Correlation between Favorite Class and Specialty

[deuce924]

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I am sure this question has been posed before but I wanted to get the current SDN crowds' take.

Does anyone believe the med students that eventually went into a specialty have a consensus "favorite" class? If so, what class do you think would go with each specialty? I am obviously talking about the classes your first 2 years of medical school. What are your thoughts???

 

[njbmd]

I am sure this question has been posed before but I wanted to get the current SDN crowds' take.

Does anyone believe the med students that eventually went into a specialty have a consensus "favorite" class? If so, what class do you think would go with each specialty? I am obviously talking about the classes your first 2 years of medical school. What are your thoughts???

It's difficult to generalize as to specialty choice before one has a chance to do the rotations during the clinical years. Many people are in love with the idea of doing surgery until they do a surgical rotation (regardless of loving anatomy) and want no parts of the lifestyle.

Just about every specialty will utilize aspects of every first and second year course especially physiology,pharmacology and pathology. After that, it's lifestyle (and Step I score) that narrows the choices.

 

[SB100]

I hear from fourth-years that the types of patients (kids, adults, octogenarians) is often the main factor for deciding what area people specialize in.

 

[Dral]

Anatomy Surgery
Physiology Cards, Neph, Pulm
Pathology Pathology
Neuro Neuro
Psych Psych
Biochem PM&R

*shrug*

 

[njbmd]

Anatomy Surgery
Physiology Cards, Neph, Pulm
Pathology Pathology
Neuro Neuro
Psych Psych
Biochem PM&R

*shrug*

Definitely not true as many people who do well in Anatomy wind up hating surgery because of the lifestyle. People can love pathology and never want to do it for the rest of their lives. Again, most of your top students (people who did well in everything) flock to the lifestyle specialties/subspecialties. Your USMLE Step I score is going be a factor in what you can "make yourself" interested in too not matter what your grades. You can love ortho but without the Step I scores, ortho isn't going to be in your future.

 

[JonathanMD]

Well... my favorite subject since community college has been anatomy (6 years ago). I intend to specialize in Emergency Medicine.

I'd think there would be a more relevant correlation between a student's interests and previous experiences than "favorite class." It's the EMT certification class I took that really grabbed hold of my interest. In other words, it's probably the practical application of the information you learn in class more so than it is the class itself.

 

[LadyWolverine]

My favorite subject in medical school was renal physiology.




I am not going into nephrology.

 

[howelljolly]

Putting aside extremes like "favorite" and specifics like PM&R, or Nephro, and variables like lifestyle - I think its fair to generalize that:

[physio > anatomy ~ medicine > surgery]

Yes, you can add that liking the Brain related classes leads you to liking Brain related specialties. But, if you as a clinician aren't comfortable with uncertainty, gray areas, and medical futility, you wont go into those specialites.

Yes, its very common to think about what age group you want to treat, or lifestyle, or this or that, but that wasn't the OP's question. The OP also didnt ask about the correlation between shoe size and chosen specialty.

People who are more interested in the function of the body tend to be more interested in medicine (in one form or another, in some agegroup or another)

People who are more interested in the structure of the body tend to be interested in surgery (in one form or another)

People who are fairly disinterested in the details of anatomy tend to be fairly disinterested in knowing those details in the application of surgery...

and so on....

 

[Xuster]

What I've kind of noticed at my school is that people get drawn toward specialties not because of whether or not they like the material in a class but whether or not they really liked the instructors.

 

[LadyWolverine]

What I've kind of noticed at my school is that people get drawn toward specialties not because of whether or not they like the material in a class but whether or not they really liked the instructors.

Well said. Do not underestimate the power of a teacher to foster or destroy an interest in a particular specialty.

 

[Dral]

Definitely not true as many people who do well in Anatomy wind up hating surgery because of the lifestyle. People can love pathology and never want to do it for the rest of their lives. Again, most of your top students (people who did well in everything) flock to the lifestyle specialties/subspecialties. Your USMLE Step I score is going be a factor in what you can "make yourself" interested in too not matter what your grades. You can love ortho but without the Step I scores, ortho isn't going to be in your future.

Kinda just a joke. (Biochem and PM&R? lol)

 

[Tiger26]

My favorite part about the first 2 years was not having to go to class.

The specialty I want: Emergency Medicine 🙂

 

[greg1184]

Well said. Do not underestimate the power of a teacher to foster or destroy an interest in a particular specialty.

100% agreed. I had an OUTSTANDING instructor for Renal, and I AM interested in nephrology. In fact, I been to clinic multiple times and am planning on going to rounds with a nephrologist. Teachers can potentially be either inspirational or completely destructive to your interests. I have experienced both.

 

[student89]

Definitely whatever class you attend to gets you into the subjet for good or bad. In my case I'm interested in oncology ever since college biology lessons. Once in Med School oncology is my favorite subject. I guess you get to know if you are really into it according to your personality and interests along the career hoping to confirm if your favorite subject will define your post graduate...

 

[howelljolly]

Definitely whatever class you attend to gets you into the subjet for good or bad. In my case I'm interested in oncology ever since college biology lessons. Once in Med School oncology is my favorite subject. I guess you get to know if you are really into it according to your personality and interests along the career hoping to confirm if your favorite subject will define your post graduate...

Yes, you can come to med school with an interest which gets stronger as you progress.... and it might completely change in clinicals (see my above post on Brain related specialties - thats my own experience).

I think it's kinda unfortunate how our interests can be based heavily on our experience with a particular professor. That played into my neuro/psych experience as well, both for better and worse. Cognitively I realize that the field is what it is, with or without my mix of mentors. But I can't seem to shake the bad points I picked up.

 

[JonathanMD]

100% agreed. I had an OUTSTANDING instructor for Renal, and I AM interested in nephrology. In fact, I been to clinic multiple times and am planning on going to rounds with a nephrologist. Teachers can potentially be either inspirational or completely destructive to your interests. I have experienced both.

That's a good point.

I've always said that my anatomy/physiology professor from community college was one of the best teachers I've ever had.

 

[LadyWolverine]

Yes, you can come to med school with an interest which gets stronger as you progress.... and it might completely change in clinicals...

Agreed. Wait until you actually rotate through oncology before you have decided that this career path is "clinched" for you.

Working with cancer patients, managing their drugs and treatment plans, seeing them in clinic and on the wards/units, doing all of the ensuing scut and paperwork, figuring out when to call for a palliative care consult, etc. is much different than learning about the biology of cancer. While sitting in class or with a book or journal reading about cancer biochemistry, pharmacology, genetics, and molecular biology can be quite stimulating, what you will actually be doing from day-to-day as an oncologist will be much different.

 

[derspiegel]

My favorite subject in medical school was renal physiology.




I am not going into nephrology.

Why not? It has been my favourite subject so far as well and I`m considering it at the moment so I really would like to hear some cons in case I haven`t thought about those before.

 

[RisingSun]

Why not? It has been my favourite subject so far as well and I`m considering it at the moment so I really would like to hear some cons in case I haven`t thought about those before.

Example: you may love studying the GI system, all of the feedback loops and hormonal influences, etc., but on the wards, the smells encountered in GI/surgery may make you want to vomit, cry, and run, all at the same time.

Everyone has at least one bodily fluid/substance that they cannot tolerate - mine is stool. If yours happen to be urine, then neprology or urology are not for you. There may also be body orifices which you prefer to avoid.

Thus, interest in the science does not necessarily translate into enjoying the day to day of the actual specialty, as eloquently put but LadyWolverine.

 

[rahulb]

i hated anatomy but im diggin surgery and might do my residency here