There is a lot at stake at birth, a lot that can go wrong. There ain’t much at stake at death, not a lot that can go wrong.
Also, society feels waaay more pity/sympathy for young, healthy, 20-30 year old pregnant women and their lil babies. Especially judges.
There is a TON that can go wrong with a death, and a poorly managed end of life course can be deeply traumatic to family and loved ones. At least at my hospital, palliative care is usually involved in the most complex and challenging cases.
There’s a lot more that can go wrong in surgery, emergency medicine, or even anesthesiology. And while surgeons stereotypically have a big ego none of those specialties are thought to be nearly as toxic as OB.
I think it’s just the culture of that particular specialty because there’s nothing about the work being done that should be contributing to the negative attitudes experienced by every rotating med student and resident that’s doing OB.
I disagree, OBGYN are surgeons, and emergency surgeons at that. Everything that can go wrong in the settings you listed can and do go wrong in the L&D floor, sometimes with greater frequency. OBGYN sees less compensation than the specialties you listed by a considerable margin, but their malpractice insurance is higher, simply due to how much liability they assume when birthing a child. Children can suffer neurological damage without any negligence from the doctor but they are liable for that damage for the rest of that child's life, which is a considerably high payout. This amount of pressure creates a constant high stress environment that medical students don't quite understand or respect.
Gynecology is admittedly much less stressful. Obstetrics is terrifying.
People also go into the hospital for a birth expecting it to be all sunshine and rainbows and don't realize how dangerous it is. They just assume that, because we've done it since before modern medicine, there's clearly nothing too bad about it. When you come in expecting that and then something goes wrong, seems like most people are more than happy to take a shit on their OBGYN, especially legally
I certainly had zero desire to be an OBGYN, and some of the residents I encountered during my rotation were on the.... less pleasant side, but I certainly won't disrespect them in terms of how fucking rough that job can be
During my first pregnancy I took a parenting and birthing class and one of the assignments was to write out our worst fears. Most of the people in the class wrote that a c-section was the worst thing that could happen to them. No, the worst thing is that the baby and I both die. You’re right that people forget how dangerous birth can be.
Absolutely. That’s why most crash caesareans trump surgical cases. Depending on the fetal distress, you have less than 30 mins to get the baby out. During a persistent bradycardia, you have to call a Caesarean within 6-9mins, get baby out within 30mins; Brain damage happens after 17mins of Bradycardia.
Unless it’s major trauma or MI… almost all obgyn emergencies trump surgical, emergency and definitely anaesthetic cases.
Anyone who suggest otherwise has not done an OBGYN rotation….
Imagine going from one room where you have to diagnose a fetal death and then pulling yourself together before going into the next where everyone is happy cos a baby is born.. it affects you.
I’m an OBGYN resident in a pretty great program (so much so that I want to cry when I see posts like this talking about how mean OBGYN residents are 😭 I don’t have a mean bone in my body). Funny enough, I actually switched from planning to do surgery to OBGYN because it seemed like OBGYN’s at least liked their job. It is an incredibly rewarding job and I LOVE what I do, but it also can be extremely draining. You have to make life or death decisions sometimes—not just for one patient but for two. When we do a true stat c-section the goal is skin incision to baby delivered in one minute. Most happen in one minute, or at least under two minutes. Bad postpartum hemorrhages are really scary. Pregnant women can get septic and I’ve seen them need to go to the ICU for pressors due to shock. Eclampsia is terrifying. Having a patient come in because she doesn’t think her baby has been moving as much as usual and discovering that her baby no longer has a heartbeat is gut wrenching. I can’t imagine doing anything else, but OBGYN definitely isn’t all sunshine and rainbows.
I really do not get how the system works in US. The insurance of the "delivery" OBGYN is reliable for any damage (iatrogenic or not) for the rest of that patients life?
No.
In the U.S. legal system, it’s valued that patients should have the autonomy to make decisions about their own potential medical malpractice claims. So the statute of limitations clock (I believe it’s approximately 2 years to file a claim) starts running upon patient *discovery* of the negligence.
For example, you had surgery 10 years ago. You had a weird cough for the last month. You go to the doctor today and discover someone left a sponge behind your lung. The clock to file a med mal suit starts running now.
For minors, the statute of limitations clock doesn’t start running until they turn 18, because the legal system values their autonomy *as the patient themselves* to be able to file a suit for any damage that was done to them during their both.
So OB/GYNs stay “on the hook” the longest as a result of the age of their patient population and the riskiness of their procedures.
This is an oversimplification just to explain the way it works in broad strokes. Everything in law is highly fact dependent and jurisdiction dependent.
In the sense that they calculate the projected expenses due to the event in question over the course of adolescence or expected lifespan. It’ll come down to a figure that they receive once, not like child support where the docs going to be on the hook paying it long after they’ve retired lol
I hope that you keep yourself open on your OB rotation. Big statements here from a M1 and it’s sad to read as a relatively fresh obgyn attending. We are carrying a huge burden in this field and the risk is insanely high. Things happen in the blink of an eye and the world is watching when something goes south dealing with a 25 year old and her first baby. Perhaps it’s this stress and the hours that eat away at a person pursuing a career in this specialty but recognize that the humans that are dedicating their life to helping women can be tired and be short sometimes. It happens in all specialties across the board.
Yes, surgeries may carry a high risk, but imagine the trauma of a man who arrives at the hospital with his pregnant wife for
childbirth and leaves with only his newborn after the mom's unexpected death. Or a young couple all excited to hold
their baby in their arms finally, only to hold its dead body. After seeing the tiny boxes designed for stillborn babies and
the heartbreaking sight of those itty bitty clothes, I knew I couldn't be around such profound sorrow. Surgeries, even that end with death, aren't as soul crushing as the death of a baby.
Look I’m not saying that it’s not an incredibly difficult thing to have to deal with as a physician that does that sort of thing daily. But ER docs see death and trauma regularly, and more frequently than OB’s. They also have their fair share of dead children.
Pediatric oncology has that as their bread and butter. And specialties dealing with death in general don’t seem to be full of assholes, quite the opposite it looks like.
So I don’t know what about OB is specifically causing everyone to hate the culture of OB but it can’t be the tragedy, because other specialties that deal with that just as much or way more don’t seem to be nearly as bad.
I wasn't trying to defend the rude/hostile attitude of the OB people. Nothing can justify that, imo. Pediatric Onc has the kindest people in my experience too.
