Early thoughts on specialty?

[futuredrswife]

I don't know how to do a poll on this website, but was wondering what type of specialty most SDNers are considering (preliminary, of course.

I'll go first: oncology.

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[JonnieQuest]

It doesn't affect acceptance to med school because they know you'll probably change your mind. I'm thinking of neurology.

 

[Megalofyia]

Pediatrics - but I dought I'll be changing my mind.

 

[TTSD]

You know, a lot of people say surgery until they hit their general surgery rotations and then forget what sleep feels like.

But from where I stand now, I love surgery. It's one of the few things I can stand doing for hours and hours forgetting even about eating and sleeping while doing observing or doing it in lab.

You're sitting under the bright lights, your face firmly planted into the microscope and for hours your fingers are moving millimeters at a time. Hehe, did a lot of rat surgery in my research and I cheated a lot on the sewing. The threads were so incredibly small and were impossible to grip even with our expensive tweezers when wet I just used my fingers.

I gave our resident surgeon a heartattack the first time I used my fingers to tie down a few veins and arteries. I gave him a bigger heart attack when I realized I tied down the wrong place and had to snip them off.

 

[NE_Cornhusker1]

cardiology. in particular invasive cardiology [most all the fun of cutting and poking and prodding as ct surgery less the extra year of residency and hellish hours.]

 

[Tezzie]

I want to go into IM but not sure about the sub-specialty yet

 

[mattorama]

Right now either family practice or ophthalmology...but who knows Of course, I would be happy to just start off with a nice fat envelope in 7-9 days!

Oh, I have had several docs/profs tell me NOT to go into an interview KNOWING that you are going to do some area. I had an interviewer ask, and I gave a really general answer and told him that I haven't been exposed to enough areas of medicine yet to have any real idea (which is 100% true...I just have a few inklings which I know will probably change) of what I want to do. I added that even if what I had been exposed to the most (FP) was all there was in medicine, I could be completly happy as a doc. He seemed to really like the answer.

 

[soonerpillow]

Right now I'm thinking Internal Medicine, but I'm certainly going to keep my options open. I've also thought about anesthesiology, simply because Dr. Pillow would be a great name for an anesthesiologist.

 

[SarahGM]

Pediatrics. Maybe pediatric anesthesiology.

But there's soooooo much I'm interested in!

 

[periodic]

Several interests so far:

cardiology (and all of the social/lifestyle issues that have become associated with it, like obesity). interventional cardiology looks cool as hell.

neurology / psychiatry, although the amount we can do for neurological disorders at the moment is frustrating (alzheimer's, parkinson's, etc).

but i'm also very into health policy and the politics of medicine. not quite sure what specialty people pursue to do that...i've seen a lot of cardiologists doing policy stuff.

in the end, who knows. i'm looking forward to trying everything out on the wards.

 

[TravellinDoc]

Definitely Infectious disease so I can join Docs Without Borders and put my french and arabic skills to work in the congo, algeria, or any war torn african country. call me crazy, but if there's disease and conflict, I wanna practice there. Anyone else considering the international realm to practice in?

 

[Hethera]

There are way too many things I'm interested in to decide. I'm just hoping to whittle it down by the time I have to apply for a residency! Surgery would rock my world, but I've always done so much fine-motor stuff with my hands that they're starting to get a bit arthritic even at 26. Maternal/fetal medicine sounds like it would be both challenging and really rewarding, but I'm definitely keeping my mind open to other things, especially when I consider the long hours and exorbitant insurance premiums that go along with pregnancy-related specialties. On the other hand, if all I wanted was good money and a 40-hour work week, I'd be applying to dental school.

 

[TTSD]

Originally posted by TravellinDoc
Definitely Infectious disease so I can join Docs Without Borders and put my french and arabic skills to work in the congo, algeria, or any war torn african country. call me crazy, but if there's disease and conflict, I wanna practice there. Anyone else considering the international realm to practice in?

Yeah.. I would love to! But realistically, I'm not sure it's possible until I'm much older, and even then.. I would probably be bogged down with familial responsibility.

 

[Gleevec]

oncology or pediatrics (pathology as a distant third)

 

[smartreader]

pediatric gynocology

 

[28129]

.

 

[DD214_DOC]

Psychiatry, Ortho, or Gen. Surgery. Maybe anesthesiology. I'm leaning more toward a balance of work/home life now.

 

[quideam]

I'm consistently torn between emergency medicine and surgery. On the one side, trauma surgeons get to do the REALLY cool EM stuff (chest tubes, etc.), but on the down side, it's 6 freaking years of ridiculous training.

Ah well, only time will tell. And no, I don't think medical schools will care.

- Quid

 

[greenwave34]

women's health would be great to get into...But, nuclear medicine and diagnostic radiology have always facinated me...who knows at this point!

 

[DrWuStar]

i'm thinking ob/gyn

pregnancy is cool.

 

[bjolly]

neurology, endocrinology, and oncology all look interesting to me.

 

[Hethera]

Originally posted by TravellinDoc
Definitely Infectious disease so I can join Docs Without Borders and put my french and arabic skills to work in the congo, algeria, or any war torn african country. call me crazy, but if there's disease and conflict, I wanna practice there. Anyone else considering the international realm to practice in?

That would be neato! I've always wanted to do medical missions. I was hoping to be a reconstructive surgeon and repair birth defects and disfiguring injuries, until my hands started hurting every day after work. I don't think a Doctors Without Borders team would have much use for a maternal/fetal specialist, though.

