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

[el_duderino]

Oldest person in my class, and EM is the only thing I can really see myself doing. Maybe anesthesiology.

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[blacchic856]

Hah. You stole my answer. Heme/onc (see above) and plastics-burns. I guess we like the sad stuff.

Lol. You could say that. My mother is a 2x cancer survivor (grandmother and grandfather are also survivors) and so I've had a good deal of exposure to that environment. I'd love to give families more years with their loved ones.

If you want PRS, get a head start right away, it even blows Derm out of the water in terms of competitiveness.

In 2011, Derm and Ortho were around an 80% match rate. PRS (cat. only I'm assuming) match rate was....44%

http://medicalschoolhq.net/important-details-about-almost-every-medical-specialty/

Thanks for the heads up! I'm new to the pre-med hunt and there's a ton of information out there. I have a lot to learn.

 

[Dral]

Lol. You could say that. My mother is a 2x cancer survivor (grandmother and grandfather are also survivors) and so I've had a good deal of exposure to that environment. I'd love to give families more years with their loved ones.



Thanks for the heads up! I'm new to the pre-med hunt and there's a ton of information out there. I have a lot to learn.

A great combo (but takes a lot of training) is heme/onc and Pally. They complement each other so well. There was a doc at the hospital where I did intern year who was boarded in both. She did more Pally, but she also had the knowledge to tell pts and families how much time to expect...which is what everyone wants to know, but a lot of heme onc docs seem to balk at discussing.

She tells this story of how a pt probably had months left and she was straight up about it to the pt/family. Pt passed, and about a year later, the daughter sends a letter to this doc saying basically "The day you told me my father had months to live, I hated your guts, but I love you for being honest. Because of you, my father was able to see everyone he cared about for at least one more time before he passed." The daughter basically told everyone all over the country who cared for her Dad so they all knew to come visit one last time.

That's surely not verbatim, but you get the gist of it. It's pretty powerful (in a good way) to be able to do that. It truly goes above just caring for the pt.

 

[irishRN2doc]

EM, EM/Critical Care, or Trauma Surgery. I want to take care of critical patients and love the challenge it provides.

 

[ComputerGuy365]

1st choice: ENT Surgery
2nd choice: IM
3rd choice: OB/GYN

 

[jl lin]

A great combo (but takes a lot of training) is heme/onc and Pally. They complement each other so well. There was a doc at the hospital where I did intern year who was boarded in both. She did more Pally, but she also had the knowledge to tell pts and families how much time to expect...which is what everyone wants to know, but a lot of heme onc docs seem to balk at discussing.

She tells this story of how a pt probably had months left and she was straight up about it to the pt/family. Pt passed, and about a year later, the daughter sends a letter to this doc saying basically "The day you told me my father had months to live, I hated your guts, but I love you for being honest. Because of you, my father was able to see everyone he cared about for at least one more time before he passed." The daughter basically told everyone all over the country who cared for her Dad so they all knew to come visit one last time.

That's surely not verbatim, but you get the gist of it. It's pretty powerful (in a good way) to be able to do that. It truly goes above just caring for the pt.

I saw a good special presentation on PBS on cancer from a medical/research perspective; but it also included palliative aspects. The young, female doctor was carefully straightforward with her patients. I totally respected her approach. She recalled back when she was a MS or resident, where the docs would give all this "You're doing great jazz," but when they moved outside the patients room, they would comment,"S/he is not long for this world." So the oncologist decided that it's not fair to have this information about the patient, comment about it away from them, but not share it--of course in a better way.

What totally got me excited was the work on immunotherapy research. Getting the immune system to get on board with identifying and then regulating properly to eradicate the cancer, this is something so worthy of more research. I think it is key. Patients stop responding to chemo d/t chemotherapeutic resistance and adapting mutations. I found this aspect of Cancer: The Emperor of All Maladies most interesting and promising. We have this defense system within us, and we need to help it do a more optimal job.