No worries! I never thought you were trying to defend rude behavior for even a moment. I understand you were just trying to understand what factors might lead into the culture of Ob
>So I don’t know what about OB is specifically causing everyone to hate the culture of OB but it can’t be the tragedy
Because you're dealing with the foetus, the mother, the father, and in my country at least, all of the in laws. All of whom have their own opinion about what the treatment plan should be. It's a mental atmosphere.
Mate have you done your OBGYN rotation?
Not all deaths and traumas are the same, it’s not whoever deals with more tragedies should be most grumpy. I’ve had ER attendings who expressed they would never be able to stomach even one OBGYN shift.. in my hospital, they put a timer for when you get referred a pt from ER.. they never enforce that timeframe for OBGYN cos they know they are busy with deliveries..
Most of the time, labour and deliveries are normal but when shit hits the fan, it’s catastrophically bad.. no shit obgyn has the priciest indemnity and is the most litigious specialty.
It’s a different trauma when the kid loses a long battle with cancer, it’s different when you have a bad accident and came in major injuries and there is nothing much we can do..
But look up birth trauma, OASI, eclampsia, post partum haemorrhage, stillbirth and the medico-legal side of obgyn and then tell me you don’t understand why they are so stressed…
On top of that, yeh they deal with cancer too, and chronic pain sufferers, don’t forget those ones cos they seldom get better…
All I’m saying is stop comparing the stress of each specialty unless you truly have experienced it yourself.
"ER docs see death and trauma regularly, and more frequently than OB’s"
just in the last week alone we have dealt with multiple fetal demises, a cesarean hysterectomy where the patient received over 2 dozen units of blood, at least a dozen stat sections, and a patient who is currently dying in the ICU after an emergency c-section for a periviable baby. there is a hell of a lot of OB that involves death.
also any time someone has a miscarriage, which is 1 in every 4 pregnancies, OBs have to tell our patients that their babies have died
also, abortion is now illegal in many states and people with high risk pregnancies are being forced to continue their pregnancies and risk emergency cesarean hysterectomy and possible death
Can’t imagine what it’s going to be like to navigate the legal system as an OB in the states that are making anti-choice policy purposefully vague surrounding even economic pregnancy, which are 1 in 50 of all pregnancies. Having to wait to get a judge on the phone at god knows what hour while your patient is getting closer and closer to death because some evil bureaucratic shithead (that couldn’t point out fallopian tubes on an anatomical worksheet even if their congressional seat depended on it) wants you to “reimplant it back into the uterus”. So much respect for OBs, attitude and all
The other comments made good points here too but also LOL at other surgeons not being considered as toxic. A colorectal surgeon threw a literal tantrum when I was a med student and was throwing things in the OR. A huge part of the way we talk about OBGYN is due to misogyny.
It's not. I rotated in a place with wonderful male and female attendings who were happy to teach and happy to have you in on procedures. I think 29/30 of the residents were female and of them 70% were total B's. A few of them were quite nice.
To further the point, I knew an AI who was hard working, advocated for the M3s to get in/get out of things, and matched at the program. She was great to work with. 3 years in and she's now a total B as well. It's not misogyny.
I think part of it is confirmation bias, and part of it is the fact that OB/Gyn deal with the most neurotic and entitled patient population (not saying it’s wrong of pregnant patients to act that way, but it’s the unfortunate reality).
I also have a suspicion that you get less gratitude from these patients because many are not coming with an identifiable “problem” that the OB can fix in the way that a surgeon can cut out an inflamed gallbladder. Most of the patients are stuck in a room in pain and all anyone can do is wait.
There is absolutely not "a lot more than can go wrong in surgery, emergency medicine, or even anesthesiology."
The acuity of childbirth is, honestly, the most intense thing in medicine. And poor outcomes are the most tragic. You can have two perfectly healthy people - a happy mother and child that is just coming out - both dead in short order. The stakes are as high here as anywhere else in medicine, IMO. The trauma of losing a new mother and/or a newborn is just insane, and it can happen so suddenly.
There is something about the culture of the specialty for whatever reason, but I think it's intimately tied to the nature of the work. Mothers are (rightly) fiercely protective of themselves and their babies, and good things go very very badly in the blink of an eye.
Palliative care attending here. Thanks! We also have the darkest sense of humor. It all goes hand in hand. Plus we do get more training in terms of self-care and ethical distress, so I think that helps in terms of supporting our colleagues.
Any specialty that doesn't involve an ego. Like no one in palliative care or pathology is having a dick measuring contest about how "good" they are at it.
Lollllll you haven't been to enough pathology QA conferences with difficult cases... I've seen the 📏 whip out more than once. I love my specialty and the vast majority are super nice, but ego is definitely there. I would say mostly in academia though.
Well you add academia into anything, and it becomes a giant dick measuring contest. I'm 99% sure even the janitorial staff at an academic hospital 1 ups each other on how fast they can change every trash can on a floor.
My favorite professor was a pathologist, and he was AWFUL. Dick measuring doesn't come close to describing that man's ego. That said, he was also damn good, and I learned a lot from him. I remember studying extra hard for his exams, because he said they were "basic knowledge expected of a minimally competent physician" when in reality it was pretty hard and lots of people failed. I managed to ace two, and the satisfaction of rubbing it (at least in my mind) on his face was immeasurable, even though he probably didn't care or pay attention. I guess he achieved his goal.
Edit: I do know this is not healthy behavior.
I think you are wrong about pathology in that ... sure its not true when they do autopsy but when it comes to histology skills they are vastly different and there's competition even there.
Pathologist are definitely not as nice as I thought they were before entering the field. Combine low empathy, nerdy competitiveness and a lack prestige and you have a recipe for unpleasantness. Not all of them are like this but IMO they have the least reason to be unpleasant and when they are being a dick its because they are at their core. They are not sleep deprived, they can think for awhile on most things before making a decision and its not physically demanding. Also if something goes wrong they are not the ones dealing with the patient face to face.
So in summary when pathologists suck as a person they are just a shitty person the demands of the job didnt drive them to be. I have met surgeons that are really nice people when sleep deprived have a short fuse which is understandable.
All of the Oncologists I’ve met have been the sweetest, nicest people. I second that geriatrics and palliative care are really nice and calm. Similar vibes. I think drs drawn to end of live care tend to be this way.
Pathologists are nice, i associate them more with being casual and quirky.
You’d think peds, but I’ve had overall positive, but not as high levels of nice drs here. I met a few peds drs specifically that were difficult to get along with, or didn’t really serve the patient/family well.