 

[quideam]

Totally w/ you guys on the medical missions thing!!! I'm actually planning on learning some french specifically for that purpose... MSF all the way!!!!

Btw, EM works just as well for these things!!! We can all share a tent!!! Hehe... "SDN Tent"

- Quid

 

[donnyfire]

For a long time, I thought emergency medicine. It just goes with what I've been doing in life so far.
But the more I think about it I realize that:

1) I don't know jack
2) Everything seems cool in one way or another.
3) see reason 1 again.

So I've decided that I'll be open-minded, and decide when I know more.

 

[DrJ2B]

Hey all!


Pediatric oncology all the way!

--DrJ2B

 

[PrincetonRocks]

Dermatology or Ob/Gyn

 

[Catalyst]

Interventional cardiology with a preventive focus (i.e. MPH), I've heard of a few preventive cardiologists at some of the schools I've interviewed at and it seems like a fascinating field..

 

[Winston Smith]

Originally posted by TravellinDoc
Definitely Infectious disease so I can join Docs Without Borders and put my french and arabic skills to work in the congo, algeria, or any war torn african country. call me crazy, but if there's disease and conflict, I wanna practice there. Anyone else considering the international realm to practice in?

I want to work with Docs Without Borders and similar organizations too! I'm not sure which specialty to pursue just yet. I don't think there is an "Infectious Disease" specialty, though correct me if I'm wrong. It might be good to go into general surgery? does anyone know what would be really practical?

 

[scooter31]

Neurosurgery, specializing in neuro-oncology with a fellowship in MRI guided surgery... a bit broad, but you get the idea

 

[Bridaddy]

Definetely Endocrinology, in an effort to help all those misguided diabetics who are killing themselves daily.

 

[destined_wind]

Originally posted by smartreader
pediatric gynocology

*cough* pedophile *cough*

 

[Deuce 007 MD]

Here try this survey at this site, it'll give you an idea of what specialty is a good match for you. Some say it works and some say it doesn't know jack. It told me rads and path, and those are my main two interest as of now.


http://www.med-ed.virginia.edu/specialties/

 

[NRAI2001]

Originally posted by Deuce 007 MD
Here try this survey at this site, it'll give you an idea of what specialty is a good match for you. Some say it works and some say it doesn't know jack. It told me rads and path, and those are my main two interest as of now.


http://www.med-ed.virginia.edu/specialties/

DAM 130 questions, there seems to be like 10 questions all asked in different ways.

 

[bjolly]

Winston, infectious disease is a subspecialty of internal medicine.

 

[Halcyon440]

I'm still pre-pre-med but there are several fields which interest me.

In no particular order:

Radiology
OB/GYN
Reproductive Endocrinology
Maternal/Fetal Medicine
Pathology
Anesthesiology
Pediatrics
Psychiatry

Hmm, I'm also thinking of Dentistry or Public Health. Or Ethnomusicology. I'm confused.

 

[NRAI2001]

I know that I want to do surgery for sure. Either neurosurgery or orthopedic surgery.

 

[Bridaddy]

AMD AthlonXP 2500+ Barton, Asus Gefroce 4ti 4200 8x 128 mb, abit k7-raid mobo, 1 gb ddr333, 120gb maxtor hd.

I'm surprised to see that in your sig destined_wind, maybe a holdover from some computer forums?

Do you have that Barton OC'ed?

Sorry for the OT guys, just usually only see that when I read computer forums.

 

[pathdr2b]

Definitely, unequivocally, pathology

 

[brats800]

i'd love to do aerospace medicine and/or emergency medicine....

 

[Winston Smith]

Originally posted by brats800
i'd love to do aerospace medicine and/or emergency medicine....

aerospace medicine? what is that?

 

[DOCTORSAIB]

Ophthalmology, probably....but we'll see once I actually start med school.

DOCTORSAIB

 

[premyo2002]

I was thinking about neurosurgery primarily because I have always wanted to be a hairstylist and neurosurg gives me that option without making me look gay (not that there is anything wrong with being gay)

all joking aside, 90% sure ORTHO

 

[brats800]

aerospace medicine deals specifically with medical conditions in conditions not at sea level. the primary patients are pilots and astronauts. they experience lots of g's during flight but also microgravity...they experience differing air pressure and lots of neat things you can't find anywhere else. aerospace medicine itself is pretty much a branch of preventative medicine, because we'd rather prevent the pilots from 'breaking' during flight than to have to fix them once they do. there's only 2 civilian programs for aerospace medicine in the US, but there's several in the military. another neat thing you can do in the navy is undersea medicine, which is similar, but its for the deep-sea divers who also experience very different environments. way cooler than a 9-5 job, IMHO....

 

[ForensicPath]

Pathology is what i am thinking about right now. Whenever I have worked in a hospital the pathologists always look so relaxed. If I were to go into pathology it would probably be the forensic kind.

I also have thought about neurology (maybe neuropathology), emergency medicine, or family practice. I am told that I will change at least 27 though.

 

[taehong81]

I am thinking about surgery especially transplant surgery.

 

[NRAI2001]

Originally posted by premyo2002
I was thinking about neurosurgery primarily because I have always wanted to be a hairstylist and neurosurg gives me that option without making me look gay (not that there is anything wrong with being gay)

all joking aside, 90% sure ORTHO

How are neurosurgeons and hairstylists even related?

 

[DD214_DOC]

My personality screams surgeon ... probably ortho.