How many times...

[directdoc]

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How many times did you guys change your mind about what you wanted to do after med school? I've met residents who said that they changed their mind after every rotation...was that the case for you?

Did you have an idea of what you wanted to do before you started med school? Please elaborate.

 

[Blade28]

I'm probably not the best example, but I've been interested in Cardiothoracic Surgery since I wanted to go into medicine (probably around sophomore year of college).

 

[lilnoelle]

I change my mind at least once a block. I really wish I knew what it is that I want to do, but I have so many interests and until I get more experience in the fields, I just won't know.

 

[Law2Doc]

How many times did you guys change your mind about what you wanted to do after med school? I've met residents who said that they changed their mind after every rotation...was that the case for you?

Did you have an idea of what you wanted to do before you started med school? Please elaborate.

Changing your mind is a good thing -- it means you are keeping an open mind. As a premed and preclinical year med student, you probably haven't seen many (or any) fields in much detail. Nor do you have a good sense of what job functions you find most or least enjoyable. So rotations are a perfect time to iron some of that out. The one real flaw with med school though is you have too many cores and too few electives at most places, so you won't really know if you might like certain non-core things until you get to try them in early 4th year, if at all.

 

[Ashers]

I basically entered med school with a list of 5 or 6 specialties I was interested in. The list quickly shrunk down to 1 main with a far distant second.

Now, on rotations, I'm trying staying open to liking something that I hadn't intended on ever liking if even for having a good time on the rotation (eg, I enjoyed neuro. I hated neuro anatomy, and I figured I'd never like neuro, but I still don't think I'd like to do it). I've also completely ruled out psych. OB/gyn, it's at least keeping me busy and in surgeries. Before I rule out my number one (ortho) and switch to the distant 2nd (endocrine), I'll have to see how I like my ortho and medicine rotations.

 

[mules05]

I started med school fairly sure I wanted to do something surgical. After anatomy, except for the block on arm and leg, killed me, I decided ortho was what I wanted to do.

The summer between 1st and 2nd year I worked with kids and loved it, and decided, screw ortho, I'm not smart enough anyway, I'm going into peds.

2nd year I loved pharm and did some shadowing and decided that peds was boring and I was going into anesthesia.

All through med school, also, I should mention that I kept a list with The Specialties I Absolutely Will Not Go Into. This included neuro, ophtho, general internal med, ob/gyn, family med, and many others I had decided were absolutely not for me.

So then I started off 3rd year with OB/Gyn. All my careful research on specialties and figuring out my own personality went out the window...and now, ironically, I'm going into something that started out on my Hell No list. So keep an open mind, and you, too, may fall in love with a specialty with an awful lifestyle. 🙂

 

[TRAMD]

I pretty much just had specialties that I knew I DIDN'T want to do. These included OB/GYN, Peds, Family, Psych, Gen Surg and Gen IM. I at one time or another considered Occupational Medicine, Cardiology, Endocrinology, Plastic Surgery, ENT. I really tended to like whatever I was on (even psych and family when they made my list of no-nos). My overall preference for clinic, my top priority of lifestyle, my skill in neuro and my relative competitiveness led me to PM&R. The answer would be about 6-7 (tallied).

 

[Northerner]

Changing your mind is a good thing -- it means you are keeping an open mind. As a premed and preclinical year med student, you probably haven't seen many (or any) fields in much detail. Nor do you have a good sense of what job functions you find most or least enjoyable. So rotations are a perfect time to iron some of that out. The one real flaw with med school though is you have too many cores and too few electives at most places, so you won't really know if you might like certain non-core things until you get to try them in early 4th year, if at all.

Don't tell this to the podiatry students...