Should I quit while I'm ahead or is this normal?

[JJArms22]

I'm a 4th year and have been set on radiology for a while now, but recently I've become unsure about it. I'm on an elective right now, and while some aspects are interesting, I sometimes get these moments where I tell myself "I can't do this for the rest of my life." On paper, rads has so many positives, but when I'm actually there shadowing and trying to be engaged, I find it lackluster and dull. I want to do more procedures, not just sit all day reading CT after CT. I feel like I'd get burned out doing that really fast. Now I'm curious about anesthesiology since procedures seem to be the bread and butter of the field. I'm not sure if I should really look into it or not.

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[bashwell]

I'm a 4th year and have been set on radiology for a while now, but recently I've become unsure about it. I'm on an elective right now, and while some aspects are interesting, I sometimes get these moments where I tell myself "I can't do this for the rest of my life." On paper, rads has so many positives, but when I'm actually there shadowing and trying to be engaged, I find it lackluster and dull. I want to do more procedures, not just sit all day reading CT after CT. I feel like I'd get burned out doing that really fast. Now I'm curious about anesthesiology since procedures seem to be the bread and butter of the field. I'm not sure if I should really look into it or not.

If you want procedures, you could try IR. Anesthesia has a lot of procedures. So does critical care. EM, GI, and cards to an extent. Obviously the surgical specialties.

However, what I've always heard from experienced attendings is that procedures become routine after a while. Better to pick a specialty where you enjoy not so much the procedures but the purpose of the procedures. What patient population are the procedures treating, what pathologies, and so on. That's more the kind of questions you should ask, I think.

For anesthesia, it'd be good to search the anesthesia forum since so many people have asked about anesthesia so many times including relatively recently. Like all specialties, anesthesia has its pros and cons, and you might weigh those pros and cons differently than others (e.g., being a predominantly service-oriented and hospital-based specialty might not be a big deal to you but it could be to others).

 

[Dariogoly]

Like bashwell said, everything eventually becomes boring and routine--what is it that you can tolerate (and not necessarily what you'd like to do)? Would you be able to tolerate boring procedures, or would you rather tolerate being bored looking at CT's?

Personally, I don't find looking at images absolutely the most exciting thing in this world, but I like how in radiology you're always thinking--and when I'm thinking, time flies. Kind of like how time flies when you're taking an exam.

 

[Gadofosveset]

Shadowing *is* really lackluster and dull. I did not enjoy that part of my 4th year elective, like at all. I enjoy reading studies on my own, though.

 

[Doctor D]

There is a growing number of people entering Radiology for IR instead of diagnostic radiology. The procedures in IR are not routine. While it is true that every central line will be more or less the same, every biopsy and angiogram will be different. Even veteran IR docs are challenged to their limits. There is nothing routine about IR unless you are in a smaller community practice.

 

[DrfluffyMD]

There is a growing number of people entering Radiology for IR instead of diagnostic radiology. The procedures in IR are not routine. While it is true that every central line will be more or less the same, every biopsy and angiogram will be different. Even veteran IR docs are challenged to their limits. There is nothing routine about IR unless you are in a smaller community practice.

I find reading diagnostics absolutely bore me to hell while still being mentally exhausting. I find doing procedures either relaxing or exciting.