Final Thoughts: Ob-Gyn

 My third clerkship of third year (Ob-Gyn) has come to an end...

• 5 weeks, 28 days, 267 hours of work in areas ranging from Labor & Delivery, Gynecology, Gynecology-Oncology surgery and Gyn-Onc clinic.
• Working on Labor & Delivery, I averaged about 50 hours/week.
• Working on Gynecology-Oncology, I averaged over 46 hours/week. 
• I enjoyed 7 days off in the last 35 (that's 1 day/week).
• I completed 4 nights on call, which entailed working at least a 14 hour shift from 6p-8a (and up to 24 hour shift) each time.
• I studied Ob-Gyn outside of work a total of 75 hours.
• My total work in Ob-Gyn over the past 5 weeks is: 267+ hours in 5 weeks (53.5 hrs/week...7.6hrs/day).

What I LOVED about Ob-Gyn:

• Being a part of the childbirth process, witnessing the miracle of birth every day, and witnessing when a family is born (or re-born). The miracle of life never gets old, it is absolutely beautiful.
• Patient continuity of care. You get to build a relationship with your patient, and continue to care for her throughout her life, from her first pap smear to her first pregnancy to menopause and beyond. I absolutely LOVE the continuity.
• It's a happy field to work in...most of the time. And who doesn't love some major happiness in each of their days? 
• In Gyn-onc, you can treat every aspect of that cancer - you can diagnose, perform surgery, prescribe chemotherapy, and schedule follow-up appointments after remission. There is no other profession in which you can perform every aspect of cancer care for a patient. That's really appealing...
• Some days its clinic, some days its surgery...there is such a large variety of things to see and do that I would never get bored of it. It is exciting, every day is different.
• Surgery is so much fun. I've said before in my surgical final thoughts blog that one aspect I really love is being able to physically take cancer out of someone's body. And you can definitely do that in Gyn-Onc. But what's even more rewarding is taking a baby out of the uterus when the mom cannot give birth vaginally - it is a thrill. It's the fun of surgery without the testosterone-dominated surgeons! ;)
• I love to take care of women. Many women are too busy being super-moms that they forget to take care of themselves, and that's where a good Ob-gyn comes in to help, giving advice on how to better care for themselves, to check to make sure they are healthy, and to give them some preparatory advice on what they can expect as far as womanly changes as time goes on. And they listen, and interact with the interviews. It's a lot of fun to sit and chat with them about their health.
• I fit in so well with the Ob-Gyns, my personality fits with this specialty. These physicians, which are predominantly female, dress well, wear makeup, eat healthy, work out, love their families, and work hard. They're very hard-working, take their job very seriously, and they also have such great communication skills and are able to talk with their patients on such a caring and understandable level. They are so patient-centered. They adapt to suit the patient's desires. They are also hard-headed, some may say stubborn, and believe strongly in their work. And they're funny, and they have fun with their jobs (while maintaining professionalism). I see so much of myself in these physicians...it really would be such a great fit for me...
• The number of prescriptions that I need to know inside-and-out is small, basically consists of antibiotics, pain relievers, hormone replacement therapy (including birth control, menopause therapy, and ovulation induction), anti-inflammatory drugs, and some hypertension and diabetic medications. 
• ...I feel like I could go on about my love of this field, but I'll stop myself since I have the major things listed!

What I DIDN'T love about Ob-Gyn:

• Babies can be born at any time of the day...or night. And the mom wants HER ob-gyn there for the delivery. So the hours can be crazy, you must be on-call literally all of the time. 
• The ridiculous amount of malpractice involved in Ob-Gyn. You can be guaranteed to be sued at least once during your career as an Ob-Gyn...but not to worry, the malpractice insurance costs are high enough to cover when that happens...! When bad things happen, they can be very bad...
• I couldn't help half of the population - that is, I would be totally useless in any male problem. I like to care for men as well as women, so I'm sure I would miss that if I chose Ob-Gyn. 
• The work load is high, the expectations are high, the malpractice costs are high, the training is long...but the pay does not exactly match these difficulties. I'm sure I would be able to live on the pay (could you imagine, six figures!?), but I do think they deserve more than they get when you consider the stakes. 
• Not a fan of the increasing obesity epidemic - increased rate of endometrial cancer, and it just is not a nice thing to work with...and I'll leave it at that!

So for now, I can safely say I will NOT become a pediatrician or general surgeon...

I love Ob-Gyn. I think it's at the front of my choices, right beside hematology-oncology. And, after the pain of peds, I definitely have my passion and love of medicine back!!!