- Joined
- Sep 10, 2007
- Messages
- 1,463
- Reaction score
- 293
I'm an MS3 who has to plan out 4th year next week. I'm caught between two very different specialties: neurology and surgery.
The reason I'm posting this private decision on a public board is because, in my experience, surgery is a very polarizing field. Most students love it or hate it. And many (most? all?) people in surgery say they would never have been happy doing anything else in medicine.
I feel like these two fields appeal to two sides of my personality. I love the thinking, the analysis, the intellectualism of neurology... I feel like neurologists really and truly try to figure out what's going on with their patients, unlike say internal medicine where things seem to be done quickly according to algorithm. But at times I find it slow, frustrating and too much of a spectator sport.
I loved every minute of my surgery clerkship... though I did think the floorwork was sloppy (30 second physical exams and 1 minute interviews?). I loved the acuity, interventionalism and the wide range of pathology.
I was lucky in both clerkships to get rave evals-- "best student I've ever seen" sort of stuff-- and both noted that I was "perfect for this field". I don't have the world's highest board scores but I do have a nifty CV and it was strongly intimated by the PDs in both fields that I could stay at my home school for residency if I so choose-- and I feel that both neurology and surgery are awesome programs here.
So my question is-- did most of you know you would go into surgery? Did you consider anything else? Do you think that someone who is seriously considering two specialties, one with considerably better hours than the other, should just take the easy lifestyle way out? And lastly, if I arrange the first few months of 4th year exploring both-- surgery, neurology, surgery, neurology-- how do you think that would look on a residency app?
Incidentally, I have no interest in neurosurgery. Idiosyncratic I know, but I actually find their bread and butter a little boring, and think they work way too hard for such poor outcomes.
The reason I'm posting this private decision on a public board is because, in my experience, surgery is a very polarizing field. Most students love it or hate it. And many (most? all?) people in surgery say they would never have been happy doing anything else in medicine.
I feel like these two fields appeal to two sides of my personality. I love the thinking, the analysis, the intellectualism of neurology... I feel like neurologists really and truly try to figure out what's going on with their patients, unlike say internal medicine where things seem to be done quickly according to algorithm. But at times I find it slow, frustrating and too much of a spectator sport.
I loved every minute of my surgery clerkship... though I did think the floorwork was sloppy (30 second physical exams and 1 minute interviews?). I loved the acuity, interventionalism and the wide range of pathology.
I was lucky in both clerkships to get rave evals-- "best student I've ever seen" sort of stuff-- and both noted that I was "perfect for this field". I don't have the world's highest board scores but I do have a nifty CV and it was strongly intimated by the PDs in both fields that I could stay at my home school for residency if I so choose-- and I feel that both neurology and surgery are awesome programs here.
So my question is-- did most of you know you would go into surgery? Did you consider anything else? Do you think that someone who is seriously considering two specialties, one with considerably better hours than the other, should just take the easy lifestyle way out? And lastly, if I arrange the first few months of 4th year exploring both-- surgery, neurology, surgery, neurology-- how do you think that would look on a residency app?
Incidentally, I have no interest in neurosurgery. Idiosyncratic I know, but I actually find their bread and butter a little boring, and think they work way too hard for such poor outcomes.