Are you happy in radiology?

[2brads]

I mean, the Krebs cycle never comes up...

But you need some cell bio/physiology knowledge for things like molecular imaging/PET, anatomy (obviously), gross path. You may end up using premed courses like physics as well.

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[Cognovi]

How much knowledge from preclinical medical school years is used? I am turning out to be a very average student (in terms of grades compared to my classmates) and am worried it’s a sign I might not be cut out for a field like this.

You use a larger proportion of med school knowledge than in any other field in my opinion, minus the bugs, drugs, and psych.

 

[Qwerty122]

I really loved residency and this was probably part of it. It's great if you're an introvert and you otherwise wouldn't stand out. You'll be with these people for around 8 hours per day, every day for 4 years, so after a few months, your attendings can tell who is studying and who is slacking. That being said, it can really suck if you don't put in the bookwork and can't answer the pimp questions on a daily basis.

My advice is try to get a feel for current residents during the interview and make sure you would fit in. If everyone seems like a genius, but has undiagnosed autism, maybe choose a different place. Goes for attendings as well. If your attending is a giant A-hole and you hate working with them, it won't matter if they are Roentgen-level or not.

I wouldn't go so far as to say that academic rads are more happy, but I don't think it's because of the day-to-day or the teaching. Most academics complain about admin/politics in my experience.

LMAO "undiagnosed autism". Kind of a side track from the thread topic, but how reliable are interview day impressions for judging the fit and consequently the expected happiness as a future resident in that program? I would think there is so much day to day variability that basing where you end up for the next 4-5+ years on a couple hours of interaction to not be the most reliable method.

 

[2brads]

LMAO "undiagnosed autism". Kind of a side track from the thread topic, but how reliable are interview day impressions for judging the fit and consequently the expected happiness as a future resident in that program? I would think there is so much day to day variability that basing where you end up for the next 4-5+ years on a couple hours of interaction to not be the most reliable method.

I believe that interviews are notoriously bad indicators of success from the perspective of the person doing the "hiring", whether that is an employer or residency. However, from the perspective of the person being interviewed, I think there is enough interaction that you should have some idea of whether or not you will be a good fit. Do people smile and joke around? Seem happy? Deathly afraid? Do the residents see each other outside of work? Etc.

 

[guytakingboards]

Flexibility in my job is paramount, so could any of you comment about how your vacation is structured? So, could you be taking 4 week trips to Indonesia if you wanted to, right out of the gate or later as a partner? ( Interested in both DR and IR ). I was listening to a podcast (backtable specifically) and IR seems to be transitioning to OBL, with no call, no weekends but I was wondering how does that affect your vacation if you now have clinic and your own patients?

As for the job, does it ever get boring? Monotonous? Frustrated that people don't think your a "real doctor"? Or get tired of intensly looking at a computer screen all day?

In my group (>100 rads), at least a handful of rads manage to pull a 4wk vacation or longer off. But it takes a lot of trading vacation weeks and kinda hammering the schedulers. I have personally yet to come anywhere close to a 4wk vacation but take 1-2 2wk'ers a year without trouble on top of scattered individual weeks.

Your best bet to get a 4wk vacation after training is to do it before you actually start your job. You'll never have as much scheduling freedom as you will then.

If you had an OBL practice with your own patients, any time you're not working you're not making money. The practice expenses don't magically stop for the week you're on vacation. The first few years you'll probably be grinding to get enough referrals to even make such a practice viable.

As to your questions about the actual job: yes to everything. It's a definitely a job, not some passion project. I don't know of a single radiologist who is fulfilled professionally purely by the clinical work. For most people, it's a means to an end. It's a well paying job and can quickly lead to financial independence. The ones I've seen make it a long time found a niche somewhere beyond the clinical work: teaching, group and/or hospital leadership, research, being the protocol person, etc... Pounding a stack of ER head ct's and belly CT's gets boring real quick.

 

[guytakingboards]

But is the liability better or worse than getting badmouthed and written up by patients over bedside Manner? I'm a med student and faculty say I don't have the best bed side manner.

Bedside manner is something that can consciously be improved upon. That’s not a death sentence to clinical specialties just cuz you’re not great at it as a medical student.

 

[deleted941485]

Happy as a clam.

I recommend it to medical students whose developing self-concept/professional identity as a physician does not revolve around the personal interaction with patients. We all wrote in our med school personal statements that we want to help people and like science, but if your idea of helping people does not *require* you to *smell patients*, then radiology is ideal. You make an impact on a large volume of patients. You learn a lot and apply it all day, with a relatively low amount of scut or waiting around. You interact with smart people (other physicians) all the time with professional respect. You have high flexibility in terms of job style, lifestyle, and mobility.

Compensation is appropriate. Radiologists generate a lot of RVUs (due to low scut/waiting around); pretty much only neurosurgeons and cardiothoracic surgeons make more RVUs but they also put in longer and less predictable work hours. Even though the compensation per RVU in radiology is not as good in other specialties, overall compensation for radiologists has always come out above average. Look at this graph (data a few years old):

View attachment 344709

Once you consider hours worked, radiology is also near the top for hourly wage. Neurosurgery, ortho, derm, and rad onc are better, but radiology comes ahead of everyone else. Look at this graph:

View attachment 344710

Once you consider that radiology is a bigger field than ortho and a much bigger field than neurosurgery, dermatology, and radiation oncology, you will also know that there is a larger job market in radiology. The strength of the job market comes and goes in cycles, but having a large market means there are more varieties of job requirements and you have more frequent opportunities to move or find a better match.

The companion thread on this forum is very informative regarding the state of the job market: Job Market in Radiology

Since step 1 scores are no longer a thing...not sure how helpful this will be for future applicants. Maybe Step 2 graph?

 

[Cognovi]

Since step 1 scores are no longer a thing...not sure how helpful this will be for future applicants. Maybe Step 2 graph?

My point wasn't about the relationship to Step 1 scores. It was about the relative position of radiology on the hourly wage axis. Don't worry about the absolute numbers. The relationship to Step 2 scores will be qualitatively similar.