As a medical student, do you ever wonder what it's like to specialize in obstetrics and gynecology? Meet AMA member Dalia Davood, MD, an obstetrician-gynecologist and a featured doctor in the AMA's “Shadow Me” Specialty Series, which offers advice directly from doctors about life in their specialties. Check out her insights to help determine whether a career in obstetrics and gynecology might be a good fit for you.
The AMA's Specialty Guide simplifies medical students' specialty selection process by highlighting major specialties, detailing training information and providing access to related association information. It is produced by FREIDA™, the AMA Residency & Fellowship Database®.
Learn more with the AMA about the medical specialty of obstetrics and gynecology.
“Shadowing” Dr. Dalia Davood
Specialty: Obstetrics and gynecology.
Practice setting: Clinic and hospital.
Employment type: Employed by Advocate Health, in Park Ridge, Illinois. Advocate Health is part of the AMA Health System Member Program, which provides enterprise solutions to equip leadership, physicians and care teams with resources to help drive the future of medicine.
Years in practice: 16.
What the specialty of obstetrics and gynecology is: Ob-gyn encompasses women's health. We take care of women from 10 or 11, maybe even younger, all the way to their 70s, or even older. We work with them through their pregnancies and any women’s health issues that may come up—for example, cycle issues, pregnancy-related issues, conception, contraception, to just name a few. The big thing now is perimenopause and menopause. So, it almost spans a woman's lifetime.
It's very unique in that way, and I think that's what drew me to it, along with how diverse it is. I can be in the office one day, then delivering babies the next. I can be in the operating room taking out an ovarian cyst or helping a woman deal with the bleeding she's having. It's all encompassing in a sense.
A typical day and week in my practice: It's quite variable nowadays. I have a couple of administrative roles, and they often play into my days. But in a typical week, I am in the office two days seeing patients. I see anywhere from 20 to 25 patients in those days. Then one day I may be on overnight call or taking call during the day, where I'm delivering babies, doing C-sections, or any other clinical responsibilities that may arise. Throughout the day, I am also keeping up with my administrative tasks.
I recently stepped into the role of interim chair for the obstetrics and gynecology department at one of our hospitals, and I'm also the medical director for our employed medical group, so I wear a couple of hats. Between the two, my workweek varies. It could be 40 hours; it could be 60 hours.
The most challenging and rewarding aspects of obstetrics and gynecology: The most rewarding is being able to help bring life into the world. There isn’t another medical specialty that can say they actually help bring life into the world. For the most part, our world is a happy world. It's a happy time in life for couples, so to be able to participate in that aspect of medicine is quite rewarding.
Regarding the most challenging, it’s no secret that the hours aren't the best. Babies come when they want to come, so the hours can be very long. Also, sometimes our specialty can go from happy to unhappy quite quickly and managing the complications that may come with doing the care that we do adds another source of stress.
The impact burnout has on obstetrics and gynecology: I think we in obstetrics and gynecology probably have one of the higher burnout rates, and it has to do with the hours, although nowadays there are different models of care that can be employed, and that helps actually reduce the burnout.
For example, there are places that employ what's called a laborist or an obstetrics hospitalist model, where those physicians are taking care of deliveries that come through, especially at nighttime. So, then you have more of a shift work approach that happens, and that reduces some of the strain.
How Advocate Health is reducing physician burnout: Advocate is great from the standpoint of being very vocal when it comes to physician well-being. We have various programs to help us get through things, touching on different work models.
For example, they've brought in tools through our EHR to help us become more efficient so we experience less pajama time, which really does help. They’re also looking at models for distributing call differently and managing laboring patients differently.
We have various well-being committees that work on modalities to help physicians when it comes to burnout specifically. Physician well-being is at the forefront of our enterprise to make sure we are addressing physician burnout in every way we can.
How my lifestyle matches, or differs from, what I had envisioned: In medical school, I never envisioned myself becoming an ob-gyn. I always thought I wanted to be an emergency room physician. That changed once I did my rotations, as a third-year medical student. Obstetrics and gynecology was so diverse and so happy for the most part, and I was like, "OK, yeah, I think this is me.”
Over the years, obstetrics has evolved, and now there’s call sharing and different modalities that have really helped reshape the lifestyle from what it was even 10 years ago, with more emphasis on work-life balance.
The other part that has changed is my evolvement in the administrative world. Over the last five to eight years, I have developed a true passion for being involved at a higher level. I know I can make a difference one patient at a time, but my thing now is how do I make a difference for more patients at a time? I think getting involved with administrative work to touch more lives is very rewarding.
But some things haven’t changed. I knew that this was a demanding field when I was going into it. I knew that the hours would be the way they are. Again, babies come when they want to come. So that was not something that I was overly concerned about to begin with.
Skills every physician in training should have for obstetrics and gynecology but won’t be tested for on the board exams: I can't stress bedside manner enough. Emotional intelligence, having empathy, really connecting with the patient where they are—that is not something that's taught, but it is so vital because every patient comes from a different walk of life. Being at the bedside is our chance to connect with our patients, to make things better for them. That's our chance to be their educator. We can't lose that.
One question physicians in training should ask themselves before pursuing obstetrics and gynecology: “Is this truly what I want to do?” You really have to be willing to be up at all hours. You need to be able to work with the variations that come with the field. This field could have you away from your family at various times of day or various times of year.
Books, podcasts or other resources every medical student interested in obstetrics and gynecology should be reading or listening to:
- When Breath Becomes Air, by Paul Kalanithi, MD. That's not only for my field, but in general. This book completely resonated with me. It highlights how one young physician navigated his terminal diagnosis while still practicing. I think we often lose sight of what it means to have a terminal diagnosis.
- The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down: A Hmong Child, Her American Doctors and the Collision of Two Cultures, by Anne Fadiman. It points to the cultural differences that we may not truly understand and how we may feel that Western medicine is the only way. But there are differences out there in the world, and this book helps bring us back to reality and how we can be there for all our patients, regardless of what we feel is best for them.
- The “Ovary Active” podcast. I recommend it to all my patients. It's a couple of physicians who are researchers in the world of menopause and have put together this wonderful podcast that explains what perimenopause is from beginning to end. It’s in layman's words, not huge, heavy medical words that people won't understand. There’s a lot going on in perimenopause and menopause, and it's very important that we are aware of the resources we can provide for our patients.
Additional advice I would give students who are considering obstetrics and gynecology: I would say find a mentor, somebody who is in the field. Talk to residents and attendings when you're on rotations. Really get an idea of what the field is like. It is evolving and has so many opportunities and multiple subspecialties. Do your homework on what the specialty is about so that you can make an educated decision.
