Climbing Physicians!! Career advice requested.

Hey William. Here's some relevant threads from a few years ago that you should check out.

mountainproject.com/v/climb…

http://www.mountainproject.com/v/climbers-inout-of-medical-school/107296133__1

Good luck with it all man!!

Thanks Krispy

--I've had the second thread bookmarked on my computer for a while now. Thanks for sending the 1st my way!

Chris Mak wrote: Just have to add that Ortho is not a lifestyle specialty, the "O" in that ROAD acronym is for Ophthalmology. Ortho residents work 80+ hours a week, and from what I have seen once you are out in practice you can work even harder. Is it fun? Yes! And no doubt it is well reimbursed at the moment, and I have seen a small handful of guys play more than work, but if what you are focused on is pay per hour there are better options.

Whoops, good point! Yes, ortho is popular but it's not the lots of money for short hours choice.

krispyyo wrote:Fam med is starting to sound better too, and moving to Canada would be just fine with me! Is it hard to find jobs and get work visas and such as a US trained physician, including in nice climber towns up there?

US and Canadian medical schools share accreditation. US docs moving to Canada or vice versa don't come in as foreign medical grads. Getting a work permit as a US-trained family physician in Canada is straightforward. For a year or two you can work on just a NAFTA letter, don't even need a work permit. Canada is much like the US, primary care is in demand almost everywhere. Canmore, or downtown Toronto or Vancouver, might be tight but go 30 min away and they'll welcome you. (Forget Quebec though unless you're genuinely fluent in French.) I know places that are looking for family docs, where you are in the midst of great schools, restaurants, cultural amenities, and shopping - but can look out your office window and see the mountains you'll climb in on the weekend. On second thought, that might make it hard to focus :-)

krispyyo wrote:That's good advice from all of you saying to go with what interests me.

This is key. Medicine is such a committing profession that if you don't love it, not just see it as a way to make money for what you like to do, you will burn out. You seriously will become miserable. I've seen it happen to my own classmates from med school, and it's easy to pick out the students headed for that fate too. We select residents in large part on that basis, for just that reason. If it doesn't make you want to get out of bed in the morning, it's not the right choice.