General Surgeon or Psychiatrist

[damusiel]

I am currently interested in becoming a general surgeon or a psychiatrist.
What are the cons of each specialty and how can I decide?
What should I choose and what are the common personalities of each?
(My personality is an INFJ)

Im compassionate, kind, caring and hardworking, but im impatient and lazy and not energetic as much. What should I become?

*no rude answers please, don't judge

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[WisNeuro]

Hmm, depends. The belief in the MBTI and knowledge of empirically supported treatments is usually an inverse correlation. I'm recommending gen surg.

 

[clausewitz2]

I am currently interested in becoming a general surgeon or a psychiatrist.
What are the cons of each specialty and how can I decide?
What should I choose and what are the common personalities of each?
(My personality is an INFJ)

Im compassionate, kind, caring and hardworking, but im impatient and lazy and not energetic as much. What should I become?

*no rude answers please, don't judge

Not trying to be rude, but you are in high school. I do not think there is especially in point in getting too focused on which medical specialty you might eventually begin training in 8+ years from now. This will almost certainly fall on deaf ears (I wasn't trying to hear it when I was in high school), but the person you will be and what you will value and what you will want for your life is going to be radically different at that point. You will not be able to predict who you are going to be nearly as accurately as you think you are able to. Want to focus on going to medical school? Fine, do that. It is the common pathway to both of those things. You gain nothing by closing doors right now, this is a time to peer through as many of them as you can.

 

[Stagg737]

You should probably focus on getting into college and choosing a major, then worry about getting into med school, then worry about passing boards, then worry about what specialty you want to do. One step at a time or you'll fall before you even start walking...

 

[hamstergang]

How many times can you get the same answer from different people before you stop trolling us?

 

[Bartelby]

You are hardworking and lazy?

But as above, you're getting ahead of yourself.

 

[SeniorWrangler]

My attending in my surgical rotation of med school gave me this piece of advice which I have never forgotten: "Senior Wrangler, you were not meant to be a surgeon." So you never know, you might get a small, indirect hint at some point during your education which helps you decide.

 

[Candidate2017]

My attending in my surgical rotation of med school gave me this piece of advice which I have never forgotten: "Senior Wrangler, you were not meant to be a surgeon."

A friend got a similar comment and responded by asking if they could take the rest of the week off. It worked.

 

[northernpsy]

I actually thought my surgery rotation was interesting. Even with the emotional abuse, it was like, "well, that's just surgeons being surgeons."

 

[sazerac]

I actually thought my surgery rotation was interesting. Even with the emotional abuse, it was like, "well, that's just surgeons being surgeons."

The emotional abuse from the surgery intern was annoying (especially where they order the labs at 5am, results aren't ready until 7am, then blame me for not having any data at 6am rounds), but the biggest thing I learned during my surgery rotation was from my PGY3 resident. She was having a difficult home situation, and in the call room when it was just me and her she absolutely broke down in tears and said "I should have gone into psychiatry".

I've never had a bawling psychiatrist confide in me that they should have gone into surgery instead.

 

[Merovinge]

The emotional abuse from the surgery intern was annoying (especially where they order the labs at 5am, results aren't ready until 7am, then blame me for not having any data at 6am rounds), but the biggest thing I learned during my surgery rotation was from my PGY3 resident. She was having a difficult home situation, and in the call room when it was just me and her she absolutely broke down in tears and said "I should have gone into psychiatry".

I've never had a bawling psychiatrist confide in me that they should have gone into surgery instead.

I will say that is almost exclusively because of the hours worked in the field rather than straight malignancy. There is no doubt in anyone's mind that ob/gyn and gen surg has more average emotional abuse, but those folks also tend to get abused less by their patients and get a lot more respect by the lay public for their work. I say this as someone who 100% loves being a psychiatrist and feels it was one of the best 3 decisions I have made in my life, but being married to a surgeon, I can tell you the reason that lady is balling and saying she should have gone into psychiatry is because the lifestyle is so much more humane, not that her colleagues would have been better.

 

[LasVagus]

My surgery evaluation said that I "posed a unique challenge" because "unlike most medical students, [I lack] basic social skills". I still find this quite intriguing. Given the source, does this serve as compelling evidence that I'm actually a well-adjusted human being or does it mean that my social skills are so poor even surgeons can tell? It is the only evaluation from medical school that I kept. I think I might frame it some day...

 

[northernpsy]

I will say that is almost exclusively because of the hours worked in the field rather than straight malignancy. There is no doubt in anyone's mind that ob/gyn and gen surg has more average emotional abuse, but those folks also tend to get abused less by their patients and get a lot more respect by the lay public for their work. I say this as someone who 100% loves being a psychiatrist and feels it was one of the best 3 decisions I have made in my life, but being married to a surgeon, I can tell you the reason that lady is balling and saying she should have gone into psychiatry is because the lifestyle is so much more humane, not that her colleagues would have been better.

