Neurology career thoughts
Hi all,
longtime lurker here. Been having some career thoughts and wanted to get some advice. Currently a PGY2 Neurology resident and nearing the end of a challenging year. Over the past few months I've been having second thoughts about it all. For starters, I'm definitely more of an inpatient person (can't stand the inbox and I always feel handcuffed in clinic visits) though neuro is primarily an outpatient specialty.
In the hospital, it really feels like our consults are simply CYA. Plus we rarely offer anything that actually makes a big difference for the patient. In short, there's always a sense of what we're actually "bringing to the table". I've also barely studied throughout the year because I just have no motivation to do it. Not sure if this is just from burnout from second year or if it's a losing of interest altogether.
I was leaning towards doing a fellowship in vascular neurology as I'm definitely more inpatient-oriented and do enjoy managing strokes/vascular lesions but now I'm wondering if it's even worth it. Have gained some interest in neuro-immuno throughout the year and this would probably be the only clinic based specialty I could enjoy (like the patient population, and what you do actually helps patients).
Looking back to med school, I enjoyed learning neurology and I do enjoy some of the pathology we get to see. The brain is fascinating, and its future is definitely bright as we make new discoveries. The old stigma about neurology (diagnos and adios) is changing but there's still a ways to go. Now I wonder if I was too naive in choosing this path, as the longer I do direct patient care, I can't stand all the extra bs work that comes around it (social work, inbox management, etc.).
I feel if I continue this path (patient-facing), I'll probably burn out sooner than later. Just looking to get some thoughts from anyone else that might've gone through something similar.