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- Jul 24, 2013
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DO student here. 243 Step 1. Taking CK on October 2nd but likely to score 230-240 realistically. No red flags on my app, but my app has so far been EM-oriented as I have a SLOE and one LOR from an Ultrasound rotation ready. The thing is, lately I have been reflecting on my EM rotation and experience so far and worry about career longevity but also frankly how much of my attraction to working up "undifferentiated patients" in the ED may have been misplaced. To put another way, almost every single patient gets some form of imaging and the diagnosis can hinge on the imaging one way or another. I also found myself walking over to radiology for many stroke alerts and watched the radiologist scan and interpret the image. I would look up imaging later on Radiopedia on my own or even go looking for a quick YT video on topics. Maybe this is not unsual for EM bound students, but I definitely felt that perhaps my interest was starting to shift to Rads near the tail end of my EM rotations. FWIW, I got great feedback on my rotation and was told I would make an excellent EM resident wherever I go per the PD.
I've been doing a lot of research on Rads lately and I must confess, the idea of a relatively high-paying specialty, wide-breadth of DR, and the relatively -- compared to EM at least -- better lifestyle balance is appealing. I worry once I am in my late 50s EM will burnout. I think that is less so in DR. But as to the actual medicine, I honestly view Rads in a similar vein to EM in the sense that you really need to have a broad understanding of pathology and you are working up basically undifferentiated patients as well.
One issue I need help with which is entirely a superficial topic is my personal challenge with "feeling like a doctor". EM has appealed to me because it reminds me of what a doctor used to be -- jack of all trades. The skillset is practical probably moreso than most other fields. Before med school, I had thought of being a surgeon or even Cardiology but those went away quickly. The point is for many many years I thought of pursuing medicine and had an image of my career as such so my recent interest in Rads is at least challenging my own bias / preconceptions. It's vain. I know. I mean, no one in medicine cares and who cares what the public thinks, so this is definitely a me problem so to speak. Finally, I should mention I spent one whole day on a shadow shift with a neuroradiologist and I found his workflow just "meh". Maybe because I was just watching him and not doing anything but this was early third year. I almost want to reach out to other private practice radiologists and ask to shadow them to add some more datapoints to my experience.
Anyways, I am hoping to get some advice a) on how challenging it would be to apply to DR this late b) for anyone to maybe give their thoughts on this doctor vs not doctor feeling (which I know is shared by say Pathologists and Anesthesiologists at times), and c) do you feel fulfilled by your work ie "do you work to live" or "live to work".
Thank you for reading, hope this post was not offensive to anyone!
I've been doing a lot of research on Rads lately and I must confess, the idea of a relatively high-paying specialty, wide-breadth of DR, and the relatively -- compared to EM at least -- better lifestyle balance is appealing. I worry once I am in my late 50s EM will burnout. I think that is less so in DR. But as to the actual medicine, I honestly view Rads in a similar vein to EM in the sense that you really need to have a broad understanding of pathology and you are working up basically undifferentiated patients as well.
One issue I need help with which is entirely a superficial topic is my personal challenge with "feeling like a doctor". EM has appealed to me because it reminds me of what a doctor used to be -- jack of all trades. The skillset is practical probably moreso than most other fields. Before med school, I had thought of being a surgeon or even Cardiology but those went away quickly. The point is for many many years I thought of pursuing medicine and had an image of my career as such so my recent interest in Rads is at least challenging my own bias / preconceptions. It's vain. I know. I mean, no one in medicine cares and who cares what the public thinks, so this is definitely a me problem so to speak. Finally, I should mention I spent one whole day on a shadow shift with a neuroradiologist and I found his workflow just "meh". Maybe because I was just watching him and not doing anything but this was early third year. I almost want to reach out to other private practice radiologists and ask to shadow them to add some more datapoints to my experience.
Anyways, I am hoping to get some advice a) on how challenging it would be to apply to DR this late b) for anyone to maybe give their thoughts on this doctor vs not doctor feeling (which I know is shared by say Pathologists and Anesthesiologists at times), and c) do you feel fulfilled by your work ie "do you work to live" or "live to work".
Thank you for reading, hope this post was not offensive to anyone!
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