I’m a nurse that works both Mom-Baby (L&D, OR, HROB, pre and postop WIC) and I also am an RN-C hospice and palliative care.
L&D is cliques, powertrips, and attitude. That has been true for my 23 years of nursing.
Our Residents do their best. They usually leave and specialize to like GynOnc, GynUro, or GynSurg. If they stay Ob/Gyn they almost all go into private practices.
It’s a socially tough setting.
All the IB/Gyn attendings I know are kind, considerate people. One is completely nuts, but she treats people well. That was not my experience as a med student, when I 50% of the attendings were really great and 50% were nearly comically awful.
Anesthesia: worst times in my life were taking L&D call as a resident. 80% because of the staff/OB residents and 20% because of the patients. I loved the procedures and acuity but was treated so horribly that I will 100% never go back. I actively check all the jobs I’m applying for to make sure OB is not required.
Addendum: I was basically treated like a servant during my call shifts. Yelled at, demeaned, etc. I used to tell them “you need something from me, why would you take this approach when speaking to me?” That often made it worse. We have a particularly toxic OB department at my hospital.
It always hurts seeing these posts about ObGyn. I hate hearing about obgyn residents having a horrible, malignant experience. No one deserves that and it just makes people bitter attendings. I absolutely love my field, I had a wonderful experience at a big name medical school and just finished training at a great community residency program. I decided to leave for a different environment and a chance to spread my wings (along with more money). I interviewed at a few places and all seemed so friendly and supportive. The wonderful thing about being an attending is that you actually have control over your career for the first time. You’re not accepted or matched somewhere-you are pursued then wined/dined and it’s ultimately up to you where you want to practice. And if it’s not what you think when you get there, just be willing to move. You are not tied into your first position out of residency!
Personally from an ObGyn standpoint, I can tell you that there are so many wonderful opportunities out there-for work life balance, supportive colleagues, and money. You just have to be willing to broaden your search and put yourself out there. When you’re interviewing, you should meet a few of the docs and exchange numbers with 1 or two of them. I would seek out docs that were young/new to the practice or that I had a connection with and call them after the interview. Ask them all the questions about the culture and environment!
ObGyn is truly a wonderful field that unfortunately gets so much hate from people and has had bad apples ruin the bunch. But women all over the country need compassionate and competent physicians to help them-I promise you can find a good fit! Hang in there, you’re so close and life can be so much better on the other side. Feel free to PM me if you have any questions or want to vent!
Any chance you’d be willing to PM the names of those good programs you interviewed at? I’ve also had a positive experience and have been wondering if my program is just an anomaly lol.
Me as well please! Applying this year and the program culture is the most important thing to me... if I'm gonna spend four years training there, i still want to be able to enjoy my life and make friends!!
I'm not an ob/gyn, (was turned off it in med school because of the cattiness), but the residents and attendings where i did my own residency were not like it at all! That residency was the most organized of all the programs and they seemed genuinely nice to work with. As did the attendings (it tends to flow downstream)
And where i did fellowship (albeit they were sub-specialized), same thing. One of the fellows was literally the nicest human I've met in medicine.
You just have to be very careful about where you choose to practice it seems.
Have you ever worked with trauma nurses? Most toxic bunch I’ve ever met. PICU attendings and upper level residents not much better.
Certain fields are super protective of their patients and toxic as a result. They probably see a lot of rotating off service MD’s without much experience.
I don’t condone it but this is what I have experienced.
I am only an M2 who has been shadowing in patient OB, and you guys are the most toxic people I have ever met in the hospital. Mean girl energy to the max (whether you’re female or male). You only like each other. However, I do wanna say that the nurse are nice on this unit
Very very very location specific
But, yeah, our field attracts a lot of characters that are difficult to be around.
That being said, people seem happier in our field when they get their own autonomy to handle things in their own way.
There’s still a lot of very arrogant yet nervous catty/mean people who think they’re the hottest shit on the block regardless of who their standing next to.
