Patrick1234 Posted August 8, 2013 Report Share Posted August 8, 2013 Sorry I hope I'm posting in the right section...I was just curious as to what makes one residency more competitive than the other? is it mostly just because of the pay? why is "internal med" or psychiatry not considered as competitve? but radiology/ophtamology is? does the former have have really bad hours/low pay? or is it hard for ppl in internal med/psych to find jobs later on? it's not like internal med is any shorter (if you include the subspecialty) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lactic Folly Posted August 8, 2013 Report Share Posted August 8, 2013 Well, in the broadest sense, it's the number of applicants ranking that discipline first, relative to the number of spots available. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Patrick1234 Posted August 8, 2013 Author Report Share Posted August 8, 2013 yes and the reason for less people wanted to apply is? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lactic Folly Posted August 8, 2013 Report Share Posted August 8, 2013 Well, in absolute numbers, there are way more people applying to internal medicine than radiology or ophthalmology. The latter specialties just have fewer spots. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Patrick1234 Posted August 8, 2013 Author Report Share Posted August 8, 2013 ok thanks. how about in terms of pay/job market/hours Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spontaneouscombustion Posted August 8, 2013 Report Share Posted August 8, 2013 The more competitive specialties tend to have more prestige, better remuneration, and/or a better lifestyle. Its common sense really, though not all of them hit all three (see: surgery). Job market doesn't seem to play that big a role, but that may be because the only fields with a great job market are completely unpalatable for a lot of people. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Patrick1234 Posted August 8, 2013 Author Report Share Posted August 8, 2013 do internist or psych have really bad hours? don't they just work a typical day at the hospitals...it seems like they are ok. they mostly leave the oncall stuff to residents Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ellorie Posted August 8, 2013 Report Share Posted August 8, 2013 Psych has good hours, but people don't want to go into it for a variety of reasons. For one thing, a lot of people enjoy doing procedures and mostly in psychiatry you wouldn't find yourself doing a lot of procedures. People also see it as a specialty where you don't use the rest of your medical knowledge - as something that is very separate from what they imagine as "practicing medicine" (I don't find this to be true from what I have observed, but I think people perceive it that way). Also, the stigma associated with people who are mentally ill seems to rub off on psychiatrists a bit. The whole field is a bit stigmatized. On a more pragmatic level, the exposure to psychiatry is not always very good in medical school - here we don't really get any exposure until the end of 2nd year, and a lot of people have already fallen in love with something else at that point. At schools like Mac and Calgary (or so I hear) where psychiatry is introduced early and in an interesting way, they end up matching more people to psych. That is just what I have seen and heard as an MS2 - I am sure others further along than I am will be able to further explain. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PhoenixFlare500 Posted August 8, 2013 Report Share Posted August 8, 2013 Psych has good hours, but people don't want to go into it for a variety of reasons. For one thing, a lot of people enjoy doing procedures and mostly in psychiatry you wouldn't find yourself doing a lot of procedures. People also see it as a specialty where you don't use the rest of your medical knowledge - as something that is very separate from what they imagine as "practicing medicine" (I don't find this to be true from what I have observed, but I think people perceive it that way). Also, the stigma associated with people who are mentally ill seems to rub off on psychiatrists a bit. The whole field is a bit stigmatized. On a more pragmatic level, the exposure to psychiatry is not always very good in medical school - here we don't really get any exposure until the end of 2nd year, and a lot of people have already fallen in love with something else at that point. At schools like Mac and Calgary (or so I hear) where psychiatry is introduced early and in an interesting way, they end up matching more people to psych. That is just what I have seen and heard as an MS2 - I am sure others further along than I am will be able to further explain. My preclerkship exposure to psychiatry basically gave me the same perception of the field as my pre-med school exposure which was that it was boring and a crap field. Clerkship did it way more justice, especially in contrast to some other fields. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Patrick1234 Posted August 8, 2013 Author Report Share Posted August 8, 2013 How about internal med? it doesn't seem that competitive either (compared to other residencies), I have heard the stigma against psych but not much for internal med so I was surprised to learn that it's not competitive esp for certain subspeciaities, is it because of job prospects or pay? or it's too specializied? too long hours or too much material? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rmorelan Posted August 9, 2013 Report Share Posted August 9, 2013 How about internal med? it doesn't seem that competitive either (compared to other residencies), I have heard the stigma against psych but not much for internal med so I was surprised to learn that it's not competitive esp for certain subspeciaities, is it because of job prospects or pay? or it's too specializied? too long hours or too much material? well you cannot have all the fields competitive - there are still so many spots and only so many medical students. For something to be competitive something else has to be less so. Doesn't always mean it is a bad field in some way - internal medicine is a bedrock specialty for instance with good pay, respect and usually pretty good hours overall. The initial entrance into internal med is not that competitive at all, but the further subspecializing bit later on can be. That doesn't happen until you are further along though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rmorelan Posted August 9, 2013 Report Share Posted August 9, 2013 My preclerkship exposure to psychiatry basically gave me the same perception of the field as my pre-med school exposure which was that it was boring and a crap field. Clerkship did it way more justice, especially in contrast to some other fields. I found doing psychiatry far more interesting than I expected - and I had a psychology background in part so I should have I thought being relatively informed. You can actually have a pretty big impact if you are good at it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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