How do you all answer the question: "So what type of doctor do you want to be?"

[christian15213]

I get it a million times a day. What is the funniest is when I get it from the nurses at the hospital from the Doctor that I am actually shadowing. I feel like saying, "I am a freaking premed... ask me when I actually get into medical school." furthermore, I want to say.... "I want to be a cardiothoacic surgeon." But honestly, I have know clue or idea of what it is I am going to be until I do rotations and ultimately get accepted to my residence.

The doctor I am shadowing is an EP and I super like her field but I felt kinds silly to say, oh yes I want to be an EP because I am watching this EP right here. Nor did I feel like saying yea this stuff (meaning EP) is cool but I want to really be a cardio surgeon... As if her field isn't interesting.

I don't know it just seems uncomfortable and wierd when forced into the conversation. I know these people are just making nice but what do you all say when asked the question???

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[coffeebythelake]

Tell them you want to follow in the footsteps of Dr. Pepper

 

[BNSN]

Psychiatrist.

 

[christian15213]

Tell them you want to follow in the footsteps of Dr. Pepper

no but seriously... what do you say... or you just don't care?

 

[kevster2001]

I say Im not sure and I'll have a better idea once im in medical school. Then i say I find emergency medicine pretty intriguing since I think i would enjoy a faster paced work environment, although my knowledge of ER medicine is really just from TV and conjecture so it could be just as mundane as say pathology.

 

[christian15213]

I say Im not sure and I'll have a better idea once im in medical school. Then i say I find emergency medicine pretty intriguing since I think i would enjoy a faster paced work environment, although my knowledge of ER medicine is really just from TV and conjecture so it could be just as mundane as say pathology.

good answer it is honest... see this is why I think shadowing is so important... I honestly think I have been lucky enough to actually find something I really really like...

 

[brbsb]

I always tell people that I'm drawn to emergency medicine or surgery right now, but I am fairly sure it'll change as a 3rd-year internal medicine resident I spoke to told me that just about everyone changes their plan in the 3rd year of med school. Most people think that's interesting when I tell them.

 

[khushboo]

"What kind of doctor do you want to be?"
"A good one."

In the end, no matter the specialty, it comes down to quality of your care. Especially as premed with little experience in the actual world of any one specialty this is a good answer and one that I give all the time.

 

[etf]

i usually just say surgeon. if they pester me long enough, i add on the neuro prefix.

 

[Wizard of Oz]

My favorite response...

Tell them Peds Gyn, watch them back away.

 

[christian15213]

My favorite response...

Originally Posted by MWillie
Tell them Peds Gyn, watch them back away.


that is some funny arse crap right there... LOL... and then follow up and say... you have daughters right?



Anyways... aren't all gyns peds gyns?

 

[coffeebythelake]

My favorite response...

OMG that is hilarious.

 

[deleted128318]

why the need to give them an answer you think will get their rocks off?

just be honest and say you don't have a clue and if they look at you weird, say proctology.

 

[Wizard of Oz]

Others...

Whenever people ask me what kind of doctor I'm going to be, I tell them, "an old one." If they're still persistent, I tell them, "a poor one." Usually one or both of those answers changes the topic of conversation to what made me decide to go back to school in my thirties. And if they ask a THIRD time (which has happened), I tell them, "an anesthesiologist." Then I agree with them about how good the lifestyle of anesthesiologists is, even though if I even do become an anesthesiologist, I almost certainly won't be a practicing one.

When people ask "what are you going into?" I usually just answer "your sister."

People no longer talk to me. 🙁

I think you should make up some bizarre-sounding specialty and tell people that's what you want to do....like be an cranioanalogist. And when they ask you what those kinds of docs do, tell them that you will help people get their heads out of their asses.

For a while when people asked I would tell them I was going to be the personal physician to ____________ (insert random celebrity). That got old after awhile, so now if they ask what I'm going in to, I just say "debt."

 

[melissainsd]

Quote:
Originally Posted by ForbiddenComma
When people ask "what are you going into?" I usually just answer "your sister."

People no longer talk to me.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Izabelle
I think you should make up some bizarre-sounding specialty and tell people that's what you want to do....like be an cranioanalogist. And when they ask you what those kinds of docs do, tell them that you will help people get their heads out of their asses.

I love it.

 

[MirrorTodd]

I'll put it to you in song: "Simply the best! Ohhooooo yeah, just simply the best!"

 

[NEATOMD]

I typically tell people one of two things:

1.) "I want to be a proctologist." Most people know what this is, but if they don't I simply tell them it's a butt doctor. I then proceed to tell them I want to be one just because no one goes into school thinking that they want to be a butt doctor. So, I'd really like to try and figure out what exactly has to happen to a person in medical school that would make them at some point slap themselves in the head and exclaim, "Butts...that's where it's at. That's what I want to spend the rest of my life looking at!"