I definitely can believe the hours are a major factor. It also seems like the stakes are so high in surgery that it makes sense that they would be completely brutal towards any perceived weakness or imperfection - but since none of us can ever be truly perfect, it is a lot of pressure to live with. Hope your spouse is nicer to you than surgeons usually are to med students.

 

[Merovinge]

I definitely can believe the hours are a major factor. It also seems like the stakes are so high in surgery that it makes sense that they would be completely brutal towards any perceived weakness or imperfection - but since none of us can ever be truly perfect, it is a lot of pressure to live with. Hope your spouse is nicer to you than surgeons usually are to med students.

That's a great point. Their complications are much more visceral and also applied to them unabashedly. Even when anesthesia makes the mistake, the surgeon has to apologize and go down for it. M&M is also painful, at best. High stakes and high hours is a terribly brutal combination.

 

[Blitz2006]

I dunno I personally enjoyed general surgery. The trick is having a thick skin. Surgeons try to rattle you, and if you show them you won't "breakdown", they'll leave you alone and even "respect you". To be fair, I've had extremely good experience with surgeons as a medical student, and even as an intern when I was on medicine consulting them. By and far very friendly. I found most of the surgical residents friendlier than the medical residents, and even now, when they consult me for capacity (surgeons) for pre-op clearance, they are appreciative.

On a side note/related note, I think choosing a specialty for lifestyle/hours is vastly overrated. I would much rather do gen surg, 60+ hours/week as an attending than a 9-5 job that I have 0 interest in. And after the 5 year grueling residency, its not impossible to have a decent lifestyle as a surgeon (go into endocrine, breast, etc.). I know a breast surgeon that starts at 9, finishes by 3, picks up kids from school everyday around 3:30....almost no call either. I also know Psychiatrists that start at 6:30 (ECT) and work until 9pm doing PP in the evenings after their hospital job...65 hours/week.

So its whatever you make of it after residency.

 

[deleted736562]

I also had a better experience with Gen-Surg people than IM. They tend to berate you and then forget 1 hour later and there's also this culture of camaraderie.

 

[Stagg737]

I dunno I personally enjoyed general surgery. The trick is having a thick skin. Surgeons try to rattle you, and if you show them you won't "breakdown", they'll leave you alone and even "respect you". To be fair, I've had extremely good experience with surgeons as a medical student, and even as an intern when I was on medicine consulting them. By and far very friendly. I found most of the surgical residents friendlier than the medical residents, and even now, when they consult me for capacity (surgeons) for pre-op clearance, they are appreciative.

On a side note/related note, I think choosing a specialty for lifestyle/hours is vastly overrated. I would much rather do gen surg, 60+ hours/week as an attending than a 9-5 job that I have 0 interest in. And after the 5 year grueling residency, its not impossible to have a decent lifestyle as a surgeon (go into endocrine, breast, etc.). I know a breast surgeon that starts at 9, finishes by 3, picks up kids from school everyday around 3:30....almost no call either. I also know Psychiatrists that start at 6:30 (ECT) and work until 9pm doing PP in the evenings after their hospital job...65 hours/week.

So its whatever you make of it after residency.

Right, but when it comes down to picking between two fields you like, lifestyle shouldn't be ignored. I'd rather work 7-8 hours a day with minimal to no call and have time to enjoy my family than 10-12 hours a day with regular call and have to put my family on the back-burner. Of course there will be psychiatrists who work a ton and surgeons who have pretty chill schedules, but having a solid lifestyle is a lot easier in one of those specialties than the other.

 

[Mad Jack]

I am currently interested in becoming a general surgeon or a psychiatrist.
What are the cons of each specialty and how can I decide?
What should I choose and what are the common personalities of each?
(My personality is an INFJ)

Im compassionate, kind, caring and hardworking, but im impatient and lazy and not energetic as much. What should I become?

*no rude answers please, don't judge

There's a lot of other fields out there you'd probably do fine in. What it really comes down to is that you don't even know who you will be and what will matter to you in nearly a decade, so this question is basically pointless. You'll figure it out when you get there.

 

[Turkishking]

It's great to have an idea, but first do well in UG and get accepted to medical school.

 

[grapp]

You should probably focus on getting into college and choosing a major, then worry about getting into med school, then worry about passing boards, then worry about what specialty you want to do. One step at a time or you'll fall before you even start walking...

I couldn't have said it better myself. Do what this guy says.