Any other thoughts? Hubby is generally pretty introverted and quiet, although he's funny and outgoing in his own ways once you get to know him. I've seen him work, and he's very confident in his work. I wouldn't classify him as a gunner, more of a silent hard worker? He's really happy in urology so far. He likes the people, he loves the mix of procedures and big case, and a lot of the gadgets they get to use. Urology also has an early match, separate from NRMP. The urologymatch forum is a pretty good resource.

[Flynn]

What is your spouse's specialty?
Cardiac Surgery

What residency did he/she complete? How long was it?
General Surgery - 5 years
Lab time 2 years
total --- 7 years

If you can remember, how many residency programs did your spouse apply to? How many interviews? How competitive was it?
Applied to more than 10
6 interviews
VERY competitive


What fellowship? How long?
CT surgery fellowship 2 years

What personality type fits well in this specialty?
Ambitious, confidant, attention to detail, thick skinned, intelligent to a fault, ability to compartmentalize.

What are the post-training working hours like?
Home call one to two times a week. Weekend call one in five weekends. A light week is probably 65 hours.

How is the job market for this specialty these days?
It seems to be saturated in (all?) many of the top ten cities to live.

Any other thoughts?
Any individual who can see themselves in any other field of medicine (or any other profession) should NOT go into this field. It's brutal and unforgiving. It's difficult to find partners who are not toxic or crazy. The field itself has a rather unhealthy relationship with cardiologists who are both your referral base AND your competition. Your schedule is always unpredictable ...can anyone really estimate how long a triple bi-pass will take on a 300 pound diabetic man? CT surgeons are at the top of the medical food chain with neurosurgeons with regard to risk / respect / and pay. The "God" mentality is alive and well in this area of medicine.

[oceanchild]

What are the post-training working hours like?
We aren't there yet quite, but DH says the standard arrangement is to be on service (in the hospital) 13 weeks of the year. I think you're on call that whole week, and in-house call is becoming the norm. So I guess he'll just live at the hospital for those 13 weeks? Obviously, the ICU always has to be covered. Plus research or admin time.

I thought I had to be wrong about this, and I was. At least at DH's current hospital, the 13 weeks are day shifts. Then over the non-service weeks, you average about one night shift per week. The day person covers a whole weekend (day and night), but they can sometimes do home call. And this is considered full-time clinical, so having some portion of your position be research would reduce the number of weeks on service and the number of calls.