If you had to pick your specialty right now, what would it be?

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Neurology or Internal Medicine to start. I would then get a fellowship in Aerospace medicine.

I would love Emergency but I am terrified of the burnout factor.
 
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I wonder what the predictive succes of this would be. Abysmal by my own experience at least. It's fun. And not harmful. As long as you're willing to take the blinders off and really feel around for either confirmation or changing course entirely.

Fields of medicine can be as different from each other as completely different careers altogether.
 
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Nasrudin said:
I wonder what the predictive succes of this would be. Abysmal by my own experience at least. It's fun. And not harmful. As long as you're willing to take the blinders off and really feel around for either confirmation or changing course entirely.

Fields of medicine can be as different from each other as completely different careers altogether.
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It would be an interesting exercise to gather this information from as many of us as possible, and then compare to our actual career trajectories. Also to compare non-trads versus traditional students to see if one group had a better sense? As I'm sure is true for us all, I get asked constantly, "so, what type of doctor do you want to be?" My answer is invariably that, since I'm currently working in oncology research, I want to be an oncologist... and ask me again in four years and again three years after that... I suspect most of us will fall in love and fall out of love with just about every specialty over the next decade. Hopefully we stay in love with the last one we pick!
 
astrophel_ said:
It would be an interesting exercise to gather this information from as many of us as possible, and then compare to our actual career trajectories. Also to compare non-trads versus traditional students to see if one group had a better sense? As I'm sure is true for us all, I get asked constantly, "so, what type of doctor do you want to be?" My answer is invariably that, since I'm currently working in oncology research, I want to be an oncologist... and ask me again in four years and again three years after that... I suspect most of us will fall in love and fall out of love with just about every specialty over the next decade. Hopefully we stay in love with the last one we pick!
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Yeah. I think romance and commitment are useful metaphors. As is sex appeal and its transient properties.
 
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Ob/Gyn! Let's check back in 5 years or so and see where I really end up.
 
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I once read an article titled something along the lines of "Things Every Medical Student Knows to Be True, " and it said everyone who comes in saying they want to do a ROAD specially winds up in primary care, and vise versa. I feel like there's a decent chance that will apply to me. I'm an academic perfectionist but also have a major tendency to doubt what I can accomplish. I'm going in assuming my board scores won't be stellar, but maybe I'll be surprised as I have been in most of my undergrad classes and wind up pulling scores that will open more doors. We shall see.
 
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EM, with an EMS subspecialty
 
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Every single person I know who thought they knew what they were going to do going into it, ended up in a different specialty (n>5). I'm of the mindset of being totally open until I actually get to rotations and see what I actually like, not just what I have an idealized view of
 
So far, Geriatrics has me...although the undergrad experience made me realize that academia, policymaking, or writing within the field could all be a good fit too. Maybe there's a way to synthesize all of these.
 
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I think surgery would be a good fit for me. I like CT, Transplant, General (Trauma), General (Burn or Vascular), Plastics, and Ortho in no particular order. I don't mind working the hours, really enjoy dealing with critical cases.
 
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IM/Peds b/c I like working with both adults and children--and I like the thinking and solving the mysteries, when possible, as in IM. While FP may be the route I actually take, I feel that I would get a more even split of peds/adults--at least I think, if IM/Peds.

There are many cool things about surgery; but that ship has sailed for me time-wise--and I don't think I have the personality for it.

ED can be a fun ride or a major pain. Plus you have to take on off shifts in ED. Like surgery, I would wonder that that shipped has sailed also--same for anesthesia, IM-->cardiology. OB and surgery, anesthesia, etc, means you pretty much have to be open and flexible to non-regular hours. You have to think how long the process will take. You have to think about what will best work for your own life in terms of getting the most years out of the work. So, I will bet the farm on FM or IM/Peds--if eligible.
 
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I would have said FM, with maybe EM or Anesthesia. Now that I am a fourth year I say Peds. Neurology was my runner up.

I had no idea how awesome working with sick kids was (for me), until I did my peds rotation third year. I am glad med school exposes us to so many aspects of medicine.
 
