The specialty you chose vs. what you thought you wanted to do.

Started by Geekchick921
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Did you stick with the specialty you thought you would?

  • Yes, I chose the specialty I thought I would when I started medical school.

    Votes: 21 30.4%

  • Not really, but they are kind of similar.

    Votes: 9 13.0%

  • No, what I chose and what I thought I wanted are completely different.

    Votes: 39 56.5%
  • Total voters
    69
Geekchick921

Geekchick921

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As you know, pre-meds (myself included) often have an idea of what specialty they want to go into when they start medical school, and they say you usually change your mind during clinicals. So... did you end up sticking with what you thought you were going to do? If you'd like to explain why you did or didn't change your mind, please feel free.

I'm REALLY interesting in seeing what kind of responses we get here. Thanks!
 
I wanted to do med/peds.

Then I found out that I liked being in the OR. And that I liked kids, but particularly when they're in utero. 😉

And then, I found out that I could not stand the "sit around and talk" approach to both medicine and pediatrics.

There was a similar thread a while back: http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=533438
 
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Entirely different. Lightyears apart, really.

You don't know what you truly like, or how things will strike you, until you rotate through the specialties and do the day-to-day work required in each. Honestly.
 
i thought i wanted to be an ob/gyn. then i discovered i hate prenatal visits. and i don't really like placenta, vag, or the or.

i ended up doing internal medicine.
 
I thought I wanted to do Hem/Onc, but then I realized you do less for curing cancer, and more palliative/hospice type of work. Really depressing.

Became really interested in EM after toxicology in my 2nd year of school, and never looked back. The lifestyle ended up being the icing on the cake.
 
Initially thought ob/gyn or emergency medicine. Ended up doing anesthesiology, thank goodness for me.
 
When I started this game, I wanted to do sports medicine. Thought ortho was the way to do it. Did ortho related research at the undergraduate, graduate, and med school levels. Then I met some of the sports medicine docs at my med school – PM&R docs. Really nice guys. Did a little research on the field on my own, did a few rotations. Found I loved the other aspects of rehab medicine as well. Even more than the sports. I’m home now.

So, kind of similar, but not really.
 
As a former athlete and scratch and spit sort of guy I always envisioned myself as an orthopod. But I just got turned off to the field for reasons that I don't recall now.


I'm in ENT and love it. Snot and noses and stuff don't really both me. Trachs are awesome because you know your patient has a secure airway. Good piece of mind!
 
Thought I wanted to be a trauma surgeon, but quickly figured out I didn't care for the OR. Ended up internal medicine-->cardiology.
 
Pir8DeacDoc said:
As a former athlete and scratch and spit sort of guy I always envisioned myself as an orthopod. But I just got turned off to the field for reasons that I don't recall now.


I'm in ENT and love it. Snot and noses and stuff don't really both me. Trachs are awesome because you know your patient has a secure airway. Good piece of mind!
Click to expand...

Funny....I never thought of a trach as a "secure airway". Must have been all those pages as a resident for trachs "accidentally" dislodged.🙄
 
I didn't even know what pathology was when I started med school, so needless to say it wasn't what I wanted to do. I wanted to do primary care or specialize in infectious disease. I was certain however that I wanted nothing to do with a surgical specialty, and that didn't change.
 
I wanted to be surgical specialist (ANY) since I love working with my hands, and mechanicly fixing things. I am a "do-er", not a "thinker".

I am in FM, and it is HELL.
 
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Thought I was going into peds rheumatology.

Loved vascular and trauma surgery (but new the lifestyel was not for me)

Never entertained EM until the end of my third year. First day in, I knew I had found my home. 🙂
 
orientedtoself said:
i thought i wanted to be an ob/gyn. then i discovered i hate prenatal visits. and i don't really like placenta, vag, or the or.

i ended up doing internal medicine.
Click to expand...

I wanted to do IM but I realized I hate rounding, gomers and I like the OR. So I switched to Ob/Gyn.
 
Winged Scapula said:
Funny....I never thought of a trach as a "secure airway". Must have been all those pages as a resident for trachs "accidentally" dislodged.🙄
Click to expand...



Well there will be the occasional "accident" with the trach. We can't save patients from themselves or their sometimes clumsy nurses 😀


But overall I feel pretty comfortable pushing elephant doses of narcotics simply because we have a secure airway. Plus, most of our cancer patients are alcoholics anyway so a lot of narcs and benzos are in order. Trachs aren't perfect but they help especially in the trauma train wrecks who need the vent forever. I wish sometimes people were more aggressive with traching the ICU players, but I digress.
 
Pir8DeacDoc said:
Well there will be the occasional "accident" with the trach. We can't save patients from themselves or their sometimes clumsy nurses 😀


But overall I feel pretty comfortable pushing elephant doses of narcotics simply because we have a secure airway. Plus, most of our cancer patients are alcoholics anyway so a lot of narcs and benzos are in order. Trachs aren't perfect but they help especially in the trauma train wrecks who need the vent forever. I wish sometimes people were more aggressive with traching the ICU players, but I digress.
Click to expand...

No, I totally agree with you. It never made sense to me to wait for day 7 or 10 or 14 before traching someone with an anoxic brain injury, DAI, or some other problem almost assuredly requiring prolonged mechanical ventilation. Besides, I liked trachs, so was always pushing the ICU staff to do them early.

BTW, try a little ETOH drip on your patients...works very nicely in the case when benzos don't as well.😀

Ok...back to the regular conversation.
 
came in thinking ob/gyn, went out thinking ob/gyn....did ob/gyn, and have switched to FP. I found out that being in the OR is not so fun after all (for me) and neither is handing the baby off after they come out. So now I get to take 'em out and keep seeing them.
 
Winged Scapula said:
No, I totally agree with you. It never made sense to me to wait for day 7 or 10 or 14 before traching someone with an anoxic brain injury, DAI, or some other problem almost assuredly requiring prolonged mechanical ventilation. Besides, I liked trachs, so was always pushing the ICU staff to do them early.

BTW, try a little ETOH drip on your patients...works very nicely in the case when benzos don't as well.😀

Ok...back to the regular conversation.
Click to expand...

We are BIG fans of the EtOh drip. Problem is even though we print out the journal article from ACS and put it on the chart, the nurses still get in a tizzy. Now we mainly just write for scheduled ativan on all of our cancer patients for at least a couple of days. Seems to be going well so far.


Anyway sorry to hijack.
 
Went to med school to do heme/onc -> 👎

Started in general surgery, liked the interventional approach but found that getting to go to the OR wasn't a good enough trade for the lifestyle.

Switched to IM, to be followed by PCCM. 😀
 
Came to med school thinking EM after working for a while in a community ED. Kind of started liking psych in years 1&2, but hated my psych rotation (especially the troll psych CNS who precepted most of it). Did peds-which was the furthest thing from my mind coming to med school-and loved it. Don't like a lot of primary care crap, and like procedures . Fell in love with peds cardiology my fourth year and never looked back.
 
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