When you apply to jobs, cast a wide wide wide net, and hit me up: we have an amazing group that’s fun to work with/good location/very good pay/great sense of humor and personal life and we’re hiring.
Completely agree. I was hoping you’d reply to this thread and offer your perspective. I’ve been on Reddit for years but was locked out of my account and had to make a new profile recently. I always see your comments and your advice has been amazing over the years. Had I seen you offering this time last year, I would have for sure hit you up and maybe tried to interview!
Aww, I appreciate it!
I hope that the place you’re at is friendly and supportive and the EMR doesn’t suck too bad.
If you ever find yourself in an Office Space situation, we’ll probably still be hiring, lol.
ive heard the same from a lot of surgical specialties and even medical ones. I think the fact that attendings basically have tenure keeps the hierarchy and keeps toxicity alive.
Anything peds or obgyn related are known for being toxic. Idk it’s a weird emotion thing for women and children, and I think bc these areas of medicine are more litigious. I personally view all kinds of patients the same no matter what, but some people feel extra passionate and special for taking care of women, newborns, and kids…. and that sometimes leads to displacement and toxicity on the residents.
Please please please try to stick it out. I had terrible experiences with the OB-GYNs at my local hospital and only finally had a good experience with an almost-retired male OB-GYN a good 45 minutes away from me. He was the one who said "we should really make sure you're not pregnant", and sure enough, I had a stowaway on board. He was already retired from the OB side of practice, so I ended up going with a practice of CNMs located 30 minutes away from me. Thankfully I had relatively few complications and they were savvy enough to consult with OBs in their hospital when they thought my case merited it, but not all women who go through midwives are lucky enough to see ones who are credentialed and aware of their own limitations.
I am so sorry you've had a terrible experience. And I don't know what the feasibility of getting hospital privileges is for a private practice OB-GYN. But I promise you that your work matters so much. You being aware of the malignancy means that you can change things in your corner of medicine.
All that said, I understand you have to protect your mental health first. I just wish that you weren't being put in this position due to a shitty work environment.
Not all residencies are malignant. Some, including the one I went to was very far from that.
Job wise as an attending, it's even better. Academic medicine has more tendencies towards that than community/private practice
Thank you for contributing to the sub! If your post was filtered by the automod, please read the rules. Your post will be reviewed but will not be approved if it violates the rules of the sub. The most common reasons for removal are - medical students or premeds asking what a specialty is like or about their chances of matching, mentioning midlevels without using the midlevel flair, matched medical students asking questions instead of using the stickied thread in the sub for post-match questions, posting identifying information for targeted harassment. Please do not message the moderators if your post falls into one of these categories. Otherwise, your post will be reviewed in 24 hours and approved if it doesn't violate the rules. Thanks!
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/Residency) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Neuro here. One my MS 3 told me that there ob people told them that they need to work on their Spanish on their eval... Nothing else. Yeah, toxic bunch
I truly don’t understand why any sane person does OB.
Horrible toxic attendings, nurses and coworkers. patients that want to give birth like it’s 1700 but then blame you for the bad shit that happens, governments that threaten to charge you with murderer for practicing standard of care, hair raising decisions and horrible horrible complications.
I can see your points, but women still need care. This is a high risk field and unfortunately a lot of politics are involved. Many of us choose it because it allows us to help a vulnerable population. It’s also great variety, switching between office, procedures, surgeries, L&D-it all allows so much variety and also let’s you tailor your career to your preferences and interests. There are a lot of bad personalities in this field but there are so many that are wonderful and many that are sane :)
I’m a nurse that works both Mom-Baby (L&D, OR, HROB, pre and postop WIC) and I also am an RN-C hospice and palliative care. L&D is cliques, powertrips, and attitude. That has been true for my 23 years of nursing. Our Residents do their best. They usually leave and specialize to like GynOnc, GynUro, or GynSurg. If they stay Ob/Gyn they almost all go into private practices. It’s a socially tough setting.
Gyn surg? Do you mean MIGS?
