Passion for a field

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so do you guys actually have a true passion for what you want to do? For example if you are interested in general surgery or IM do you walk into work as a student and just absolutely love that particular field and everything involved with it? I know people who love, say, GI or interventional cards already as MS4s. Some know they want to do surg onc. I just don't know how that is possible.

I also hear faculty say they are interested in some of the most mundane sounding stuff like particular proteins involved with the progression of heart failure.

Maybe it's just me but what field is good for a person who really doesn't particularly love anything? And yes I am very happy I chose medicine and wouldn't consider changing during 4th year.

I'm totally with you on the mundane/protein stuff. I can barely stay awake reading the title to a paper on like that. To each his own! I've wanted to be a pediatrician forever. This is validated every time I see a patient. If it is an adult, I appreciate the learning experience and I appreciate the chance to work with him/her, but a small part of me thinks, "I wish this was a KID!" With that being said, I don't want to do general peds, so I am hoping during residency I find my niche somewhere. Some of my M3/M4 friends said they decided what they wanted to go into not because they had a "calling" for it, but because they could rule out quite a few fields, and then decided based on where their personality fit in with the other staff the best.

Peds ftw!

Honestly, though, I'm in the same boat. There isn't one particular subspecialty that I look at and think "This is my calling!". Jealous of people that have that experience. I think my general approach has been to align my personality/interests/priorities with something. i.e, I'm generally really laid back, I enjoy bread & butter kinds of cases with a spattering of complex things, I would like to have not only ample free time, but also the freedom to mold my practice into anything I'd like, etc... So far, these things seem to align most with allergy/immunology. In fact, I was kind of inspired by an A&I physician I met who worked 4 days/wk in his group's clinic and then once a month worked as a locums peds. hospitalist...very, very cool, I thought.

I guess if nothing winds up being terribly interesting to you, there's always hospitalists. But I'd be curious to hear what other people think about all this...

I want (with a little bit of luck) to practice as an orthopedic F&A specialist. I've had severe foot and ankle problems my entire life that really limited me (early on) from participating in normal childhood activities.

I want to be able to make people with problems like mine better.

That's my passion.

As a non-trad who spent 5 years in a field that I once thought was my "passion," I'm now more interested in what my day-to-day life will be like in my future field and honestly don't even think about "passion" anymore.

Call me cynical, but I think a lot of what students consider "passion" is really just confusion & naivete (I'm guilty of it myself). Sure, there's a small minority of us who have a passion for the kidneys/heart/lungs/cholecystectomies, but I'm doubtful those "passions" will last beyond the 4th decade for the majority of us.

For me the most important factors to consider when choosing a specialty will be my personality, temperament, attention span, pet peeves, etc... Am I medical or surgical? Do I like sick patients or healthy ones? Acute or chronic diseases? Little bit of everything or a lot of a few things? Procedures or clinic or mix? Instant or delayed gratification? I really couldn't care less if I'm resecting a prostate, repairing a rotator cuff, or toggling BP meds. I really just want to know if I enjoy (or can stand) the nitty gritty of those activities.

Originally Posted by KinasePro

As a non-trad who spent 5 years in a field that I once thought was my "passion," I'm now more interested in what my day-to-day life will be like in my future field and honestly don't even think about "passion" anymore.

Call me cynical, but I think a lot of what students consider "passion" is really just confusion & naivete (I'm guilty of it myself). Sure, there's a small minority of us who have a passion for the kidneys/heart/lungs/cholecystectomies, but I'm doubtful those "passions" will last beyond the 4th decade for the majority of us.

For me the most important factors to consider when choosing a specialty will be my personality, temperament, attention span, pet peeves, etc... Am I medical or surgical? Do I like sick patients or healthy ones? Acute or chronic diseases? Little bit of everything or a lot of a few things? Procedures or clinic or mix? Instant or delayed gratification? I really could care less if I'm resecting a prostate, repairing a rotator cuff, or toggling BP meds. I really just want to know if I enjoy (or can stand) the nitty gritty of those activities.

I agree with this statement. I haven't had a chance to dip my nuts in 3rd year rotations yet, but I'm fairly certain that I'll end up in something because 1. i disliked everything else even more and 2. i'm good at it. If anything, my passion is to do something that I can be successful at without impeding on my more rigorous passions in life- like masturbation or horchatas. That's not to say that I won't be excited and/or motivated to do my job, it's just that I don't see myself oozing that quintessential manic-like passion some people speak of.