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At this point I rotate between FM w/ Sports Med Fellowship, Anesthesia with Pain Fellow, PMNR with Sports or Pain fellow. Just let me inject people with large needles. Its the natural extension of my awesome IV skills as a nurse :p

Don't know if I can handle the non-stop nature of ER long term, but I also thought about that. Derm was a thought, but I think I am over it.

Will be interesting to see what I actually end up doing in 4 years.
 
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PM&R then specialize sounds like something I'd really enjoy (sports med would be awesome coming from my baseball background, musculo or spinal cord injury would be interesting). I work on a medical respiratory floor. The majority of the patients I take care of are chronically ill, noncompliant, and usually don't get much better. I think it'd be cool to specialize and help in rehabilitating motivated patients who had strokes, brain injuries, etc regain some part of their level of function from before. Then family medicine, IM, or palliative/hospice would be next on the list.
 
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beebreezy said:
I once read an article titled something along the lines of "Things Every Medical Student Knows to Be True, " and it said everyone who comes in saying they want to do a ROAD specially winds up in primary care, and vise versa. I feel like there's a decent chance that will apply to me. I'm an academic perfectionist but also have a major tendency to doubt what I can accomplish. I'm going in assuming my board scores won't be stellar, but maybe I'll be surprised as I have been in most of my undergrad classes and wind up pulling scores that will open more doors. We shall see.
Click to expand...

Entered as the oldest person in my class. I wanted to do IM or Neuro...ended up Derm. :)
 
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DancingDays said:
PM&R then specialize sounds like something I'd really enjoy (sports med would be awesome coming from my baseball background, musculo or spinal cord injury would be interesting). I work on a medical respiratory floor. The majority of the patients I take care of are chronically ill, noncompliant, and usually don't get much better. I think it'd be cool to specialize and help in rehabilitating motivated patients who had strokes, brain injuries, etc regain some part of their level of function from before. Then family medicine, IM, or palliative/hospice would be next on the list.
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Hey stop trying to steal my specialty! :laugh: j/k tho. Who knows what route I will really do. I guess it depends on boards.
 
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I started out med school thinking I would do EM. Then I realized I kinda don't like EM. Then I also realized that while adult patients are OK, dealing with kids and their parents, or a teenager, is way better. So I'll most likely go into peds. Sometimes I think plastic surgery might be cool, but I think it might be more the money talking than any actual interest in surgery.
 
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I took the specialty test (repurposed Meyers-Briggs Type Indicator assessment I presume?) and the top hits were (in order) EM, ortho, GS and ENT - surprising me not one little bit, except for ENT. I hadn't really thought about ENT as it seems narrower and more specialized than I think I'd be interested in. Nontheless the machine thinks I'm a surgeon. I've been accused of being Type A in the (recent) past.

Like others have said let's see what happens down the road, when I'm edging towards 50 and graduating medical school, how hardcore I really am.
 
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Hmm... ID would probably be the front runner at this point. That's what my graduate training in epidemiology is focussed on and I seem to keep gravitating back to ID stuff at various points in my life.

On the other hand, I'm interested in a lot of things and could see myself enjoying different fields, EM, IM, Heme/Onc., PMR, Pathology. I also like tinkering with things, working with my hands, and playing with power tools, so I can see myself liking surgical fields too, but I have a med issue that makes that less appealing. Plus, I really value my sleep, lol.

Be interesting to see where I wind up.
 
I'll probably start med school at 33 (I'm 28 now). Glad to know there's hope.
 
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I'm starting in a year...I'm 38...age is nothing but a number. Better late than never. The only one that can stop you is you. Good luck
 
ENT with a fellowship in reconstructive surgery, luckily the school I'm going to has both the residency and fellowship.
 
EM with a fellowship in Disaster/EMS/Tactical medicine or Nephrology (My wife is a kidney patient and the whole thing has fascinated me)
 
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DrDreams said:
I haven't decided between the first two. And j ranked them. 1 being ic or cs then number 2 is em.
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Ah...gotcha. Total brain shutdown on my part...hours of studying for boards...