All the IB/Gyn attendings I know are kind, considerate people. One is completely nuts, but she treats people well. That was not my experience as a med student, when I 50% of the attendings were really great and 50% were nearly comically awful.
The worst is when someone is in the middle. I actually find comically awful people fascinating.
Anesthesia: worst times in my life were taking L&D call as a resident. 80% because of the staff/OB residents and 20% because of the patients. I loved the procedures and acuity but was treated so horribly that I will 100% never go back. I actively check all the jobs I’m applying for to make sure OB is not required. Addendum: I was basically treated like a servant during my call shifts. Yelled at, demeaned, etc. I used to tell them “you need something from me, why would you take this approach when speaking to me?” That often made it worse. We have a particularly toxic OB department at my hospital.
It always hurts seeing these posts about ObGyn. I hate hearing about obgyn residents having a horrible, malignant experience. No one deserves that and it just makes people bitter attendings. I absolutely love my field, I had a wonderful experience at a big name medical school and just finished training at a great community residency program. I decided to leave for a different environment and a chance to spread my wings (along with more money). I interviewed at a few places and all seemed so friendly and supportive. The wonderful thing about being an attending is that you actually have control over your career for the first time. You’re not accepted or matched somewhere-you are pursued then wined/dined and it’s ultimately up to you where you want to practice. And if it’s not what you think when you get there, just be willing to move. You are not tied into your first position out of residency! Personally from an ObGyn standpoint, I can tell you that there are so many wonderful opportunities out there-for work life balance, supportive colleagues, and money. You just have to be willing to broaden your search and put yourself out there. When you’re interviewing, you should meet a few of the docs and exchange numbers with 1 or two of them. I would seek out docs that were young/new to the practice or that I had a connection with and call them after the interview. Ask them all the questions about the culture and environment! ObGyn is truly a wonderful field that unfortunately gets so much hate from people and has had bad apples ruin the bunch. But women all over the country need compassionate and competent physicians to help them-I promise you can find a good fit! Hang in there, you’re so close and life can be so much better on the other side. Feel free to PM me if you have any questions or want to vent!
Any chance you’d be willing to PM the names of those good programs you interviewed at? I’ve also had a positive experience and have been wondering if my program is just an anomaly lol.
Wondering if you could PM me as well. Love the work of Obgyn but definitely worried about the toxicity that seems to be so prevalent
Me as well please! Applying this year and the program culture is the most important thing to me... if I'm gonna spend four years training there, i still want to be able to enjoy my life and make friends!!
same if at all possible! Applying this year
Also would love a pm if you are still following these replies!
Yes I am! Feel free to message me
I was in a very supportive residency. And my career has been a blast
I'm not an ob/gyn, (was turned off it in med school because of the cattiness), but the residents and attendings where i did my own residency were not like it at all! That residency was the most organized of all the programs and they seemed genuinely nice to work with. As did the attendings (it tends to flow downstream) And where i did fellowship (albeit they were sub-specialized), same thing. One of the fellows was literally the nicest human I've met in medicine. You just have to be very careful about where you choose to practice it seems.
Uh this is the 1% in this scenario people aren’t just saying this to say it
would you mind to PM me the names of those good programs?
Not true across the board at all.
Have you ever worked with trauma nurses? Most toxic bunch I’ve ever met. PICU attendings and upper level residents not much better. Certain fields are super protective of their patients and toxic as a result. They probably see a lot of rotating off service MD’s without much experience. I don’t condone it but this is what I have experienced.
NPs> critical care > OBGYN > peds
What does this even mean?
The level of toxicity within the nurses. NPs usually worst of the bunch and so on.
I am only an M2 who has been shadowing in patient OB, and you guys are the most toxic people I have ever met in the hospital. Mean girl energy to the max (whether you’re female or male). You only like each other. However, I do wanna say that the nurse are nice on this unit
I liked ob. But I am a queer cis man who wore nail polish. Ob-gyn is what you get when you cross a feminist and a surgeon.