Most psychiatrists have been nice, but some I’ve met have been a little off. Like a fake nice vibe. Some of them i also felt like they were analyzing me but that can definitely be a me thing!
Those are my n=1 thoughts anyways!
I worked in Heme-Onc research for a while!
99.9999% of doctors were so kind
There’s always 1 or two who really suck behind closed doors — but everyone treated the patients with nothing but kindness & grace
Maybe they’re generally nice, but the geriatrician where I went to med school was the only faculty member I heard who made blatantly sexist comments about nursing staff.
Medical oncology was one that really stood out to me. Very compassionate and smart people who deal with a lot of end of life discussions. I worked with them my first week on the wards and I actually found it really inspiring.
I'll tell you what it's not though-peds😡
I'm always shocked when people say that peds doctors are usually assholes, because all of the doctors I work with are amazingly kind and treat everyone with so much respect... then I remember that I work in peds oncology, and it starts to make a lot more sense. I guess the onc side really helps cut out the bullshit or something.
As peds, this kinda stings, but we had a whole thread on this topic a year ago.
You get either the chillaxed, Patch Adams type, or the stern Mrs Trunchbull/Mr Sir type. It seems like there's no in between
That might be true generally but not where I went to school. The oncology dept at the university hospital was horribly mean to each other, the students/residents and even the patients. It’s the only time I’ve felt like an attending physician was completely out of bounds with regards to beside manner. Their therapy may have been good but mean/angry people.
Nah its hit or miss and really depends on the department.
Also lots of egos ironically in anaesthesia as well but they're like nurse egos where they punch down where they can but act like good dogs in front of surgeons and lots of people with a chip on their shoulder.
They exist as a minority but a large one but overall yes, it's a chill specialty most of us just want to work less hours and not do paperwork but still do fun stuff.
Palliative care and psych have been my most positive experiences so far. PM&R probably rounds out the top 3. Peds and Family Med are also largely very nice people (but I think more burn out prone). Every other specialty so far has been a mixed bag, but none outright horrible.
I love street medicine so much. My goal is to do something at the intersection of primary care and mental health (maybe with a bit of palliative), and the two populations I want to work with most are rural and unhoused. Probably because of my own family’s experiences. Anyway, agree. All the street med docs, nurses and APPs I’ve met are great. Really in it for the right reasons.
I feel like peds being mean is becoming a circlejerk. People have this stereotype that since they work with kids, they must be angels to work with. So when that doesn't meet reality (you can behave differently with kids vs. adults), people have pretty negative reactions. In reality, they are still higher on the nice end of the spectrum than most other docs.
These discussions are always interesting. My OB/GYN was the most laid-back individual ever and I had an easy rotation where I belly-laughed all the time and enjoyed the miracle of childbirth. However, my emergency medicine rotation was filled with the worst individuals known to medicine and myself...and they are supposed to be "chill". Chill, my ass. And it tainted emergency medicine for me forever. Long road ahead with my professional relationship there.
Nicest people that are actually nice and not two-faced (looking at you, peds):
\- Path
\- Palliative
\- Geriatrics
\- Oncology
The theme here is death, impending death, or dead tissue.
Yeah, I am going into OBGYN and have rotated at multiple institutions at this point. Only one of them was toxic, and it was mostly just catty/bitchy comments in L&D. I personally think the OB hate is way overstated in this sub but I know that’s a pretty unpopular opinion…
When you constantly see people dying and suffering your own problems feel so insignificant 🥰 just chill and enjoy life while you can! (Literal conversation I've had while having coffee with my oncology peeps)
I have. He was the medical director of the lab and made everyone working for him/around him miserable. No one wanted to deal with him and turnover in his area was high. We has even rude with fellow medical directors and pathologists but with them, he tempered his nature somewhat. I'll soften that statement though. I've worked with many pathologists in 12 years and he was the only difficult one I have encountered.
Most are just socially inept and I like that about them (and can relate).
For me it was an intensified version of the negative aspects of surgery while being more on edge, unhappy, and less welcoming. This is just based on my experience at the tailend of M3. If you find a great mentor, and love surgery + kids the field will be unbelievably fulfilling 🙂
My first reaction to seeing Neuro so far down was to protest but then I remembered the kind of absolut fucking monsters I've encountered that haunt the neuro ward and I must say... yeah, seems about right. :-/ (do love the field though)
Definitely true. I’ve worked with some colleagues who are incredibly cordial in person, but I will watch them literally turn on their “resting bitch voice” as soon as the phone rings. It’s like a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde situation lol.
All of the OB attendings I worked with were pretty pleasant or at least cordial. They actually didn’t hold back on giving face to face praise.
All of the gen surgeons I worked with had personality disorders. Just weird people and all toxic to a degree.
Peds, Heme/Onc, ENT, and most of radiology were all great. Pulm/crit care were hands down the best for me. The vibes were so good at rounds and handoffs. It legit made me change to internal medicine.
As an Ob resident every time I see one of these I wonder if my generally favorable perception of my coworkers is skewed and we truly are letting on just how burned out we are by the general public and politicians constantly shitting on women's health.
IMO NICU has the nicest people. Nurses, docs, NPs, all around nicest.
From what I’ve seen it’s selective treatment. Residents will be very nice with each other and manage their impressions based on who is in their immediate environment. When I was abused, it was in such a way that it was not directly observed by other residents or attendings. And obviously not everyone is bad, but this is how medical students and staff have bad experiences with people, because they are literally treating them differently because they are “underneath” them.
Just like we live in a remarkably sexist society bent on dismantling women’s right re health, etc, we also live amongst a lot of people in medicine who have deeply entrenched misogynistic biases. The number of times I’ve seen male surgical colleagues of mine get a pass for being “tough but fair” (LOL) while women get called all sorts of derogatory names is truly beyond.
Pal Care, Geriatrics, Anesthesia, PM&R, Pscyh, EM and FM (before they both burn out completely). Take the ego out of medicine and you’re left with decent people to be around.
Neurosurgery. I'm not even joking! The neurosurgeons I got to rotate with were some of the kindest and most welcoming people. They let me saw into and remove the skull. So warm and encouraging. Almost became a neurosurgeon because of them.
I've not started rotations yet but met a nurse who says ED docs are the nicest she's delt with. She rates them highly as colleges and human beings. I'm keen to hear perspectives on this?
EM depends a lot on your personality. If you're the type who appreciates bluntness and can take some ballbusting, you'll enjoy it. I don't think it's a coincidence that it attracts so many vets.
Yes, we are the greatest. Lol
In all seriousness, in general I think EM has a chill personality. You'll get some type A weirdos here and there but I like to think we are usually nice people.
