Speciality Q

[toronto22]

Hello,

When learning about different career paths I know it’s often said to learn about the “bread and butter cases” of each specialty. I was wondering where you can find this info? (As someone who won’t be doing rotations for a couple of years) 

[RD2BE]

So, I'm not a doctor, but I'm a health professional who's worked in hospitals for a few years and I'm starting med school in the fall. Here's what I think:

I think this is something you can gain from observerships and during your clerkship. The main idea is that each speciality can have really cool and exciting cases, but that they only come once in a while. For example, ER docs can sometimes have major trauma cases come through, but often they see people who need med refills, have a cold/cough and need a doctor's note or elderly patients who are displaying signs of dementia secondary to a UTI. I think it's also best to ask the residents and docs about what they consider a typical day - how many patients, the average age, most common chief complaint, etc. that's how you gain an understanding of what their "bread and butter cases" are. Does your school offer opportunities to observe during the pre-clerk years?

[Snowmen]

1 hour ago, RD2BE said:

So, I'm not a doctor, but I'm a health professional who's worked in hospitals for a few years and I'm starting med school in the fall. Here's what I think:

I think this is something you can gain from observerships and during your clerkship. The main idea is that each speciality can have really cool and exciting cases, but that they only come once in a while. For example, ER docs can sometimes have major trauma cases come through, but often they see people who need med refills, have a cold/cough and need a doctor's note or elderly patients who are displaying signs of dementia secondary to a UTI. I think it's also best to ask the residents and docs about what they consider a typical day - how many patients, the average age, most common chief complaint, etc. that's how you gain an understanding of what their "bread and butter cases" are. Does your school offer opportunities to observe during the pre-clerk years?

The flipside to that is that there are so many uncommon presentations that they actually end up being rather common as a whole. It's the individual presentations that are uncommon.

Regarding the more common presentations for each specialty, the Toronto Notes is a good starting point for learning what you're expected to know as a clerk.

[X Æ A-12]

2 hours ago, toronto22 said:

Hello,

When learning about different career paths I know it’s often said to learn about the “bread and butter cases” of each specialty. I was wondering where you can find this info? (As someone who won’t be doing rotations for a couple of years) 

General Surgery: Appendectomy, Lap Chole

Plastics: Burns, Skin cancer

ENT: Tubes, Tonsils, Thyroid

Ophtho: Cataracts

The thing is, being in medical school gives you exposure mainly to academic medicine which is super subspecialized and specific. Instead of being a general sugeon you will be a Hepato-pancreato-biliary surgeon specializing in whipples. Instead of being a ENT you will be a head and neck surgical oncologist etc. Each staff's lifes is notgood representation of bread and butter since they are at the top of their field of a specific thing 

[frenchpress]

4 hours ago, toronto22 said:

Hello,

When learning about different career paths I know it’s often said to learn about the “bread and butter cases” of each specialty. I was wondering where you can find this info? (As someone who won’t be doing rotations for a couple of years) 

A lot of the pocket sized clinical handbooks will cover the ‘bread and butter’ topics of a speciality. I’ve been using the Toronto Notes handbook lately, and it has generally had the main topics I’ve needed to know when starting on a new rotation. 

[NLengr]

16 hours ago, swoman said:

Ophtho: Cataracts

Alternative Optho: Sleeping on your giant pile of money. $$$$$$$$$

[ploughboy]

On 7/5/2019 at 3:48 PM, swoman said:

General Surgery: Appendectomy, Lap Chole

Plastics: Burns, Skin cancer

ENT: Tubes, Tonsils, Thyroid

Ophtho: Cataracts

 

 

GIM: heart failure, pneumonia, failure to cope

Cards: typical chest pain, atypical chest pain, undifferentiated chest pain, palpitations

Ortho: bone broken.  Me fix.

Peds: 25% treating the patient, 75% treating the parents

 

 

[Snowmen]

On 7/8/2019 at 10:18 AM, ploughboy said:

Ortho: bone broken.  Me fix.

  

Ironically, I'd say the true bread and butter for ortho is probably TKR/THR. It's probably close to half of their caseload.