Ranking medical specialties

Future MD wrote:

I've already selected my specialty (Anesthesiology, I'm a third year med student finishing up and looking forward to starting fourth year), I'm just curious to see what the general perception is by other people.

Anesthesiology is one of the LEAST respected fields. Up there with Family Medicine and Peds.

Anesthesia is what you go into when you don't match in surgery - (and though surgery is "respected" by the lay people, it isn't very difficult to get into anymore.)

Good luck being the bitch of every surgeon in your hospital.

March to the Sea wrote:

Future MD wrote:

I've already selected my specialty (Anesthesiology, I'm a third year med student finishing up and looking forward to starting fourth year), I'm just curious to see what the general perception is by other people.

Anesthesiology is one of the LEAST respected fields. Up there with Family Medicine and Peds.

Anesthesia is what you go into when you don't match in surgery - (and though surgery is "respected" by the lay people, it isn't very difficult to get into anymore.)

Good luck being the bitch of every surgeon in your hospital.

It's silly that you think a blatantly trollish post would make me mad or cause me to reconsider my career choice.

Anesthesiology is more competitive than General Surgery, by the way. Mostly because it has some sweet hours.

Thanks for playing, though.

jakedel wrote:

this thread is why I can't stand doctors. what a jagbag.

I am a doctor and wholeheartedly agree with this statement. People who get into medicine for the "prestige" are the worst kind of insecure jerks. Incidentally, my experience has been that they're the least likely to be good at, or actually enjoy, their jobs.

To the OP, my suspicion (or at least hope) is that you will pick up some humility in the next year and in residency. Unfortunately, as you know, personality disorders tend to be very ingrained so there's probably little reason for optimism.

Current MD wrote:

jakedel wrote:

this thread is why I can't stand doctors. what a jagbag.

I am a doctor and wholeheartedly agree with this statement. People who get into medicine for the "prestige" are the worst kind of insecure jerks. Incidentally, my experience has been that they're the least likely to be good at, or actually enjoy, their jobs.

To the OP, my suspicion (or at least hope) is that you will pick up some humility in the next year and in residency. Unfortunately, as you know, personality disorders tend to be very ingrained so there's probably little reason for optimism.

For a current MD, you (and several other readers) suffer from severe reading comprehension deficiencies.

Nowhere in any of my posts did I say that I was trying to choose a medical specialty based on who thought what was prestigious. I simply asked a question because I was curious to know what the public perception (at least on Letsrun) was. You and the other posters on here attacking me are so off base it's not even funny. You're projecting some sort of anger you have on me.

Go back and re-read this thread and see how out of place your attacks on me are. You really are insecure.

Marcus Welby wrote:

Anesthesia, pathology, radiology are for MDs with no personality or people skills;

What if you have a great personality/people skills but also enjoy and are good at histology/pathology/microscopy? I have a microsopy lab work background and have thought about going to medical school to be a pathologist (feeling like I want to work with people + lab work). I'm kinda interested in surgery too, or pursuing an allied health career like ~pathologist assistant or surgical PA.

thinking about pathology wrote:

Marcus Welby wrote:

Anesthesia, pathology, radiology are for MDs with no personality or people skills;

What if you have a great personality/people skills but also enjoy and are good at histology/pathology/microscopy? I have a microsopy lab work background and have thought about going to medical school to be a pathologist (feeling like I want to work with people + lab work). I'm kinda interested in surgery too, or pursuing an allied health career like ~pathologist assistant or surgical PA.

Ignore Marcus's post, it was simply a listing of the played out stereotypes of different doctors. The two people I know who recently matched into Pathology are two of the most laid back, personable/sociable people I've met.

Sure, stereotypes are often stereotypes for a reason, but there are personalities that span across every specialty.

Future MD wrote:

It's silly that you think a blatantly trollish post would make me mad or cause me to reconsider my career choice.

You asked if the fields were respected. Anesthesiology is not.

Not by the surgeons, who run your life. Ask a few Orthopods what they think of the Anesthesia folks. That'll be a laugh.

Not by the rest of medicine who views you are someone who couldn't hack a surgical residency. You're viewed as someone who couldn't handle anything difficult or you "cancel the case."

Not by the rest of society - who only will inquire if you do pain management so you can give them oxycontin.

And certainly not by the CRNAs who are quietly stealing your jobs. No reason to pay an Anesthesiologist when you can pay a nurse to do exactly the same job. Heck, there's a book called "Anyone Can Intubate." The same "prized" skill of anesthesiologists is the same thing we teach paramedics who have a h.s. degree and 100 hours of course work.

That's the truth. No trolling. Just what the honest view of Anesthesiology is.

I understand your myopia and will forgive it. I never asked directly if Anesthesiology was considered prestigious. And your insufficient understanding of what an Anesthesiologist does (which you appear to hang your insults on) is laughable at best.