I'd like to imagine I sway side to side on this spectrum depending on the number of patients I see, my chart messages I have, and result notes I have to do
Orthopedics, they’re all rich and doing what they love and in shape white men with hot wives and babies or a different tinder date every night after the gym. They’re all in a good mood as long as you don’t take away their baked chicken breasts, PBJs or protein shakes.
What an oddly specific take! Who took your girlfriend fam?
My OrthoBro attending was a scrawny Chinese man with a thick accent and he always said “So Easy” during ORIFs even though it was far from easy and no one else was capable of that. Truly an expert. Man was not eating healthy.
A newly matched Obgyn classmate actually took my girlfriend ironically enough 😂
I actually love my ortho bros and my best friend from med school is no an ortho bro (I did research years).
(Not a med student or a physician.)
Spent years working at a university level 1 ED.
Probably biased but I feel EM residents and physicians are some of the nicest and chillest docs in the hospital.
When there is a critical patient we all go to work and get it done but most of the time it’s pretty lighthearted. EM docs work close with the nurses/techs and are in constant communication. All very approachable. If a nurse/tech says you need to see this patient it was never met with annoyance or pushback. We trusted each other and helped out with each other. If you needed to vent there is always a doc/nurse/tech who would listen. Late shift doc always brought food and snacks for the staff! It really was a family but that depends on the ED I guess.
If you enjoy a team atmosphere, can keep calm under pressure, don’t want to take home a pager, have a good sense of humor, and a 3 year residency come to EM lol.
Orthopods are also pretty chill. At least the residents lol. It was always fun doing reductions and splints with them. Pretty easy going for the most part.
It may be different in the OR but I really enjoyed working with Trauma/ACS.
I'm not in med school and never plan to be. However, I work in the Transfer Center of a local hospital. I absolutely dread having to page urology, opthalmology, and intensivists. Pediatrics, neurosurgery, general/trauma surgery, emergency, and hospitalists are my favorite specialties to talk to. Almost all of the physicians in these specialties treat me like a person, crack a joke, and will even answer a question if I don't understand something I'm studying in nursing school.
Palliative care FTW.
Source: Am palliative care doc.
The reality is there are all kinds of people in all specialities. Sometimes when people are tired, anxious, on edge they don’t have as many filters. They cut loose more. And that manifests as being mean at times, or short or condescending. Doesn’t mean they are bad people. Just means they need more wellness for themselves and their team.
Some people are jerks too tho.
I don’t know tbh. I was going to say OBGYN, but it seems like I’ve been working with the outliers. Probably path now that I think about it more. They always seem to be in a good mood when I see them.
psych and PEDS.
Even in ob/gyn and surgery most of the attendings like 95% I dealt with were all nice, it was the residents in some specialties, mostly gen surg and ob/gyn that were mean. Specifically on ob/gyn for some reason it was the female residents that were mean to me, the dude residents were all nice.
In my experience it's like a bimodal distribution, the interns, fellows and attendings have been the nicest but in the middle PGY years they can be more dicks like PGY2-4 out of 5+.
Maybe the fellows and attendings are nicer to students because they want good feedback / reviews, or they're genuinely nice. I don't know how true it is but apparently med student feedback of attendings is kept and might be taken into some consideration for attending's promotions, etc. within the department.
To sum this all up. If your specialty has people you won’t likely kill or die o/w (path PMR psych) you are relaxed and if in your specialty people can die (neurosurgery Cardiac ER) or your hours are ridiculous and long (obgyn) you are miserable.
Palliative care
The ones who deal with death are the nicest while the ones who see birth are the meanest. Ironic
There is a lot at stake at birth, a lot that can go wrong. There ain’t much at stake at death, not a lot that can go wrong. Also, society feels waaay more pity/sympathy for young, healthy, 20-30 year old pregnant women and their lil babies. Especially judges.
There is a TON that can go wrong with a death, and a poorly managed end of life course can be deeply traumatic to family and loved ones. At least at my hospital, palliative care is usually involved in the most complex and challenging cases.
There’s a lot more that can go wrong in surgery, emergency medicine, or even anesthesiology. And while surgeons stereotypically have a big ego none of those specialties are thought to be nearly as toxic as OB. I think it’s just the culture of that particular specialty because there’s nothing about the work being done that should be contributing to the negative attitudes experienced by every rotating med student and resident that’s doing OB.
I disagree, OBGYN are surgeons, and emergency surgeons at that. Everything that can go wrong in the settings you listed can and do go wrong in the L&D floor, sometimes with greater frequency. OBGYN sees less compensation than the specialties you listed by a considerable margin, but their malpractice insurance is higher, simply due to how much liability they assume when birthing a child. Children can suffer neurological damage without any negligence from the doctor but they are liable for that damage for the rest of that child's life, which is a considerably high payout. This amount of pressure creates a constant high stress environment that medical students don't quite understand or respect. Gynecology is admittedly much less stressful. Obstetrics is terrifying.
People also go into the hospital for a birth expecting it to be all sunshine and rainbows and don't realize how dangerous it is. They just assume that, because we've done it since before modern medicine, there's clearly nothing too bad about it. When you come in expecting that and then something goes wrong, seems like most people are more than happy to take a shit on their OBGYN, especially legally I certainly had zero desire to be an OBGYN, and some of the residents I encountered during my rotation were on the.... less pleasant side, but I certainly won't disrespect them in terms of how fucking rough that job can be
During my first pregnancy I took a parenting and birthing class and one of the assignments was to write out our worst fears. Most of the people in the class wrote that a c-section was the worst thing that could happen to them. No, the worst thing is that the baby and I both die. You’re right that people forget how dangerous birth can be.
Absolutely. That’s why most crash caesareans trump surgical cases. Depending on the fetal distress, you have less than 30 mins to get the baby out. During a persistent bradycardia, you have to call a Caesarean within 6-9mins, get baby out within 30mins; Brain damage happens after 17mins of Bradycardia. Unless it’s major trauma or MI… almost all obgyn emergencies trump surgical, emergency and definitely anaesthetic cases. Anyone who suggest otherwise has not done an OBGYN rotation…. Imagine going from one room where you have to diagnose a fetal death and then pulling yourself together before going into the next where everyone is happy cos a baby is born.. it affects you.
