Medical specialty and personality

[ThatBrightHelper]

My dd is studying medicine in uni (year 1) and she wants to be a psychiatrist. She is kind, loves to talk, has a good memory and is empathetic but is also an overthinker and prone to say the wrong thing. She is also really energetic but dislikes competition.

From my anecdotal experience (my DH is a pediatrician), there is a certain correlation between the specialty doctors choose and their personality. For example, the competitive ones usually go to cardiovascular surgery, and the most patient and kind ones go to pediatrics (like my DH). Can't think of anymore for now.

Meant to be lighthearted discussion.

I have bipolar disorder and have met vast numbers of psychiatrists in my life. I would much rather discuss my mental illness with my eye consultant. Obviously, I don't. He has a much nicer communication style and any psychiatrist I have ever met

Ironically I did have a fracture in recent years! The reg I saw fit the stereotype - condescending, dismissive, arrogant. Made me feel awful, and I’m an experienced nurse who was aware of my issues. The consultant on the other hand was absolutely charming - so lovely, sympathetic and understanding. There’s an aspect to being successful in your field. Orthopaedic surgeons need to be confident in their job. Emergency doctors need to be calm under pressure. Some people are excellent in their fields because of their nature and would be less successful in a different field.

It does sound like a little bit of your evidence comes from Grey's Anatomy!

I work in a medical school and the vast majority of our top honours students, who get first pick of placements are the quieter, studious young women - not the brash, over confident young men that everyone thinks of when you say "competitive," the landscape has changed from when pushing yourself forward was an important trait, now it is being hard working and knowledgeable.

Your DD is just starting out and a lot of what you are dubbing her "personality," is just her being 19. She will learn how to talk to patients, she will learn what she loves when she gets a chance to try to different placements. There will be a lot of things she hasn't even considered, so it's a good thing they don't choose when they are 19 or there would be no public health consultants, medical microbiologists, bariatric surgeons etc.

Except the best students don’t get the pick of foundation year placements now that academic ranking is no longer a part of the process. The new lottery system where you are randomly assigned a ranking for choosing your preferences for the foundation programme means that you may be allocated your lowest ranked location and no rotations in the specialties you are considering pursuing (assuming they get a place at all, several hundred graduates didn’t get a post last year). I appreciate that doesn’t mean you can’t apply for a training post in a specialty you haven’t worked in but it’s not ideal. How can you be sure you love working in psychiatry if you’ve no experience? Don’t get me started on the lack of training posts…

My brother in law is a consultant anaesthetist, and he's most of the stereotypes - he's nerdily precise and perfectionist about his work, he's got a road bike, likes coffee, likes doing sudokus! (The within the medical field cliche is they spend most of the operations doing sudokus...) He also has a D&D group and paints warhammer miniatures. 😂

My sister was a GP, and I'd say is a good listener and good generalist - meant as a compliment, you can go to her with a random query and she hones in on the key relevant points well. But she's also empathic, and probably a bit much - got burnout after several years of general practice as it is now. She's shifted over to a private healthcare scheme that is much less stress.

I work in a medical school and the vast majority of our top honours students, who get first pick of placements
This is two years out of date. It doesn't matter how well you do the placements are now allocated randomly. Thus removing any advantage to doing well at exams.

It's a bit of a cliche that anaesthetists choose it because they don't want to talk to patients. When I had surgery for breast cancer the anaesthetist was an absolute hero. My surgery was delayed due to lung problems and he went over and above getting me help for that.

I used to go out with an orthopaedic surgeon and met several of his colleagues.
They were all loud, extrovert types who loved to party, and most of them were very sporty (skiing, sailing and rugby mostly).

It used to make me chuckle that so many of them were into sports with a high-ish risk of orthopaedic injuries.

Yup or sack of potatoes is another phase lol 100% I've only got a couple of cards but I treasure them in my study!

Def don't. Tons of surgery is now done awake and we cover resus and icu so all the trauma calls/car crashes etc which need tons of reassurance before going to sleep. Labour ward is nearly all awake surgery. I actually prefer awake pts tbh

My dad is a psychiatrist but had he stayed in his home country he would have been a paediatrician. Didn’t like the paeds training when he moved to the UK. Then he did anaesthetics training, then GP, before finally settling on psych! Not sure what that says about him.

Forgotten specialty- very much the radiologists and the pathologists. Reported the scan, identified the abnormal node, done the biopsy, which was reported by the pathologist. Scan and biopsy findings presented at the MDM - diagnosis reached and the patient doesn’t even know (or barely knows) we exist.

I was a Theatre nurse for 6 months- most miserable time of my life. Surgeons would treat some staff like skivvies. Without fail, arrogant, rude and entitled.
Much preferred my time working in Paeds with mostly lovely doctors. The same in elderly care- mostly very caring.
Radiologists a bit weird. AE a bit of a mix of dynamic but good fun. Psychiatrists were looked down on sometimes - like it was an inferior specialty. Which is nonsense. But then you'd know being married to a Dr that the NHS is quite a toxic workplace, full of old fashioned hierarchy and rules

I think this is like saying history and maths teachers are geeky/boring and pe and drama teachers are cool. I don't think it matters.

Ah, no.
PE teachers aren't cool <gavel>

I’ll bite

Ortho - Honestly only met one with a god complex, never met one who could read an ECG 😁

Neuro and spinal - Geniuses who can’t hold eye contact

Psych - honestly as a previous poster has said hugely varied, I find MH nurses more likely to have the stereotypes that are given to psych doctors.

Paeds - Everything they say is said in the sandwich method, no matter the conversation. Conversation starts off light and fluffy, drop a big point, go back to light and fluffy.

ED - Chaotic

Cardiology - Live in their own world. Tend to be quite boring (not in a bad way). Bitches a lot about renal.

Renal - Always bitching about cardiology.

Cardiology v renal - so true, at least from my SHO days many moons ago. Weird because both systems are inextricably linked, can’t live with each other and literally cannot live without each other.

Lol yup. Had a patient a couple of months ago ask if I needed gcses to be an anaesthetist lol

Not just your Brownies Anaesthetist Badge?

@Tangledmane DH cousin is a surgeon and is very arrogant.

Not doctors, so maybe not what you're asking.
I am studying Occupational Therapy at the moment. Everyone I spoke to before starting who had come across an OT said they were lovely. A couple months into the course and I can categorically say every student and lecturer I have spoken to is indeed lovely, caring and empathetic! I think I chose my course wisely!

It is not a light hearted thread when the usual stereotypes are being rolled out and sneering made of those deemed less worthy.
Leroyjenkins is absolutely right and yes female surgeons do need recruiting and orthopaedics does have the first transgender surgeon in the world as part of their profession.
Surgery is male dominated and when all surgeons are lumped as arrogant male bastards by their fellow professionals then how do you think the female surgeons breaking barriers feel.
Grow up ladies

Possibly because the majority of your hard work is done while the patient is asleep?

Yeah but also personally wouldn't want someone with sub gcse level qualifications responsible for doing so! (Rather than 5y uni and 9+y post graduate training and exams)