PM&R vs Radiology .. Help !!

[GamerTheRock]

Hey Guys,

How are you? I'm an MS4 I applied to PM&R and Radiology. I'm really having difficulty coming down to which specialty I should go towards. Looking for some sort of direction to make my decision a little bit easier. I would like to know the following :

1 -What you think the future for the field holds?

2 -How hard is it to get a pain fellowship? - I enjoy doing procedures

3- What type of field can you end up working in after you complete your training? ( inpatient, outpatient, rehab, etc ) .. FLEXIBILITY (Life/work). ?

4- What is the average compensation like? - I am from the tri-state east coast

6 - Something you could change about the field or don't enjoy?

Thank you, Any thoughts or comments would be appreciated.

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[timisdaman]

It's easy. Do you like interacting with people? If yes, PM&R. If no, radiology. Don't worry about the other stuff.

 

[Eurycea]

Match day is like a month away. Why are you making this decision now?

 

[Piebaldi]

Hey Guys,

How are you? I'm an MS4 I applied to PM&R and Radiology. I'm really having difficulty coming down to which specialty I should go towards. Looking for some sort of direction to make my decision a little bit easier. I would like to know the following :

1 -What you think the future for the field holds?

2 -How hard is it to get a pain fellowship? - I enjoy doing procedures

3- What type of field can you end up working in after you complete your training? ( inpatient, outpatient, rehab, etc ) .. FLEXIBILITY (Life/work). ?

4- What is the average compensation like? - I am from the tri-state east coast

6 - Something you could change about the field or don't enjoy?

Thank you, Any thoughts or comments would be appreciated.

I made the change from Rads to PM&R. I hated Rads once in it - maybe hate is too strong of a word, but disliked it. Rads has gone 24/7, with weekends, nights, etc. Also lots of volume - studies keep coming particularly with midlevels not knowing much and ordering whole body imaging to rule out everything. Procedures - mostly in IR. IR is brutally hard to get into. Compensation for general rads is higher than PM&R but obviously a lot more work. If you work hard in some instanes in PM&R you can get close ish to it but still - it tends to be harder to get similar income.

In terms of Pain - getting into pain fellowship is hard although probably not as hard as IR. With PM&R except in certain saturated markets, you can still do procedures in general practices but of course the pay tends to be lower than if you did pain/IR.

It ultimately comes down to what do you want to do - see patietns daily, do some procedures, possibly inpatient, vs read studies all day? IR also can potentially be challenging in terms of hours - if someone needs an emergent whatever procedure at 3am, you might be called in. You will never go in for an emergent SIJ injection.

Personal choice. Good luck!

 

[j4pac]

You will never go in for an emergent SIJ injection.

But you will get called by phone triage at midnight because Miss Jones, who has no radiographic low back abnormalities, need an emergent Lortab prescription.

 

[Piebaldi]

But you will get called by phone triage at midnight because Miss Jones, who has no radiographic low back abnormalities, need an emergent Lortab prescription.
[/QUOTE

Haha, yes but at least you can order that by phone . I recently got a call while on call at like 1plus in the morning for a prelim microbiology that had been posted 2 days prior for a common bug. Nurse is like - doc you want to do something about it? Ugh.

 

[changeofheart2016]

isnt it too late?

if you match either rads or pmr, it's binding no? per acgme contract.