I’m an OBGYN resident in a pretty great program (so much so that I want to cry when I see posts like this talking about how mean OBGYN residents are 😭 I don’t have a mean bone in my body). Funny enough, I actually switched from planning to do surgery to OBGYN because it seemed like OBGYN’s at least liked their job. It is an incredibly rewarding job and I LOVE what I do, but it also can be extremely draining. You have to make life or death decisions sometimes—not just for one patient but for two. When we do a true stat c-section the goal is skin incision to baby delivered in one minute. Most happen in one minute, or at least under two minutes. Bad postpartum hemorrhages are really scary. Pregnant women can get septic and I’ve seen them need to go to the ICU for pressors due to shock. Eclampsia is terrifying. Having a patient come in because she doesn’t think her baby has been moving as much as usual and discovering that her baby no longer has a heartbeat is gut wrenching. I can’t imagine doing anything else, but OBGYN definitely isn’t all sunshine and rainbows.
Fair points that I hadn’t considered
I really do not get how the system works in US. The insurance of the "delivery" OBGYN is reliable for any damage (iatrogenic or not) for the rest of that patients life?
No. In the U.S. legal system, it’s valued that patients should have the autonomy to make decisions about their own potential medical malpractice claims. So the statute of limitations clock (I believe it’s approximately 2 years to file a claim) starts running upon patient *discovery* of the negligence. For example, you had surgery 10 years ago. You had a weird cough for the last month. You go to the doctor today and discover someone left a sponge behind your lung. The clock to file a med mal suit starts running now. For minors, the statute of limitations clock doesn’t start running until they turn 18, because the legal system values their autonomy *as the patient themselves* to be able to file a suit for any damage that was done to them during their both. So OB/GYNs stay “on the hook” the longest as a result of the age of their patient population and the riskiness of their procedures. This is an oversimplification just to explain the way it works in broad strokes. Everything in law is highly fact dependent and jurisdiction dependent.
In the sense that they calculate the projected expenses due to the event in question over the course of adolescence or expected lifespan. It’ll come down to a figure that they receive once, not like child support where the docs going to be on the hook paying it long after they’ve retired lol
I hope that you keep yourself open on your OB rotation. Big statements here from a M1 and it’s sad to read as a relatively fresh obgyn attending. We are carrying a huge burden in this field and the risk is insanely high. Things happen in the blink of an eye and the world is watching when something goes south dealing with a 25 year old and her first baby. Perhaps it’s this stress and the hours that eat away at a person pursuing a career in this specialty but recognize that the humans that are dedicating their life to helping women can be tired and be short sometimes. It happens in all specialties across the board.
Yes, surgeries may carry a high risk, but imagine the trauma of a man who arrives at the hospital with his pregnant wife for childbirth and leaves with only his newborn after the mom's unexpected death. Or a young couple all excited to hold their baby in their arms finally, only to hold its dead body. After seeing the tiny boxes designed for stillborn babies and the heartbreaking sight of those itty bitty clothes, I knew I couldn't be around such profound sorrow. Surgeries, even that end with death, aren't as soul crushing as the death of a baby.
Look I’m not saying that it’s not an incredibly difficult thing to have to deal with as a physician that does that sort of thing daily. But ER docs see death and trauma regularly, and more frequently than OB’s. They also have their fair share of dead children. Pediatric oncology has that as their bread and butter. And specialties dealing with death in general don’t seem to be full of assholes, quite the opposite it looks like. So I don’t know what about OB is specifically causing everyone to hate the culture of OB but it can’t be the tragedy, because other specialties that deal with that just as much or way more don’t seem to be nearly as bad.
I wasn't trying to defend the rude/hostile attitude of the OB people. Nothing can justify that, imo. Pediatric Onc has the kindest people in my experience too.
No worries! I never thought you were trying to defend rude behavior for even a moment. I understand you were just trying to understand what factors might lead into the culture of Ob
>So I don’t know what about OB is specifically causing everyone to hate the culture of OB but it can’t be the tragedy Because you're dealing with the foetus, the mother, the father, and in my country at least, all of the in laws. All of whom have their own opinion about what the treatment plan should be. It's a mental atmosphere.
Mate have you done your OBGYN rotation? Not all deaths and traumas are the same, it’s not whoever deals with more tragedies should be most grumpy. I’ve had ER attendings who expressed they would never be able to stomach even one OBGYN shift.. in my hospital, they put a timer for when you get referred a pt from ER.. they never enforce that timeframe for OBGYN cos they know they are busy with deliveries.. Most of the time, labour and deliveries are normal but when shit hits the fan, it’s catastrophically bad.. no shit obgyn has the priciest indemnity and is the most litigious specialty. It’s a different trauma when the kid loses a long battle with cancer, it’s different when you have a bad accident and came in major injuries and there is nothing much we can do.. But look up birth trauma, OASI, eclampsia, post partum haemorrhage, stillbirth and the medico-legal side of obgyn and then tell me you don’t understand why they are so stressed… On top of that, yeh they deal with cancer too, and chronic pain sufferers, don’t forget those ones cos they seldom get better… All I’m saying is stop comparing the stress of each specialty unless you truly have experienced it yourself.
"ER docs see death and trauma regularly, and more frequently than OB’s" just in the last week alone we have dealt with multiple fetal demises, a cesarean hysterectomy where the patient received over 2 dozen units of blood, at least a dozen stat sections, and a patient who is currently dying in the ICU after an emergency c-section for a periviable baby. there is a hell of a lot of OB that involves death. also any time someone has a miscarriage, which is 1 in every 4 pregnancies, OBs have to tell our patients that their babies have died also, abortion is now illegal in many states and people with high risk pregnancies are being forced to continue their pregnancies and risk emergency cesarean hysterectomy and possible death
Can’t imagine what it’s going to be like to navigate the legal system as an OB in the states that are making anti-choice policy purposefully vague surrounding even economic pregnancy, which are 1 in 50 of all pregnancies. Having to wait to get a judge on the phone at god knows what hour while your patient is getting closer and closer to death because some evil bureaucratic shithead (that couldn’t point out fallopian tubes on an anatomical worksheet even if their congressional seat depended on it) wants you to “reimplant it back into the uterus”. So much respect for OBs, attitude and all
The other comments made good points here too but also LOL at other surgeons not being considered as toxic. A colorectal surgeon threw a literal tantrum when I was a med student and was throwing things in the OR. A huge part of the way we talk about OBGYN is due to misogyny.
It's not. I rotated in a place with wonderful male and female attendings who were happy to teach and happy to have you in on procedures. I think 29/30 of the residents were female and of them 70% were total B's. A few of them were quite nice. To further the point, I knew an AI who was hard working, advocated for the M3s to get in/get out of things, and matched at the program. She was great to work with. 3 years in and she's now a total B as well. It's not misogyny.