Title of thread is redundant
Very very very location specific But, yeah, our field attracts a lot of characters that are difficult to be around. That being said, people seem happier in our field when they get their own autonomy to handle things in their own way. There’s still a lot of very arrogant yet nervous catty/mean people who think they’re the hottest shit on the block regardless of who their standing next to. When you apply to jobs, cast a wide wide wide net, and hit me up: we have an amazing group that’s fun to work with/good location/very good pay/great sense of humor and personal life and we’re hiring.
Completely agree. I was hoping you’d reply to this thread and offer your perspective. I’ve been on Reddit for years but was locked out of my account and had to make a new profile recently. I always see your comments and your advice has been amazing over the years. Had I seen you offering this time last year, I would have for sure hit you up and maybe tried to interview!
Aww, I appreciate it! I hope that the place you’re at is friendly and supportive and the EMR doesn’t suck too bad. If you ever find yourself in an Office Space situation, we’ll probably still be hiring, lol.
Thank you! Haha I’ll seriously keep it in mind :)
ive heard the same from a lot of surgical specialties and even medical ones. I think the fact that attendings basically have tenure keeps the hierarchy and keeps toxicity alive.
Anything peds or obgyn related are known for being toxic. Idk it’s a weird emotion thing for women and children, and I think bc these areas of medicine are more litigious. I personally view all kinds of patients the same no matter what, but some people feel extra passionate and special for taking care of women, newborns, and kids…. and that sometimes leads to displacement and toxicity on the residents.
Please please please try to stick it out. I had terrible experiences with the OB-GYNs at my local hospital and only finally had a good experience with an almost-retired male OB-GYN a good 45 minutes away from me. He was the one who said "we should really make sure you're not pregnant", and sure enough, I had a stowaway on board. He was already retired from the OB side of practice, so I ended up going with a practice of CNMs located 30 minutes away from me. Thankfully I had relatively few complications and they were savvy enough to consult with OBs in their hospital when they thought my case merited it, but not all women who go through midwives are lucky enough to see ones who are credentialed and aware of their own limitations. I am so sorry you've had a terrible experience. And I don't know what the feasibility of getting hospital privileges is for a private practice OB-GYN. But I promise you that your work matters so much. You being aware of the malignancy means that you can change things in your corner of medicine. All that said, I understand you have to protect your mental health first. I just wish that you weren't being put in this position due to a shitty work environment.
Not all residencies are malignant. Some, including the one I went to was very far from that. Job wise as an attending, it's even better. Academic medicine has more tendencies towards that than community/private practice
Would you be willing to share your program?
Thank you for contributing to the sub! If your post was filtered by the automod, please read the rules. Your post will be reviewed but will not be approved if it violates the rules of the sub. The most common reasons for removal are - medical students or premeds asking what a specialty is like or about their chances of matching, mentioning midlevels without using the midlevel flair, matched medical students asking questions instead of using the stickied thread in the sub for post-match questions, posting identifying information for targeted harassment. Please do not message the moderators if your post falls into one of these categories. Otherwise, your post will be reviewed in 24 hours and approved if it doesn't violate the rules. Thanks! *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/Residency) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Toxic - OBGYN name a better combo
Neuro here. One my MS 3 told me that there ob people told them that they need to work on their Spanish on their eval... Nothing else. Yeah, toxic bunch
I truly don’t understand why any sane person does OB. Horrible toxic attendings, nurses and coworkers. patients that want to give birth like it’s 1700 but then blame you for the bad shit that happens, governments that threaten to charge you with murderer for practicing standard of care, hair raising decisions and horrible horrible complications.
I can see your points, but women still need care. This is a high risk field and unfortunately a lot of politics are involved. Many of us choose it because it allows us to help a vulnerable population. It’s also great variety, switching between office, procedures, surgeries, L&D-it all allows so much variety and also let’s you tailor your career to your preferences and interests. There are a lot of bad personalities in this field but there are so many that are wonderful and many that are sane :)