Medical School

[AOII Angel]

Originally Posted by AKA_Monet

I didn't know dermatology is that competitive! How come? Just asking? Because it can lead to Plastic Surgery?

Did you get your general surgery program of your choice? Congrats if you did!

The most competitive programs are those that have high pay, low work hours and the fewest spots in the country. Dermatology is a very small residency with less than 1000 spots open per year in the country. You have to be top of your class to do dermatology...not because it is that difficult! People like that there are no dermatology emergencies to get you out of bed at night. Plastic Surgery is also a small residency program (smaller than dermatology) but you can also become a plastic surgeon after completing general surgery or ENT or Oral Surgery (DDS-MDs.) Dermatologists cannot do plastic surgery, but can perform injections and biopsies.

I did get my top general surgery choice, though, I dropped out of surgery for a much more competitive field, Radiology, after two years of back breaking work. General surgery, even after the 80 hr work week limit started, requires residents to work extremely long hours (up to 120hrs some weeks of my residency) and does not guarantee as high a salary as fields that demand much less time.

[cheerfulgreek]

Originally Posted by AOII Angel

The most competitive programs are those that have high pay, low work hours and the fewest spots in the country. Dermatology is a very small residency with less than 1000 spots open per year in the country. You have to be top of your class to do dermatology...not because it is that difficult! People like that there are no dermatology emergencies to get you out of bed at night. Plastic Surgery is also a small residency program (smaller than dermatology) but you can also become a plastic surgeon after completing general surgery or ENT or Oral Surgery (DDS-MDs.) Dermatologists cannot do plastic surgery, but can perform injections and biopsies.

I did get my top general surgery choice, though, I dropped out of surgery for a much more competitive field, Radiology, after two years of back breaking work. General surgery, even after the 80 hr work week limit started, requires residents to work extremely long hours (up to 120hrs some weeks of my residency) and does not guarantee as high a salary as fields that demand much less time.

I heard that Radiology is a competitive field. Don't residents have to go through extra training couses, like rotating through other subspecialties in order to comply with the American Board of Radiology?

[AOII Angel]

Originally Posted by cheerfulgreek

I heard that Radiology is a competitive field. Don't residents have to go through extra training couses, like rotating through other subspecialties in order to comply with the American Board of Radiology?

Yes...radiology is a competitive program, but I didn't go through the match for my spot. I got a spot after a resident decided not to come back after doing his internship in family medicine. Radiology is a 5 year program. The first year you do a rotating internship or general internship in medicine or family medicine. You can also do surgery for your internship (therefore, my two years of surgery counted for my internship.) The remaining four years are spent learning just radiology including all of the radiological subspecialties. The only extra courses we take are to study for our boards which are very intense. Unlike other specialties, we have a three part board examination which includes a Physics exam, Written exam and Oral exam. Many people take courses to study for Physics and oral exams. AFIP is a radiology/pathology course at Walter Reed in DC that most residents in the country attend (now a 4 week course, but was 6 weeks when I went) to prepare for the written boards.

[AKA_Monet]

Originally Posted by AOII Angel

I did get my top general surgery choice, though, I dropped out of surgery for a much more competitive field, Radiology, after two years of back breaking work. General surgery, even after the 80 hr work week limit started, requires residents to work extremely long hours (up to 120hrs some weeks of my residency) and does not guarantee as high a salary as fields that demand much less time.

Radiology is a excellent field. Many radiologists are retiring and there will be a need for more with more technology that comes on line--i.e. MRI/MRA and ultrasound with bubble contrasts, etc.

Thanks for you all taking the time out to explain the dermatology resident process...

Surgery is a sorely needed area, too the Cardiothoracic at my institution is BEGGING for fellows and are having trouble finding ones. But you already need to have your general surgery boards for that million hours per week and a super high malpractice insurance. But you do get paid a lot of money...

[GeekyPenguin]

Thanks for the longer explanations, GC doctors! My best friend from HS is a M3 right now and is considering surgery pretty heavily, so I like to know all about this stuff.