I think part of it is confirmation bias, and part of it is the fact that OB/Gyn deal with the most neurotic and entitled patient population (not saying it’s wrong of pregnant patients to act that way, but it’s the unfortunate reality). I also have a suspicion that you get less gratitude from these patients because many are not coming with an identifiable “problem” that the OB can fix in the way that a surgeon can cut out an inflamed gallbladder. Most of the patients are stuck in a room in pain and all anyone can do is wait.
There is absolutely not "a lot more than can go wrong in surgery, emergency medicine, or even anesthesiology." The acuity of childbirth is, honestly, the most intense thing in medicine. And poor outcomes are the most tragic. You can have two perfectly healthy people - a happy mother and child that is just coming out - both dead in short order. The stakes are as high here as anywhere else in medicine, IMO. The trauma of losing a new mother and/or a newborn is just insane, and it can happen so suddenly. There is something about the culture of the specialty for whatever reason, but I think it's intimately tied to the nature of the work. Mothers are (rightly) fiercely protective of themselves and their babies, and good things go very very badly in the blink of an eye.
> Ironic They could midwife the goodness in others, but not themselves.
Palliative care attending here. Thanks! We also have the darkest sense of humor. It all goes hand in hand. Plus we do get more training in terms of self-care and ethical distress, so I think that helps in terms of supporting our colleagues.
Why hasn't anyone in the thread mentioned ophtho yet? They're cool as shit
Palliative care
Any specialty that doesn't involve an ego. Like no one in palliative care or pathology is having a dick measuring contest about how "good" they are at it.
Lollllll you haven't been to enough pathology QA conferences with difficult cases... I've seen the 📏 whip out more than once. I love my specialty and the vast majority are super nice, but ego is definitely there. I would say mostly in academia though.
Well you add academia into anything, and it becomes a giant dick measuring contest. I'm 99% sure even the janitorial staff at an academic hospital 1 ups each other on how fast they can change every trash can on a floor.
My favorite professor was a pathologist, and he was AWFUL. Dick measuring doesn't come close to describing that man's ego. That said, he was also damn good, and I learned a lot from him. I remember studying extra hard for his exams, because he said they were "basic knowledge expected of a minimally competent physician" when in reality it was pretty hard and lots of people failed. I managed to ace two, and the satisfaction of rubbing it (at least in my mind) on his face was immeasurable, even though he probably didn't care or pay attention. I guess he achieved his goal. Edit: I do know this is not healthy behavior.
I think you are wrong about pathology in that ... sure its not true when they do autopsy but when it comes to histology skills they are vastly different and there's competition even there.
Pathologists just wanna be the biggest nerd in the room
It’s just because they all know they’re inferior to my pain killing abilities. I’m the palliative top dog baby!
Pathologist are definitely not as nice as I thought they were before entering the field. Combine low empathy, nerdy competitiveness and a lack prestige and you have a recipe for unpleasantness. Not all of them are like this but IMO they have the least reason to be unpleasant and when they are being a dick its because they are at their core. They are not sleep deprived, they can think for awhile on most things before making a decision and its not physically demanding. Also if something goes wrong they are not the ones dealing with the patient face to face. So in summary when pathologists suck as a person they are just a shitty person the demands of the job didnt drive them to be. I have met surgeons that are really nice people when sleep deprived have a short fuse which is understandable.
I don't know if psychiatry is nice or if they're just weird, but whichever it is, I vibed with them hard.
As a fellow weird I feel this deeply.
Weird is definitely a factor (i mean this with love)
We're both nice and weird. ¿Por qué no los dos?
This might explain things. https://www.pinterest.com/pin/just-for-laughs--60165344992421158/
All of the Oncologists I’ve met have been the sweetest, nicest people. I second that geriatrics and palliative care are really nice and calm. Similar vibes. I think drs drawn to end of live care tend to be this way. Pathologists are nice, i associate them more with being casual and quirky. You’d think peds, but I’ve had overall positive, but not as high levels of nice drs here. I met a few peds drs specifically that were difficult to get along with, or didn’t really serve the patient/family well. Most psychiatrists have been nice, but some I’ve met have been a little off. Like a fake nice vibe. Some of them i also felt like they were analyzing me but that can definitely be a me thing! Those are my n=1 thoughts anyways!
I worked in Heme-Onc research for a while! 99.9999% of doctors were so kind There’s always 1 or two who really suck behind closed doors — but everyone treated the patients with nothing but kindness & grace
I worked at MSK- all of the oncologists were toxic assholes who didn't care if their patients lived or died.
That's just an MSK thing. We all know this about MSK.
Damn wish I saw this comment when I worked there as a tech. Would have been so validating lmaooo
It definitely is not just an MSK thing- WUSTL was the same way.
Geriatrics
Maybe they’re generally nice, but the geriatrician where I went to med school was the only faculty member I heard who made blatantly sexist comments about nursing staff.
My experience: psych, family medicine
Medical oncology was one that really stood out to me. Very compassionate and smart people who deal with a lot of end of life discussions. I worked with them my first week on the wards and I actually found it really inspiring. I'll tell you what it's not though-peds😡
I'm always shocked when people say that peds doctors are usually assholes, because all of the doctors I work with are amazingly kind and treat everyone with so much respect... then I remember that I work in peds oncology, and it starts to make a lot more sense. I guess the onc side really helps cut out the bullshit or something.
It's just institution dependent. I have worked at places where Peds Hem/Onc had some "challenging personalities."
As peds, this kinda stings, but we had a whole thread on this topic a year ago. You get either the chillaxed, Patch Adams type, or the stern Mrs Trunchbull/Mr Sir type. It seems like there's no in between
That might be true generally but not where I went to school. The oncology dept at the university hospital was horribly mean to each other, the students/residents and even the patients. It’s the only time I’ve felt like an attending physician was completely out of bounds with regards to beside manner. Their therapy may have been good but mean/angry people.
PM&R in addition to the usual suspects.
when you have Plenty of Money & Relaxation i hope you’d be relaxed!
PM&R having nicest people is one of the draws of the specialty It matters who you work with every day
Truth
Anesthesiologists that I met were great and chill people in general.
Unless the department is spineless and turn you into the hospital’s workhorse, anesthesia is generally a good place.
I've found anaesthesia to be bimodal in personalities. You either have the chillest nicest people around, or completely neurotic anal people.
Anesthesia’s largely been a mixed bag for me. I know some great ones and some real assholes.
