Curious About Discussions with Current Students/Residents/Physicians

[OMSRealWeebHours]

Hello! I am a "current" medical student (technically on leave of absence until fall), and I haven't had much experience with the real world. I was recommended to apply and thought it was a great path, so I got into school right after college graduation like many traditional students. However, starting medical school came as a huge shock to me even before I had to start really studying. I don't think I should go into too much detail on a public forum but I have been reconsidering if this is a good idea long term. It is certainly likely my concerns about the field were exaggerated by my own mindset at the time.

I thought recently that I should reach out to others who went through the process, including nontraditional doctors who actually had the unique experience of working in multiple fields throughout their lives as a reference. For what it's worth, I am also a DO and not an MD, so knowing what it's like matching a specialty in DO school would be very valuable as well.

Thanks

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[Goro]

The odds are that you will match into one of the primary care specialties, or PM &R, EM, neurology, pathology, rads, or psychiatry. General surgery is very doable, and with the exception of the surgical subspecialties, the uber- competitive Specialties will be difficult to very difficult, but not impossible

 

[KO_TV]

Hello! I am a "current" medical student (technically on leave of absence until fall), and I haven't had much experience with the real world. I was recommended to apply and thought it was a great path, so I got into school right after college graduation like many traditional students. However, starting medical school came as a huge shock to me even before I had to start really studying. I don't think I should go into too much detail on a public forum but I have been reconsidering if this is a good idea long term. It is certainly likely my concerns about the field were exaggerated by my own mindset at the time.

I thought recently that I should reach out to others who went through the process, including nontraditional doctors who actually had the unique experience of working in multiple fields throughout their lives as a reference. For what it's worth, I am also a DO and not an MD, so knowing what it's like matching a specialty in DO school would be very valuable as well.

Thanks

I'm a little confused because of how this question was previously answered. Were you asking what your chances were matching into a specialty? It only feels that way because of all the specialties listed in the previous answer.

To me I interpret this as "Is becoming a physician worth it? Because I don't have a frame of reference working in other fields that might be fulfilling."

To answer that question, I would say it depends on the type of person you are. If you asked me this question in residency/fellowship, I'd say no way is this worth it. If you ask me now as an attending, I'd tell you it is very much worth it. I love the field I'm in and I enjoy what I get to do on a daily basis. Every job comes with the same BS. There's always going to be politics, coworkers you don't get along with, issues with staff, and difficulty working with others. The difference is, I get a sense of purpose and fulfillment that I did not get with my previous career. I get to be there for people at their worst and celebrate with them when they're better.

There are bad days for sure. Some patients are difficult, get angry, leave bad reviews, etc. But at the end of the day I sleep well knowing that I did my best to help them heal. And I think this applies to all specialties.

Would I do it again? Probably not. But would I trade the career I have now for anything else? Nope.

 

[OMSRealWeebHours]

The odds are that you will match into one of the primary care specialties, or PM and r, neurology, pathology, rads, or psychiatry. General surgery is very doable, and with the exception of the surgical subspecialties, the uber- competitive Specialties will be difficult to very difficult, but not impossible

So it's not that difficult to make it into the listed specialties as a DO?

 

[OMSRealWeebHours]

I'm a little confused because of how this question was previously answered. Were you asking what your chances were matching into a specialty? It only feels that way because of all the specialties listed in the previous answer.

To me I interpret this as "Is becoming a physician worth it? Because I don't have a frame of reference working in other fields that might be fulfilling."

To answer that question, I would say it depends on the type of person you are. If you asked me this question in residency/fellowship, I'd say no way is this worth it. If you ask me now as an attending, I'd tell you it is very much worth it. I love the field I'm in and I enjoy what I get to do on a daily basis. Every job comes with the same BS. There's always going to be politics, coworkers you don't get along with, issues with staff, and difficulty working with others. The difference is, I get a sense of purpose and fulfillment that I did not get with my previous career. I get to be there for people at their worst and celebrate with them when they're better.

There are bad days for sure. Some patients are difficult, get angry, leave bad reviews, etc. But at the end of the day I sleep well knowing that I did my best to help them heal. And I think this applies to all specialties.

Would I do it again? Probably not. But would I trade the career I have now for anything else? Nope.

Basically both of those are serious questions I've had, since I'm trying to be sure of a career path in general. I am also curious about chances of matching specialties because if I am a Physician, I want to end up in something that is a good fit instead of being stuck in FM/IM.

 

[Goro]

So it's not that difficult to make it into the listed specialties as a DO?

Nope

 

[Goro]

Basically both of those are serious questions I've had, since I'm trying to be sure of a career path in general. I am also curious about chances of matching specialties because if I am a Physician, I want to end up in something that is a good fit instead of being stuck in FM/IM.

The choice of specialty will be far more on you than where you went to med school.

 

[Roxas]

Hello! I am a "current" medical student (technically on leave of absence until fall), and I haven't had much experience with the real world. I was recommended to apply and thought it was a great path, so I got into school right after college graduation like many traditional students. However, starting medical school came as a huge shock to me even before I had to start really studying. I don't think I should go into too much detail on a public forum but I have been reconsidering if this is a good idea long term. It is certainly likely my concerns about the field were exaggerated by my own mindset at the time.

I thought recently that I should reach out to others who went through the process, including nontraditional doctors who actually had the unique experience of working in multiple fields throughout their lives as a reference. For what it's worth, I am also a DO and not an MD, so knowing what it's like matching a specialty in DO school would be very valuable as well.

Thanks

While I didn't have another career prior to medicine, I also wasn't strictly traditional as I lived in SE Asia for 2 years after high school and took a little longer to get through college. The one thing I will say is that it's easy to forget that the first 2 years of med school does not in any way resemble what it's like to practice medicine. I struggled to adjust to the preclinical years and was pretty close to getting weeded out early on, so if this is causing you to reconsider I would try to not let that shake you if you feel you'll be more suited to clinical medicine. But I sit here now as a PGY-4 in child and adolescent psychiatry fellowship and my life is fantastic. I love my job, I'm well-liked by both my patients and colleagues (to the best of my knowledge), and while I'm still learning a lot I feel I actually do my job pretty well. This future was hard to imagine as a MS-1 in the throws of gross anatomy, biochemistry, etc.

If you had any more specific questions my PM is open.

 

[Stranger00120]

I'm wrapping up my pre-clinical years, and I am definitely a non-traditional student. I worked in two different and unrelated fields prior to med school and despite struggles I can't imagine myself anywhere else. I think this is a really draining undertaking, and if I could imagine doing something else I probably would, but I can't so here I am. It took a lot of time to get to this point (I'll turn 40 during my first year of residency), but I'm glad to be here.