What is the best area of medicine...

[Laker]

in terms of compensation and ability to have a somewhat normal life/family life?

THAT is the million dollar question!

...sorry I don't have time right now to respond, will try to formulate something for later!

[rainbabies]

I would add Pathology to that. Very "normal" hours, and the opportunity for BIG bucks (we're not to the super-big yet). Not much in the way of emergencies, either.

Family Practice (from what I've been told) is one fo the lower paying specialties w/bad call.

[KCwife]

I agree on DH doing something he loves. DH did a radiology elective and hated it. He was home early, and did not like that it was not high paced (Read Type A Personality). He has to feel like he is "doing" something, which I guess means living at the hospital. He was also grumpy on his family medicine rotation for the same reasons. Put him in scrubs and hand him the OR call beeper and he is in heaven...what a freak. I am just happy that he has picked a more "family friendly" surgical sub-specialty...at least it is supposed to be that way after training....

[Vanquisher]

I'm going to have to respectfully disagree with the something your hubby loves thing.

Yeehaw and wahoo if he loves what he does. I don't care. If you never see your family, then it pretty much sucks anyway. Your job might be okay, but if you spend your whole life working and none of it with the people you love, that makes for bitter wives (who me?) and sad children (where's dad?).

Now, I have not seen the other end. Supposedly my life gets a lot better in 4 years. Supposedly we are going to make a butt-load of money.

Will it ever compensate for:

1. A missed childhood.
2. A missed babyhood.
3. Years of marital strain.
4. Etc, etc., etc.

So, yeah, if your spouse just loves radiology, then sure, doing what you love is great.

But, if your spouse loves ortho, but could tolerate radiology, pathology, opthomology, dermatoloty, emergency medicine, anesthesiology, then thy should pick one of those.

You can't have everything. This is something I have learned recently. Something has to give. So, if everything is the job, then the family has to give. If everything is the family, then the job has to give.

What to do if your spouse only is willing to do a nightmare surgery specialty? If I only knew...

I still don't know if it is worth it in the end for all the sacrifice. I honestly don't. Right now it doesn't seem like any amount of love for the job or money is worth it.

So F the "love of the job." From my perspective, it is complete crap.

Pick one of the ROAD specialities that you like best.

Just my .02

He was also grumpy on his family medicine rotation for the same reasons.

Oh - I would rather re-live intern year in general surgery than re-live my dh on his medicine or FP rotations. He hated, HATED rounding and said he felt like the "middle man" (always asking for consults, etc.) When our friend was offered $275K to join a cardiology practice, w/a $5K buy in after 1 year, I jokingly said "Why didn't YOU do cardiology?" and he flatly stated "I never would have made it through medicine. I would have killed myself or someone else. "

There needs to be a happy medium where family and job satisfaction are considered. I'm lucky that my dh was willing to make the move to Pathology, and he's lucky that I stuck around through all the crap I stuck around through.

[Gwendolyn]

There needs to be a happy medium where family and job satisfaction are considered. I'm lucky that my dh was willing to make the move to Pathology, and he's lucky that I stuck around through all the crap I stuck around through.

I agree...how much your dh "loves" his job can not be the only deciding factor.

DH loved ortho, and to this day gets comments all the time that he seems/looks like an orthopod (whatever that means ). But after learning the lifestyle, said something similar...he would have killed himself or someone else before he made it through general surgery. It was too much sacrifice for our family.

He deeply enjoys Ophtho, but he loves the time and compensation it will afford opur family in the short and long run.

[Laker]

DW is going to be a rad onc so we should have a decent balance. DW doesn't enjoy calls very much so the field will be nice from that perspective.

[KCwife]

"Why didn't YOU do cardiology?" and he flatly stated "I never would have made it through medicine. I would have killed myself or someone else.

My DH is on nephrology right now and likes it okay. I asked him "Why don't you do nephrology?"....he had almost the EXACT same comment as your DH.

[Meenah]

NOT, NOT critical Care/Pulmonary!!

[SueC]

I have to agree that its what they love. My dh was miserable doing med/peds residency and constantly wanted to jump ship. In pulm/critical care at least he's happy and doesn't want to quit.

[alison]

This has been an interesting discussion to follow. I don't have much to add. My husband is an Anesthesiology intern and loves loves loves being in the OR and feels sorry watching the surgeons yelling at their residents. Before he knows it there's someone to relieve him for a lunch break, and then again at 3 or 4 to leave for home--all the while, watching the surgeons sweating bullets with out any breaks during the day.

When my husband does medicine floors or anything that has to do with rounding with a long-winded attending, busywork and having to rely on lazy colleagues, he comes home in a really bad mood. He's a much easier guy to handle when he's home by 5pm, and has weekends and holidays off in his Anesthesia rotations.

When we go out to dinner or to the movies, we often see my husband's fellow residents. They're a genuinely happy, well-adjusted group of people, who love to talk about work (not in the gossipy sense, but in the "guess what I got to do in the OR yesterday?!"-sense) and seem to really appreciate what they do.

[DCJenn]

My husband HATED FP and Internal Medicine and pretty much anything else that had to do with adults. He was miserable during surgery rotations in medical school because he's not a morning person.

Once he found peds, he was happy as a clam, and once he decided to specialize in child neurology, all was well. Give him a day at Children's or Hopkins and he's great! Put him back at Walter Reed, he's somewhat less happy. Put him on an adult neurology rotation at Walter Reed and he's a complete jackass for the entire month.

So, they DO have to like what they're doing. Just like we have to like what we're doing, or at least be able to do it long enough to see the rewards.

Jenn

[mommax3]

Heidi has an interesting point. It isn't all about the doctor, if they have made a committment to a spouse (and become a parent) prior to picking a specialty. However, personality traits have to be considered, and there is no point picking a specialty that is family friendly if it makes you miserable.
I am pretty sure that if DH had been a single guy when he was picking a specialty, he would have gone the surgical route, or at least planned on pursuing an OB/Gyn sub-specialty that would have given him more OR time. I know that being married and a father impacted his decision making on that.....BUT, having said that, he didn't exactly pursue a lifestyle specialty, either! I do think, though, that he picked the least "evil" of the things he was happy doing. He didn't enjoy medicine because of the rounding and the consults, he didn't enjoy peds because he didn't enjoy sick kids, and he only liked family practice when it involved obstetric stuff. What he really, really loves is delivering babies, and I just made the decision that I would work my hardest to be okay with that, despite the havoc it has brought (and will continue to bring) to our lives. Most of the time, things are fine, but I do have to say that I was hanging by a thread by the end of residency, and if he had seriously considered a fellowship, I think that thread would have snapped!

Sally