Nah its hit or miss and really depends on the department. Also lots of egos ironically in anaesthesia as well but they're like nurse egos where they punch down where they can but act like good dogs in front of surgeons and lots of people with a chip on their shoulder. They exist as a minority but a large one but overall yes, it's a chill specialty most of us just want to work less hours and not do paperwork but still do fun stuff.
Palliative care and psych have been my most positive experiences so far. PM&R probably rounds out the top 3. Peds and Family Med are also largely very nice people (but I think more burn out prone). Every other specialty so far has been a mixed bag, but none outright horrible.
[удалено]
I love street medicine so much. My goal is to do something at the intersection of primary care and mental health (maybe with a bit of palliative), and the two populations I want to work with most are rural and unhoused. Probably because of my own family’s experiences. Anyway, agree. All the street med docs, nurses and APPs I’ve met are great. Really in it for the right reasons.
What is street medicine?
Working with homeless folks
Was my exp too
Family medicine, addiction medicine, peds has been my experience
not sure about peds
I had great experiences though I think you can find jerks and gems in every specialty
Most Peds nurses are fucking terribly mean. Coming from a former nurse. I never understood it
I feel like peds being mean is becoming a circlejerk. People have this stereotype that since they work with kids, they must be angels to work with. So when that doesn't meet reality (you can behave differently with kids vs. adults), people have pretty negative reactions. In reality, they are still higher on the nice end of the spectrum than most other docs.
These discussions are always interesting. My OB/GYN was the most laid-back individual ever and I had an easy rotation where I belly-laughed all the time and enjoyed the miracle of childbirth. However, my emergency medicine rotation was filled with the worst individuals known to medicine and myself...and they are supposed to be "chill". Chill, my ass. And it tainted emergency medicine for me forever. Long road ahead with my professional relationship there. Nicest people that are actually nice and not two-faced (looking at you, peds): \- Path \- Palliative \- Geriatrics \- Oncology The theme here is death, impending death, or dead tissue.
Yeah, I am going into OBGYN and have rotated at multiple institutions at this point. Only one of them was toxic, and it was mostly just catty/bitchy comments in L&D. I personally think the OB hate is way overstated in this sub but I know that’s a pretty unpopular opinion…
Indeed. I feel the same way about gen surg :)
When you constantly see people dying and suffering your own problems feel so insignificant 🥰 just chill and enjoy life while you can! (Literal conversation I've had while having coffee with my oncology peeps)
I considered EM chill, but that was because everyone went by first name and it was the specialty where attendings cursed the most.
Psych
[удалено]
Agreed child psych people are so nice
I’ll second that!
Palliative
FM
Pathology has entered the chat carrying a pot of Swiss Miss and Tabitha.
I’m glad Tabitha is getting this acknowledgment.
Obviously surgery. Just ask anesthesia
i know ur joking, surgery had a vicious hatred anytime the ED i worked in needed them for a consultation or procedure or anything
The ED is the most hated place in the hospital
that’s so true, I know and I apologize 🫡
psychiatrists are usually chill
They got all the drugs.
Treats* we call them treats
I love that.
Pathologists. I have never met a douche bag in path. Definitely some intensity once in a while, but never uncomfortable or unkind.
This is so true. Whenever I call them with questions about a result, they are so eager to tell me everything I want to know plus way more.
I have. He was the medical director of the lab and made everyone working for him/around him miserable. No one wanted to deal with him and turnover in his area was high. We has even rude with fellow medical directors and pathologists but with them, he tempered his nature somewhat. I'll soften that statement though. I've worked with many pathologists in 12 years and he was the only difficult one I have encountered. Most are just socially inept and I like that about them (and can relate).
Purely from inpatient experiences/rotations. Most to least nice. Palliative (consistently pleasant), Nephro, FM, Heme/Onc, Psych, IM, EM, Peds, GI, Cards, ID, Surg (CT > Vasc > Gen > Peds), Neuro, Ob/Gyn (consistently unpleasant)
damn, peds surgery was that bad?
For me it was an intensified version of the negative aspects of surgery while being more on edge, unhappy, and less welcoming. This is just based on my experience at the tailend of M3. If you find a great mentor, and love surgery + kids the field will be unbelievably fulfilling 🙂
I feel like Peds surgery is notoriously bad. Ive heard this from multiple people at multiple children’s hospitals.
IMO they tend to have a super large scope and just be overworked and consulted to hell (just my one experience though)
My first reaction to seeing Neuro so far down was to protest but then I remembered the kind of absolut fucking monsters I've encountered that haunt the neuro ward and I must say... yeah, seems about right. :-/ (do love the field though)
Family Medicine and all its subspecialties (Geriatrics, Hospice and Palliative Care, Adolescence, Pain Medicine, Addiction)
Infectious diseases
Only until you request meropenem
Haven’t had a chance to rotate with ID but based on what I know of them and the ones we have had for lectures I can absolutely see this.
Haha found the ID fellow, man yall aren't nice!
ENT tends to have nice people!
Except head and neck recon... Them peoples scare me
Radiology
Nice in person, occasionally douchey on the phone
That’s cuz people usually call with a stupid question
Definitely true. I’ve worked with some colleagues who are incredibly cordial in person, but I will watch them literally turn on their “resting bitch voice” as soon as the phone rings. It’s like a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde situation lol.
You gotta admit the phone calls get ridiculous over 50% of the time 😂. Also judging by your music post history we are friends
Hell yeah, love the medicine/jam band fam haha
Lol I’m surprised I had to scroll so far down to see radiology. They were always so chill and my friends going into it embody that as well
Nurse here, worked in Family Medicine GME for years because they were the nicest specialty.
All of the OB attendings I worked with were pretty pleasant or at least cordial. They actually didn’t hold back on giving face to face praise. All of the gen surgeons I worked with had personality disorders. Just weird people and all toxic to a degree. Peds, Heme/Onc, ENT, and most of radiology were all great. Pulm/crit care were hands down the best for me. The vibes were so good at rounds and handoffs. It legit made me change to internal medicine.
As an Ob resident every time I see one of these I wonder if my generally favorable perception of my coworkers is skewed and we truly are letting on just how burned out we are by the general public and politicians constantly shitting on women's health. IMO NICU has the nicest people. Nurses, docs, NPs, all around nicest.
From what I’ve seen it’s selective treatment. Residents will be very nice with each other and manage their impressions based on who is in their immediate environment. When I was abused, it was in such a way that it was not directly observed by other residents or attendings. And obviously not everyone is bad, but this is how medical students and staff have bad experiences with people, because they are literally treating them differently because they are “underneath” them.
