Choosing a specialty

Started by JohnnyDoc
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JohnnyDoc

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Hi,

How are we supposed to know which specialty we will like as a career? You take step 2 at the end of your second year and then do rotations your third and fourth years, but then you will have to apply to residencies your fourth year? What if I liked my general surgery, but I haven't been doing research or anything remarkable my first two years, would I be screwed then?

I am an OMS I and I still have no idea what I want to do. I would like to learn more about fam med, internal med, PMR, orthopedic surgery, general surgery, and neurology, but I won't get to know whether I would enjoy surgery until my third year rotations. And by then, I'm afraid it would be too late to publish a research paper, or do something that stands out.
 
Ideally you've come in with some grasp of a few specialties. Going through MS 1 & 2 will expose you to multiple fields and show you a little about their inner workings, i.e if you find cadaver lab unpleasant then clearly surgery probably might not be for you, or if you found neuro interesting then maybe neurology is an option.

But in the end your first two years are really prep for taking COMLEX & USMLE. If you score well enough on it, it'll open doors for you to make decisions. And then come 3rd & 4th year you'll nail down for sure what you want to do give or take.
 
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Regarding research, any is helpful. Unless you're aiming for FM or PM&R where no one legitimately cares.
 
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JohnnyDoc said:
Hi,

How are we supposed to know which specialty we will like as a career? You take step 2 at the end of your second year and then do rotations your third and fourth years, but then you will have to apply to residencies your fourth year? What if I liked my general surgery, but I haven't been doing research or anything remarkable my first two years, would I be screwed then?

I am an OMS I and I still have no idea what I want to do. I would like to learn more about fam med, internal med, PMR, orthopedic surgery, general surgery, and neurology, but I won't get to know whether I would enjoy surgery until my third year rotations. And by then, I'm afraid it would be too late to publish a research paper, or do something that stands out.
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Then do something that stands out now. What's the worst that can happen? If it's taking too much of your time, drop it. Boosting your CV in your preclinical years won't kill you.

Shadow. You have a million connections through your school, utilize them.
 
Drrrrrr. Celty said:
Ideally you've come in with some grasp of a few specialties. Going through MS 1 & 2 will expose you to multiple fields and show you a little about their inner workings, i.e if you find cadaver lab unpleasant then clearly surgery probably might not be for you, or if you found neuro interesting then maybe neurology is an option.

But in the end your first two years are really prep for taking COMLEX & USMLE. If you score well enough on it, it'll open doors for you to make decisions. And then come 3rd & 4th year you'll nail down for sure what you want to do give or take.
Click to expand...
Solid advice.

OP, during MS1 and MS2 years, try to do as well as you can and do all you can to find out about different specialties. Talk to clinical faculty from different fields, go to presentations by different specialists as much as you can without sacrificing your performance, talk to friends. You get a grasp of a few different fields that way, then rotations will either confirm one of those fields or introduce you to something completely new. Either way you'll have had a goal to work towards and it will make the final decision process easier.
 
This question always baffles me. I agree that the GREAT majority of students entering medical school will most generally not know what specialty they want to pursue, but you must have something in mind or else I don't know how you ever found your passion to pursue medicine (at least for the greater half of matriculating medical students). Surely something has jumped out at you from specialties of interest? I love the idea of technical specialties - something that will let me work with my hands and my mind equally. I want to perform procedures while still utilizing tests and being a part of the patients stay at a hospital. So far, my list includes: Int. Rad., Cardio, Gen. Surg, Anesth., Intensivist, pulmonolgy, and a few other specialties.
 
I really enjoyed everything when I shadowed the DO & MD orthopedic surgeons in my area, so my goal would be orthopedic surgery. But I'm still eager to learn about other specialties because 1) I might not like surgery, 2) the residency merger might kill my chance of ever going into orthopedic surgery. Other than that, I'm interested in internal medicine, fam med, neurology, pmr, psychiatry, gen surgery...
 
My first and second year I liked the idea of a number of specialties. It would change every couple months. And in third year, I was able to cross many off the list because I ended up hating them. So don't get too invested now.
 
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