If you're asking 'what should I do to have the most practice options out of residency' then you need to say medical or surgical. If medical, just go IM or FP and you'll have tons of options afterward. If surgical, plastic surgery probably provides the most varied avenues you can direct your practice toward after residency (the barrier being it's difficult to get into).

Originally Posted by Valadi

If you're asking 'what should I do to have the most practice options out of residency' then you need to say medical or surgical. If medical, just go IM or FP and you'll have tons of options afterward. If surgical, plastic surgery probably provides the most varied avenues you can direct your practice toward after residency (the barrier being it's difficult to get into).

Wouldn't general surgery have the most options on the surgical arm?

Originally Posted by Alvarez13

Wouldn't general surgery have the most options on the surgical arm?

Yes. General Surgery fellowships:

Peds
Plastic
Hand
Trauma/Critical Care
Oncology
Colorectal
Endocrine
Vascular
Cardiothoracic
Etc.

Wasn't talking about fellowships, I said clinical practice.

The phrase "I am passionate about XXXX" is what pre-meds and 4th year med students write on their personal statements.

Note that neither of these groups of people have any real experience with whatever it is they claim to be passionate about.

I often wondered how people became "passionate about surgery" when the total number of cases where they actually got to hold a knife could be counted on one hand (that also happend to be covered by a mitten).

Likewise, how are people passionate about emergency medicine when they haven't spent more than 4 hours in the ER, and that was as a patient?

KinasePro has it right. You base what you want to do on figuring out what jobs you won't mind doing for the next 40 years, and what sucky parts you will be able to tolerate for the same length of time. Bear in mind that what is new, and exciting, and challenging now will eventually become rote and routine.

Oh, and the reason people become interested in the proteins involved in heart failure is because they wanted to do research, found a subject that needed to be studied and started working at it.

It's like Dr. Spaceman said "My research is in the area of sleep medicine...mainly because I checked the wrong box on a form once".

Originally Posted by JackShephard MD

Yes. General Surgery fellowships:

Peds
Plastic
Hand
Trauma/Critical Care
Oncology
Colorectal
Endocrine
Vascular
Cardiothoracic
Etc.

I thought hand fellowships were only for ortho or plastic surgery trained surgeons?

Originally Posted by duckie99

I also hear faculty say they are interested in some of the most mundane sounding stuff like particular proteins involved with the progression of heart failure.

Put yourself in a faculty member's shoes for just a minute. They've done the same job for 20 years now and they've pretty much mastered most of the knowledge in their field. What is going to keep them interested in doing their work day in and day out? Some people get drawn to volunteer work, some people get drawn to teaching, some people find some obscure little research niche that piques their interest. But after that many years doing anything, you'll be looking for something to keep your career fresh.

When I hang out with diverse groups of people that include other medical students I find myself talking a lot about medicine with other people. My wife assures me that this is horribly mundane and that when I get into a conversation like that it bores the heck out of every non-medical person in the room. There's no accounting for taste. So just because you can't ever imagine yourself liking some obscure boring research doesn't mean you won't find that it becomes interesting as your career progresses. Don't knock yourself for finding it boring now. It doesn't bode ill for your future career that you find that research dull.

And remember every job has its paperwork and doldrum tasks. When the ENTs hear "dizziness" and the FM docs hear "low back pain" they all cringe. Every specialty has its "not this again" issues.

Originally Posted by Slack3r

I thought hand fellowships were only for ortho or plastic surgery trained surgeons?

No. Gen surg, PRS, and ortho all can go hand.

Originally Posted by Valadi

No. Gen surg, PRS, and ortho all can go hand.

Are general surgeons less competitive for these fellowships?

Yes - internationally usually plastic and reconstructive surgeons predominate hand b/c often you see hand/micro fellowships. However in US its about 1/3 PRS 2/3 Ortho (many places ortho departments are in charge of fellowships from what I've seen). I don't know about GS stats in these but imagine that its more of a case of they 1) had great credentials/an 'in' person to get them in the slot, or 2) there weren't PRS or Ortho people applying to that spot that cycle so they fill it GS. Again speculation on the GS portion, but the 1/3 2/3 seems about consistent for PRS/Ortho on hand-micro fellowships.