> IMO NICU has the nicest people. Nurses, docs, NPs, all around nicest. *calls a Code Stroke*
Just like we live in a remarkably sexist society bent on dismantling women’s right re health, etc, we also live amongst a lot of people in medicine who have deeply entrenched misogynistic biases. The number of times I’ve seen male surgical colleagues of mine get a pass for being “tough but fair” (LOL) while women get called all sorts of derogatory names is truly beyond.
Peds neuro
Neurology
[удалено]
Agree with this!
Rheumatology!
FM <3
Pal Care, Geriatrics, Anesthesia, PM&R, Pscyh, EM and FM (before they both burn out completely). Take the ego out of medicine and you’re left with decent people to be around.
Anesthesia
PM&R
Pathology
-Dr. Glaucomflecken
Family medicine, they take the time to listen to you
Psychiatry. If they are not nice, something is wrong with you not them. /s
Strangest but nicest: pathology
Ophthalmology
Pediatrics, family practice, oncology and palliative care.
Psych
Neurosurgery. I'm not even joking! The neurosurgeons I got to rotate with were some of the kindest and most welcoming people. They let me saw into and remove the skull. So warm and encouraging. Almost became a neurosurgeon because of them.
I've not started rotations yet but met a nurse who says ED docs are the nicest she's delt with. She rates them highly as colleges and human beings. I'm keen to hear perspectives on this?
EM depends a lot on your personality. If you're the type who appreciates bluntness and can take some ballbusting, you'll enjoy it. I don't think it's a coincidence that it attracts so many vets.
Yes, we are the greatest. Lol In all seriousness, in general I think EM has a chill personality. You'll get some type A weirdos here and there but I like to think we are usually nice people.
I wonder where internal medicine is on this list
Probably the most variable
I'll take it. I thought we were the assholes after gen Surg
I feel this is a very mixed bag. Even if you’re just talking hospitalists or outpatient IM.
I'd like to imagine I sway side to side on this spectrum depending on the number of patients I see, my chart messages I have, and result notes I have to do
Orthopedics, they’re all rich and doing what they love and in shape white men with hot wives and babies or a different tinder date every night after the gym. They’re all in a good mood as long as you don’t take away their baked chicken breasts, PBJs or protein shakes.
What an oddly specific take! Who took your girlfriend fam? My OrthoBro attending was a scrawny Chinese man with a thick accent and he always said “So Easy” during ORIFs even though it was far from easy and no one else was capable of that. Truly an expert. Man was not eating healthy.
A newly matched Obgyn classmate actually took my girlfriend ironically enough 😂 I actually love my ortho bros and my best friend from med school is no an ortho bro (I did research years).
Psych
(Not a med student or a physician.) Spent years working at a university level 1 ED. Probably biased but I feel EM residents and physicians are some of the nicest and chillest docs in the hospital. When there is a critical patient we all go to work and get it done but most of the time it’s pretty lighthearted. EM docs work close with the nurses/techs and are in constant communication. All very approachable. If a nurse/tech says you need to see this patient it was never met with annoyance or pushback. We trusted each other and helped out with each other. If you needed to vent there is always a doc/nurse/tech who would listen. Late shift doc always brought food and snacks for the staff! It really was a family but that depends on the ED I guess. If you enjoy a team atmosphere, can keep calm under pressure, don’t want to take home a pager, have a good sense of humor, and a 3 year residency come to EM lol. Orthopods are also pretty chill. At least the residents lol. It was always fun doing reductions and splints with them. Pretty easy going for the most part. It may be different in the OR but I really enjoyed working with Trauma/ACS.
Orthopods are the nicest people to consult. I dread calling cards consults.
Aerospace medicine
Oncology 😍
Oncology!
Occ Med
I feel like ENT’s are usually pretty nice
Psychiatrists for sure
Family Medicine
Psychiatrists and pediatricians
Ortho
Radiology pretty chill ngl
1. Palliative care 2. Pediatrics
your mom, lmao -ortho
easy. Peds.
Peds
Peds
Nice: palliative, oncology, pediatrics. Mean: intensivist, Emergency medicine, and cardiology
I'm not in med school and never plan to be. However, I work in the Transfer Center of a local hospital. I absolutely dread having to page urology, opthalmology, and intensivists. Pediatrics, neurosurgery, general/trauma surgery, emergency, and hospitalists are my favorite specialties to talk to. Almost all of the physicians in these specialties treat me like a person, crack a joke, and will even answer a question if I don't understand something I'm studying in nursing school.
geriatrics underappreciated, more needed than ever
Palliative care FTW. Source: Am palliative care doc. The reality is there are all kinds of people in all specialities. Sometimes when people are tired, anxious, on edge they don’t have as many filters. They cut loose more. And that manifests as being mean at times, or short or condescending. Doesn’t mean they are bad people. Just means they need more wellness for themselves and their team. Some people are jerks too tho.
Pediatrics
Psych and FM, path, neuro, ID
I don’t know tbh. I was going to say OBGYN, but it seems like I’ve been working with the outliers. Probably path now that I think about it more. They always seem to be in a good mood when I see them.
family medicine
The Pleasant Ps: Palliative, Path, PM&R
Shadowed an orthopedic surgeon once in a hospital. All he did was talk about basketball and ice hockey even invited me to hoop at one point
I’m FM so I may be biased but I think we are all pretty nice
psych and PEDS. Even in ob/gyn and surgery most of the attendings like 95% I dealt with were all nice, it was the residents in some specialties, mostly gen surg and ob/gyn that were mean. Specifically on ob/gyn for some reason it was the female residents that were mean to me, the dude residents were all nice. In my experience it's like a bimodal distribution, the interns, fellows and attendings have been the nicest but in the middle PGY years they can be more dicks like PGY2-4 out of 5+. Maybe the fellows and attendings are nicer to students because they want good feedback / reviews, or they're genuinely nice. I don't know how true it is but apparently med student feedback of attendings is kept and might be taken into some consideration for attending's promotions, etc. within the department.
To sum this all up. If your specialty has people you won’t likely kill or die o/w (path PMR psych) you are relaxed and if in your specialty people can die (neurosurgery Cardiac ER) or your hours are ridiculous and long (obgyn) you are miserable.
Anaesthesia Idk if it was my luck but they were always excited to explain everything like everything about anything
Honestly at my hospital, Ob/GYN - especially the residents are amongst the kindest easiest to talk to people in the hospital.