I sometimes feel bad for people who choose to tear others down constantly. But then I remember this is Letsrun, and just let it slide. Way too much runner's angst on this site.

Enjoy whatever you do with your life. I know I'll enjoy mine.

A lot of the medical specialties that are actually really good gigs (Derm, Anesthesiology, Path, Ophtho, Radiology) aren't traditionally the "highly prestigious" specialties in terms of the public's perception. Things like Neurosurgery, which involves arguably the worst lifestyle of any medical specialty, are put on a pedestal by the layperson. Medicine is unfortunately one big culture of tearing down everyone else not involved in your specialty (which partially explains why doctors are terrible lobbyists due to lack of cooperation), but a lot of it stems from some type of jealousy. Specialties with few hours/high pay might covet another specialty's "awesome" public reputation. And these specialties may in turn wish they had chosen something that allowed them to work fewer hours.

When it comes down to it, a lot of people have to end up deciding what will really matter to THEM, not how the public will view their choice (because really, the public doesn't care about you specifically). There's a reason why many medical schools have 10-15 graduates go into Anesthesiology despite having little/no exposure to it prior to 4th year: the pay is great, the hours are very good, you get to utilize a lot of the nerdy physiology you learned, and your patients are usually knocked out and not bothering you.

Everyone has their own priorities. Figure out what you really value and go from there. And who cares if the Orthopod thinks you're a pansy Anesthesiologist. While he's stuck in a spine case for 20 hours, you can go home and sleep with his wife.

Yo dude-

I don't think your post should be taking the amount of heat its taking, but whatever. I think its perfectly natural for one to want to know what the stereotypes of their profession will be, for many reasons. Great job on the step too, i sincerely hope to score in that range myself but have a lot of work ahead.

With that said, I've heard that neurosurgery is the most well respected. I feel like this is true of the public, and I've heard my profs here and other MDs put them up on a pedestal, as neurosurgeons themselves do (at least the one I met did: "ER docs are triage nurses" ...)

For the public, your most important audience, I would say after Neurosurgery is cardiothoracic surgeon, orthopedic surgeon, and everything else beside these are equal (except psychiatry) because they probably don't know.

Anesthesiology I have to say is probably not way up there in the medical eye, as far as I've experienced so far. its moderately difficult to match, and has high incidences of drug abuse compared to other specialties. Some other poster said for people who didn't match surgery, but this seems off base to me.

Its a shame the medical community assigns weight to specialties. I really want to be a hospitalist, even though if i continue on the same track I have been I have a statistical shot at a more prestigious residency. Things are changing though, we'll see how it is in 20 years. Good luck.

1) Plastic Surgery FTW. Dr. Ray rules!

2) Pediatrics

3) Nuclear Medicine

4) Emergency Medicine

5) Cardiology

Future MD wrote:

I understand your myopia and will forgive it. I never asked directly if Anesthesiology was considered prestigious. And your insufficient understanding of what an Anesthesiologist does (which you appear to hang your insults on) is laughable at best.

I sometimes feel bad for people who choose to tear others down constantly. But then I remember this is Letsrun, and just let it slide. Way too much runner's angst on this site.

Enjoy whatever you do with your life. I know I'll enjoy mine.

You're a f**k. Go away.

epimerase-2 wrote:

You're a f**k. Go away.

You're silly. Try not to let this board get you angry.

Future MD wrote:

You're silly.

I understand that.

I'm surprised that you're on here on a Saturday night. You're a loser like me.

I retract my previous statement.

Yep, that is MY truth and I believe you are trolling.

Medicine is overrated by layman and professionals alike.

Surgery is like carpentry - a respectable profession where

you need certain (coordination) skills.

All the fancy live saving modern technology is being developed

by engineers and the theory behind it is developed by physicists and chemists. Those are the real heroes.

I'm surprised I haven't seen radiation oncology mentioned yet. Great pay and hours with very few emergencies. There's a reason it has one of the highest average Step 1 scores for its residencies.

Medicine is overrated? Surgery is like carpentry? Sure, the carpenter, the physicist, and the chemist all routinely work in situations where second to second decisions and half a millimeter can make the difference between life and death.

1) To the OP. I would say Neuro Surg, Cardiothoracic Surg, Ortho Surg, Cardiology...

Essentially, I think that the more letters involved and the word "surgery" correlate with respect amongst lay people.

2) to the guy who said he Neurologist friend doesnt follow medical literature because he is the medical literature. Your friend is a huge pompous douche and a terrible terrible MD. That is a fact not an opinion. He is NOT the literature and it may one day cost someone their life.

3) To the above poster, you have no idea what you are talking about. This is akin to saying that soldiers arent heroes the engineers who design their weapons are heroes. Its a joke. You need boots on the ground to do the work. Most MDs have an amazing array of skills and knowledge that's breadth and depth surpasses any other field of human endeavor I would argue.