Being Gungho

[DoctaJay]

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For a long time I have been interested in doing general surgery but lately I've been thinking about orthopedic surgery too. The problem is that I am not gungho about either. I'm definitely gungho about surgery compared to medicine, but it seems like many of my classmates just knew that they were going into orthopedics from freshman year and their gunghoness shows it. I think I would be equally happy in either specialty. So my question is, "Do you need to be gungho about a speciality to know that that is the specialty for you?" My surgery rotation is not until January so maybe I will be able to figure it out then, but I feel like I should know now. When you guys were medical students what were you experiences?

 

[DHT]

I knew I wanted to do surgery going into 3rd year, but I changed my mind every 2 weeks on what it was. It wasn't till I rotated in surgery until I got a real feel of what each specialty is like. There really is no way to make up your mind without seeing it first hand, and the rotations were very enlightening for me. One specialty stood out in particular, I was always happy with what I was doing, I didn't mind long days, and I got that gungho feeling you are hoping to find yourself.

Good luck next year

 

[SocialistMD]

I know this may be obvious, but the more you put into a rotation, the more you'll get from it. This is probably most true for surgical fields, but it holds true in all specialties. I'd be as "gung-ho" as you can on each rotation (not to the point of being annoying and not to the point where you are telling everyone "I want to do [insert current rotation] for the rest of my life!"). It will ensure you get the most out of your rotations and may open your eyes to a field you never even considered. Afterall, you are paying an insane amount of money for the experience; might as well make the most of it.

 

[igap]

I agree with the above poster who recommended applying yourself maximally to every rotation. Not only is this a sound educational strategy in general, but you really don't know what a field is like until you get some exposure to it during 3rd year, and to a degree fourth year of medical school. Don't discount anything at this point in your education. You might find that you love radiology, or pathology, or pediatrics, or whatever.

Also, I recommend demonstrating your "gung-ho"ness by working hard, being humble, knowing your patients inside and out, working side by side with your team to take care of all activities, non-glamorous, and glamorous alike. Your tirelessly positive attitude, selflessness, attention to detail, preparation for cases, and overall stick-to-it-iveness, will telegraph your gung ho-ishness way more than simply telling everyone in sight how great the field is and how much you want to be like them.

Good luck with 3rd year, and I hope you sort out what you want to be.

 

[Law2Doc]

... There really is no way to make up your mind without seeing it first hand, and the rotations were very enlightening for me. ...

Agree. see first, decide after. No point knowing you want to be a surgeon when you may very well decide after a week of the rotation that it isn't for you. Surgery, more than any other field has more people who bail after seeing it first hand in third year, because it sounds very glamorous from afar but is very much about choosing and being willing to live a certain lifestyle and having a certain attitude that jibes with the other attitudes found in the field. You will be getting up earlier, working longer hours, and probably be pimped more during surgery than the other rotations. You probably won't have the kind of down time that some of the other specialties have. You will write shorter notes, you will be taught to "dread" clinic more. Many of your patients will either leave the hospital much sooner, or have much quicker demises than the folks circling the drain for years in some of the medicine wards. It's just different. And no way you can know if you'll like it until you see it.

 

[njbmd]

For a long time I have been interested in doing general surgery but lately I've been thinking about orthopedic surgery too. The problem is that I am not gungho about either. I'm definitely gungho about surgery compared to medicine, but it seems like many of my classmates just knew that they were going into orthopedics from freshman year and their gunghoness shows it. I think I would be equally happy in either specialty. So my question is, "Do you need to be gungho about a speciality to know that that is the specialty for you?" My surgery rotation is not until January so maybe I will be able to figure it out then, but I feel like I should know now. When you guys were medical students what were you experiences?

I did my surgery clerkship in January and had no problem figuring out that it was what I wanted to do. If you think that you want to go into Ortho, do that rotation first off fourth year and see how you like it. At my school, you could do two weeks of ortho or uro or ENT with your surgery clerkship. See if you can get the same option. If not, and you have an interest in one of the surgery subspecialties, do the rotation early in fourth year.