How many went into a residency program that they wanted before med school

[jcfly21]

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Hi,
Im just curious how many of you have gone into a residency program that you wanted to go into prior to medical school. Im more curious about how many changed their decision about what specialty they decided to go into if it was different from the one they wanted prior to med school and what reasons were behind your decision to change. Thanks guys and gals!

 

[Winged Scapula]

Hi,
Im just curious how many of you have gone into a residency program that you wanted to go into prior to medical school. Im more curious about how many changed their decision about what specialty they decided to go into if it was different from the one they wanted prior to med school and what reasons were behind your decision to change. Thanks guys and gals!

Before medical school and during my basic science years I planned on doing either FP or an IM subspecialty (maybe Endo or Cards).

Did my 3rd year cores and found I loved being in the OR. fancy that - farthest thing from my mind! I did Ob-Gyn first and really enjoyed it, but found the surgeries limited (Funny now that I'm considering a Breast fellowship) so decided on Gen Surg when I didn't match into an Integrated PRS.

I HATED FP (the FP I rotated with was an insufferable jerk) and disliked IM a fair bit - too slow, too much one-upmanship, too much procrastination, etc.

Funny how things change over the years. 🙂

 

[beyond all hope]

I admit that I went into med school wanting to do EM. I even tried to start an EM interest group in med school, which never got off the ground.

I thought about changing my career quite a few times throughout third year. I liked IM, Peds, even Psych. Ultimately I ended up in EM because of the diversity of practice, schedule, and aspects of both primary and tertiary care.

 

[fourthyearmed]

I always said the last thing I'd do would be peds because I hadn't had much experience around kids and figured I'd probably end up in IM by default. Turned out I loved my Peds rotation. Not only the kids themselves but also the learning about the problems they have as compared to adults. It really brightens your day to see a cute kid instead of another complaining adult who is drinking and smoking themselves to death. I start my pediatric residency this July.

 

[GeneGoddess]

I always wanted to do medical genetics (I have a BS in genetics) but figured that I would do neurology or maybe internal medicine followed by a MG fellowship. Or maybe OB/Gyn (genetics aspects). Who knew that I would like PEDI of all things? I never even guessed that I would like kids (I'm not the maternal type). But I hated neuro, detest adults, and LOVE kids. So I'll do Pedi and then the MG fellowship... So somewhat right, but not really.

 

[Noelle]

I came in wanting to do ER. I was so adamant that was what I was going to do all the way through to my first hospital based rotation. I HATED the hospital. Still do unless I'm on the peds floor/PICU! I had considered med peds during 3rd/4th year. It wasn't until my Medicine SubI that I decided kids made me so happy. And everytime I hear my medicine intern friends talk about their patients I smile at the thought of never having to deal with THOSE issues!

 

[Blade28]

I've wanted to go into surgery ever since starting college. During med school, other fields appealed to me briefly (cards, ENT), but I'm back to the dark side, G Surg. 🙂

 

[b&ierstiefel]

Honestly, I didn't have a damn clue what I wanted to go into before med school. Being preoccupied and obsessed with getting into medschool was on the forefront of my mind. I considered neurosurgery back in high school but that was because my role model was a neurosurgeon. Then in college I realized that I didn't really care much for neuroscience so the idea of being a neurosurgeon flew quickly out the window. Also in college, I realized my love for doing basic science research. So going into med school, I would have considered any field in medicine that would enable me to focus very heavily, if not exclusively, on basic biomedical research. Why did I even go to med school? Yeah, that's a good question. Back then, I figured that I went to med school because I could (after all, I had been accepted to several med schools with relative ease) and I hadn't considered too many other career options. Oh yeah, then there's the part where you are much more highly competitive in getting research jobs and securing NIH grants when you have an MD attached to your name (given that there are countless folks getting PhDs). And I thought learning about disease pathogenesis at a scientific level was quite fascinating...something you don't get with straight PhD training.

So it wasn't surprising that in med school, I quickly fell in love with pathology during the preclinical years. Of course, I heard all the stereotypes about how pathologists are antisocial introverted necrophiliacs and all. But I didn't care; stereotypes are meant to be broken. Plus, I wasn't one of those people who would go on and on about "I want to do medicine because I love people and I want to help people." I went into medicine all for the science of it. And in the end, after being exposed to many different specialties in medicine, I decided to stick with my true interests and pursue pathology residency after all.

P.S. Yes, people like me should not be accepted into med school.

 

[Vincristine]

I was going to do EM, mostly for the action and lifestyle. I was never a primary care person. Doing my core rotations I was not a big fan of medicine, and there was no way I could make it through a medicine residency, highly narrowing my options. Then I got to surgery.....I, too, LOVED to OR. AND I was a trauma junky. Beside the trauma, I like the surgical patients, I thought like I surgeon, and technically, I was good at it.

I fought it for a while (remember that lifestyle thing?), but there was nothing else I could see myself doing with my life, nothing else I would get out of bed for every day, and I knew I'd regret it if I didn't become a surgeon.

 

[BenFelson]

I knew very little of medicine other than going on round with my FP brother-in-law once. He died young and I didn't get to talk to him much. I liked old people so I thought I would go into Geriatrics where there will be plenty of work. But when I hit the wards, it was depressing taking care of patients who are chronically ill. They have multiple problems, many self-inflicted. During my third year, I semi-enjoyed PD, but didn't like some of the faculty and the prospect of making the lowest salary. Otherwise, I hated everything else. My grades weren't spectacular so I applied to both Anesthesiology and Radiology. I've been practicing Radiology for ten years now. Interestingly my wife had the same idea, which is how we got along so well. She didn't make it into Radiology. Sometimes, I envy her getting out of work at 11 am. But I'm glad that I don't have to go in for epidurals every night. I also get to tell her about the appy, the bowel obstruction or the GSW that I just looked at and go home to bed while she comes in to work the patient up for surgery and get the patient settled after the surgeon and everyone else have gone home. We are all doctors, but the differences is like night and day.
I don't believe you really know what you want to do until you have experienced it.

 

[la gringa]

amen ben felson... you really don't know til you get there! i would have sworn i would do FP or peds, but neither of them really i guess stimulated me during my 3rd year rotations. i had previously worked in a peds hospital and loved that, but found the work of a physician working with children to completely not suit my personality and scientific/academic interests. i learned that i absolutely hated clinic and "followup htn/DM/depression" appointments all day long in FP. so i found EM to be a good mix of patient population and pathology, fast pace for my mild hyperactivity, and with the opportunity to do some primary care.

all of this decision making is what 3rd year is for!

 

[mddo2b]

Hi,
Im just curious how many of you have gone into a residency program that you wanted to go into prior to medical school. Im more curious about how many changed their decision about what specialty they decided to go into if it was different from the one they wanted prior to med school and what reasons were behind your decision to change. Thanks guys and gals!

1st and 2nd year I was convinced that I was going to do PEDS...then I did my surgery rotation and it was love at first sight. I had incredible residents that showed me the magic of the OR. 👍