Anyway, they are starting to add cardiothoracic programs that finish in 6 yrs. Look into those.

You'll figure out at least the first two fairly easily. One of the big things you figure out third year is "Am I a surgery person or am I more of a medicine type person?"
 
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I know I'm a super hands on person. I definitely enjoy variety. But I can't be doing the same thing over and over again. Each body is slightly different so surgery can be nice that way. Ic because you do cath lab and have patients you see in office. Em because the most variety. I don't know. I look forward to figuring it out. I'm going to choose whatever I'm good at because in time I know that I'll love it if I'm amazing at it.
 
Don't expect to be too good at anything in med school. ;)

Do look for what you can see yourself doing for the rest of your career. Every field has their bread and butter. Basically pick which bread and butter you like best.

I gravitated toward surgery several times. I almost did it, but then thought long and hard. I realized I liked the idea of being in the OR, but I wasn't sure if I wanted to be in an OR every day for the rest of my life.

It happened again in residency...I started thinking about Mohs fellowship, but then reminded myself that I probably don't want to be cutting every day. Luckily I stuck to my original fellowship plans and applied to that instead.
 
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That's an interesting idea liking something because you're good at it. I usually think of it the other way around--you end up getting good at something that you enjoy doing.

But...maybe there something to a natural ability or capacity plugging itself into its natural environment.

Either way, as long as you enjoy it.
 
Dral said:
33. There were 3 of us out of about 140 above 30 y/o.
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This makes me feel positive about the future. I'm 32 and starting in August. I've narrowed it down to:

- Critical Care/Pulmonology
- Emergency Medicine
- Anesthesiology
- Interventional Cardiology
- Trauma Surgery / Critical Care
- Cardiothoracic Surgery

I'm leery of the surgery route just because I'm not sure if I can last 6 years after med school. I kind of want to hit the ground running before 40. On the other hand, I tend to really follow my passion at the expense of comfort/lifestyle.
 
Dares Dareson said:
- Critical Care/Pulmonology
- Emergency Medicine
- Anesthesiology
- Interventional Cardiology
- Trauma Surgery / Critical Care
- Cardiothoracic Surgery

I'm leery of the surgery route just because I'm not sure if I can last 6 years after med school. I kind of want to hit the ground running before 40.
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PCCM- 6 years
EM- 3/4 years
Anesthesiology- 4 years
IVCards- 7 years
TCCS- 6-8 years
CTSurg- 6-9 years (even up to 10)

So... if 6 years is too long, then that leaves 2 of your choices left...
 
Dral said:
33. There were 3 of us out of about 140 above 30 y/o.
Click to expand...

Hmm.. I am going to start at 34, maybe I will end up in ROAD, LOL!

People tried to assure me that I was not going to be the oldest person in the class, but your post is making me feel like I was right.
 
Doctor Bob said:
PCCM- 6 years
EM- 3/4 years
Anesthesiology- 4 years
IVCards- 7 years
TCCS- 6-8 years
CTSurg- 6-9 years (even up to 10)

So... if 6 years is too long, then that leaves 2 of your choices left...
Click to expand...

PCCM is 6 years? I thought it was a 1-2 year fellowship after IM. Egad... I would just do anesthesiology but I'm worried that that robot will make the specialty obsolete.
 
Dares Dareson said:
PCCM is 6 years? I thought it was a 1-2 year fellowship after IM. Egad... I would just do anesthesiology but I'm worried that that robot will make the specialty obsolete.
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PCCM is 3 years on top of the 3 year IM residency. If you do a chief year after IM, add 1.
If you only do CC on top of IM, then it's 2 years.
 
Right now my top choices are oncology and plastic surgery (reconstructive) but who knows once I get in. I'm going to keep an open mind.
 
blacchic856 said:
Right now my top choices are oncology and plastic surgery (reconstructive) but who knows once I get in. I'm going to keep an open mind.
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Hah. You stole my answer. Heme/onc (see above) and plastics-burns. I guess we like the sad stuff.
 
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