In all reality, there are no proctology residencies because this sort of thing is generally handled by family doctors who screen for problems and then refer patients to a gastro-enterologist or possibly oncologists.

2.) The other thing I typically tell people is that I want to be a psychiatric-pathologist so that I can just have people call me Dr. Psychopath for short.

 

[DropkickMurphy]

I never tell anyone I work with (except for a few docs) that I plan on attending medical school. It's not any of their business quite frankly.

 

[MirrorTodd]

I never tell anyone I work with (except for a few docs) that I plan on attending medical school. It's not any of their business quite frankly.

Dude, you're really missing out on the wow factor. People are very impressed when I tell them that I'm going to be a doctor, even if they never asked. It's like they see me in some sort of new light. They seem to respect me more. 😉

 

[KELA]

I never tell anyone I work with (except for a few docs) that I plan on attending medical school. It's not any of their business quite frankly.

I feel the same way. In the past I have had nurses ask and get offeneded that I'm not going to be a nurse. I don't understand that at all... I'm not getting offended that they aren't doctors. Instead when people ask I tell them what I'm majoring in.

 

[TMP-SMX]

I feel the same way. In the past I have had nurses ask and get offeneded that I'm not going to be a nurse. I don't understand that at all... I'm not getting offended that they aren't doctors. Instead when people ask I tell them what I'm majoring in.

Yeah nurse practitioners tend to say, "That's too bad," when you tell them you aren't going into nursing.

By the way, the cranioanalogist thing is amazing.

 

[Wizard of Oz]

I never tell anyone I work with (except for a few docs) that I plan on attending medical school. It's not any of their business quite frankly.

I agree and had a thread about this. (click on the referring quotes above for more info).

My family still doesn't know that I'm a medical student. I might mention it in passing as an M3, but the last thing I need is more emails about why somebody's neck hurts.

As a med tech, I didn't tell anybody that I work with; but I got outted by our lead pathologist. I even went so far as to not get any LOR's from my job. No dice. People care about this a lot more than I do, but I'm tired of it being my master status.

Usually I just tell people that I'm working on my doctorate. Since I was a grad student for a while, they just assume that I'm doing one of those science things that nobody understands therefore needn't merit a conversation. As for people I don't know, I usually just say that I'm a med tech or want to go into the medical field.

 

[Dookter]

"What kind of doctor do you want to be?"
"A good one."

Beat me to it...

 

[christian15213]

Well I know that I want to be a cardiologist and if I get into med school... I will be sure to try and pursue EP...

 

[DrZeke]

I get it a million times a day. What is the funniest is when I get it from the nurses at the hospital from the Doctor that I am actually shadowing. I feel like saying, "I am a freaking premed... ask me when I actually get into medical school." furthermore, I want to say.... "I want to be a cardiothoacic surgeon." But honestly, I have know clue or idea of what it is I am going to be until I do rotations and ultimately get accepted to my residence.

The doctor I am shadowing is an EP and I super like her field but I felt kinds silly to say, oh yes I want to be an EP because I am watching this EP right here. Nor did I feel like saying yea this stuff (meaning EP) is cool but I want to really be a cardio surgeon... As if her field isn't interesting.

I don't know it just seems uncomfortable and wierd when forced into the conversation. I know these people are just making nice but what do you all say when asked the question???

Like Hannibal Lechter

 

[christian15213]

Like Hannibal Lechter

Hungry are we? lol, did you watch that movie last night?

 

[ryouland]

I usually say "oncologist but I haven't ruled anything out yet, I'll figure out what I really like in med school."

On another note... do non-premeds ask you medically related questions that you have no way of knowing?
like... "my aunt has fluid in her lungs what could that be from?"

me: "well considering i'm PRE med... "

 

[christian15213]

I usually say "oncologist but I haven't ruled anything out yet, I'll figure out what I really like in med school."

On another note... do non-premeds ask you medically related questions that you have no way of knowing?
like... "my aunt has fluid in her lungs what could that be from?"

me: "well considering i'm PRE med... "

lol, yea happens all the time...

when I shadow my doctor everyone including doctors thinks I am in medical school and they give me phys questions and the nine... lol my doc has to come and save me... "you haven't taken physiology yet right christian..." I just laugh and think thanks...

but the heart surgeon does a good job when he lets up observe his cases... He ask's one simple question that I probably don't know and tells me to write a report about it... I know he never reads them but I do it anyways...