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GP-Anesthesia


White-Tiger

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  • 2 weeks later...

White Tiger,

 

Think twice about GP-A as a career. Yeah it sounds cool... only one extra year and you can do anaesthesia for ASA 1,2 cases, not super stressful, reasonably well paid, extra Airway skills and good resusc skills.

 

The problem is that it's hard to find jobs as a GP-A unless your willing to live in the sticks. Only really rural hospitals have GP-A's. the two largest hospitals that hire GP-A's are orillia and St. Thomas. Both have full complements and are not looking. Also when you are in the sticks you also have to do call. Which is 1 in 2 or 1 in 3. Which means you have to live in that small town. There is also no standardized certification at the end of it. Also nurse anaesthetists and anaesthesia assistants are slowly infiltrating into medicine in the next 10 years. Just look at how anaesthesia runs in the states and you'll see what is going to happen here.

 

Sounds good but lots of reasons not to. Do EM training, it's more practical, but I"m biased.

 

Cold Hearted

CCFP EM resident.

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  • 3 years later...

could you shed a little light on how competitive the CCFP EM is? I'm a US grad.

 

White Tiger,

 

Think twice about GP-A as a career. Yeah it sounds cool... only one extra year and you can do anaesthesia for ASA 1,2 cases, not super stressful, reasonably well paid, extra Airway skills and good resusc skills.

 

The problem is that it's hard to find jobs as a GP-A unless your willing to live in the sticks. Only really rural hospitals have GP-A's. the two largest hospitals that hire GP-A's are orillia and St. Thomas. Both have full complements and are not looking. Also when you are in the sticks you also have to do call. Which is 1 in 2 or 1 in 3. Which means you have to live in that small town. There is also no standardized certification at the end of it. Also nurse anaesthetists and anaesthesia assistants are slowly infiltrating into medicine in the next 10 years. Just look at how anaesthesia runs in the states and you'll see what is going to happen here.

 

Sounds good but lots of reasons not to. Do EM training, it's more practical, but I"m biased.

 

Cold Hearted

CCFP EM resident.

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I just wanna dig this old thread out...

anyone can comment on the financial side of:

 

FM/EM vs GP-A vs GP-OB vs FP-purely office?

 

Extremely variable. In all of these settings, the more you work, and the better you set up your office from a business POV, the better you will do. Really comes down to a lifestyle/work experience decision.

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Extremely variable. In all of these settings, the more you work...the better you will do

 

thanks cheech

yeah but for the same amount of work, income is different.

like i know if you work at emerg, you earn like 180-200$+ per hour, while i seriously doubt you can earn that much in office: say you work 9-5 in office with 1hr lunch time, can you earn 200*7=1400$ ? I personally doubt it

 

maybe the example i just gave above is bs, correct me if im wrong

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$1400 in an 8 hour day is certainly possible in a well-run office. You'd have to take overhead off that to compare it to ER remuneration, so it is a bit less per hour, but the hours are much better (9 to 5 is much easier than midnight to 8 AM, for example). Also need to account for more days worked per month in a typical office than ER, so the difference in annual remuneration isn't that large.

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I've had a lot of family doctor preceptors see 50+ patients per day in less than 8 hours. Sometimes 50 patients in 5-6 hours or less. That's over $1500 (closer to $1800). They see their patients faster than an emerg doc does, around 2-8 minutes per patient. They're also able to do their billings, referrals, and lab test orders during the visit, which minimizes paperwork later.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Comment on GPA. Just want to point out some of the advantages...

 

- If you plan to work in small places anyway, being GPA also gives you confidence to do ER in small communities. Let's face it, the only thing in the +1ER year that you cannot or is harder to learn alone is resuscitation and stabilizing a patient's vitals! The +1 in Anes is all about that! Fractures, infections, casting etc can all be learned as you go along...

- You can do pain injections/ pain procedures like spinal pumps with confidence making you easily a referral center as chronic pain becomes more and more hot and sexy!

- Actually there are three places hiring GPAs now all three within 1-2 hrs from London, ON.

 

As far as practicality goes, EM is def more practical but not everyone can work shifts, it's draining despite it looking so incredibly easy in the beginning, 8 hrs, 14 shifts a month; it will take a toll on your body.

 

Keep in mind, these things will always be changing in medicine! Today EM is hot, GPA is not, a few yrs ago family medicine wasn't popular, today it's great. Remember, do what you like ;)

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  • 2 weeks later...
Family medicine is technically the perfect job.

 

Great pay especially if you are business minded. 100% portable - you can go anywhere set up a practice and fill up your practice with virtually no worry about running out of business and you are your own boss so it's very flexible. With the pgy-3 opportunities it can also be very very flexible with a lot of opportunities to do private stuff.

 

The thing is even if you are in a saturated community like toronto or vancouver, being the gatekeeper means that you can still have no problem filling up your practice if you are a good family doctor. It takes time, but word of mouth about you will spread with your patients and this will begat more patients seeking you as a family doctor.

 

No call either.

 

**** I think I want to do Family Medicine now.

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I noticed this in the residency handbook:

 

"The RCPSC-EM training involves a year of basic clinical training,

and forthcoming years to include a mandatory year of training

in the emergency aspects of Anesthesia, Critical Care (including

CCU), General Surgery, Internal Medicine, Neurosciences,

Orthopedic Surgery, Pediatrics, and Psychiatry (including

crisis intervention); a minimum of six months as a senior

resident in the emergency department; and specific training

in the prehospital and administrative aspects of Emergency

Medicine. One year of the program allows flexibility, which may

include research; elective assignments in ENT, Obstetrics and

Gynecology, Ophthalmology, Plastic Surgery, Radiology, Trauma

Service and/or Toxicology; or further training in Emergency

Medicine and other appropriate clinical subspecialty areas."

Found here pg. 50

 

I assume that is referring to the 1 year emergency certificate for family physicians, but the way that reads it gave me the impression that it's more than a year? The PGY-3 EM post-FM diploma is only a year correct? I assume most family physicians interested in doing this would do so immediately after finishing their FM residency yes?

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good point

but do you really think fp is becoming more popular nowadays?

 

Absolutely! At my program, there are residents on waiting list hoping to switch from Gen Surg, Obs/Gyn and even Anesthesia into Family. I know this because I am involved with CaRMS and also know that there were 20% increase in people who ranked a primary care specialty (FM or IM) as their first choice on CaRMS during 2011-2012 cycle. All objective data, not making anything up. Again, I repeat at the end of the day you have to do what you like, money prestige etc come automatically if you are good and love what you do!

 

Cheers

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Absolutely! At my program, there are residents on waiting list hoping to switch from Gen Surg, Obs/Gyn and even Anesthesia into Family. I know this because I am involved with CaRMS and also know that there were 20% increase in people who ranked a primary care specialty (FM or IM) as their first choice on CaRMS during 2011-2012 cycle. All objective data, not making anything up. Again, I repeat at the end of the day you have to do what you like, money prestige etc come automatically if you are good and love what you do!

 

Cheers

 

especially with the decreasing job opportunities in some specialty areas (medicine subspecialties, surgical specialties etc),

 

the amazing thing about FM is that you aren't bound by location in terms of jobs (there's FM jobs anywhere in the country)

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