In what field are you going to specialize?

This forum made possible through the generous support of SDN members, donors, and sponsors. Thank you.
A

Aristotle

I was just wondering if all of you already know in which field you are going to specialize. I already changed my mind a couple of times, am I the only one?

Members don't see this ad.
 
Aristotle said:
I was just wondering if all of you already know in which field you are going to specialize. I already changed my mind a couple of times, am I the only one?

I think I've read that most students who go into med school with a field already in mind end up changing course before it's all over.
 
I have no idea what I want to specialize so I think you switching your mind several times is no big dealio!! I'm just gonna stay open and hopefully a specialty will smack me over the head! :laugh:
 
Members don't see this ad :)
i am planning on doing child and adolescent psychiatry. i am 99.9% certain this is what I want to do as I have been exposed to many aspects of medicine and keep coming back to this one, as it is my passion. Yes, I could change my mind but I've already done so much clinical research and networking in this field that it wouldn't make a whole lot of sense. besides, there happens to be a dire shortage of child and adolescent psychiatrists so job options will be great.

in my interviews i've said "i am of course open to other fields" but every interviewer i have said this to insists they think i'll do this field i've chosen based on my past experiences and passion. One outright scoffed at the idea i'd do anything else, of course he was a psychiatrist himself so was obviously a little biased.
 
I am heading toward Emergency Medicine (no I did not watch ER :laugh: ), I just don't want to sit in an office all day long. I would like to be active in whatever I am doing. Hopefully Emergency Med will be just the thing, because you have to do pretty much everything. Beside they only work a few days a week :D Still time for family. Although in those few days, I will be toast ( just wondering will it be my family or the ER that will toast me) :laugh: .
 
Cerberus said:
Most people change there minds. My current interests:

Surg>Rads>Gas>Path


:laugh: You're interested in gas!!!
 
I admire all of you able to make a decision and stick to it. I'm probably the most indecisive person :laugh: I've been thinking about hem/onc but then again I would like to see a human being from time to time instead of researching all the time.
 
I'm also looking at child & adolescent psychiatry right now. The other field I'm really interested in is neurology.

I don't know what I'll specialize in with absolute certainty, but I can almost guarantee I won't be any kind of surgeon.
 
UCLAstudent said:
Ob/Gyn for me.
You know, I think that you'll likely change your decision in the future. I have been in Ob/Gyn(technically, just Gyn) for a few years now, and working for UPS can take it's toll on you. Why do you think they offer so many incentives? Handling boxes all day isn't what it's cracked out to be.
 
I'm all over the place..........

Endocrinology surgery>Orthopedic Surgery>General Surgery (Gastro)> ED

dunno though..............
 
Members don't see this ad :)
I've been really interested in psychiatry for quite some time now and it seems like the perfect field me for me. As I've gotten older, I've thought about neurosurgery and plastic surgery, but haven't been as interested in those as I have been in psychiatry.
 
Pediatric Physiatry... I've worked in a rehab hospital for 1 1/2 years and I love it. I've been shadowing one of the doctors lately and I want his job when I'm older ;) Of course, I still have 8+ years of school before picking so it might change. (right now, 2nd choice would be peds neurology)
 
I'm 90% sure I'm going into emergency medicine. But I'm considering going into psychiatry. The field is 100 years behind medicine and seriously needs catching up, so it might be interesting to go into that. plus the brain can be really cool sometimes.
 
Plastics>Ortho>Emergency Med>Oncology :thumbup:
 
Wow! There are a ton of people interested in psychiatry. I bow down to the amount of patience and compassion needed for that field!! :)
 
Wow, A lot of you want Emergency Medicine. Those of you that want to specialize in EM, what prompted you down that path? I for one am choosing EM because of my past work experience. I've been an EMT for five years now and have fallen in love with Emergency Medicine. You know what they say though, Love is fleeting :) .

Jambi
 
hospitalist or emergency med....but like someone said, we could all change our minds!
 
neuroradiology is one of the few things i'm actually interested in, but choosing a specialty is more than about just academic interests. you gotta look at competition, lifestyle, daily interaction (i.e. patients, dark room, or morgue?), etc.

some others:

Neurology
Medicine
Radiology
Ophthalmology
Nephrology

will never ever ever do: psychiatry, pm&r, orthopedic surgery, ob/gyn, pediatrics, family medicine, dermatology, anesthesiology, pathology, cardiology, endocrinology
 
Why I'd do emergency or hospitalist (something where I spend all my time in a hospital), is a lot about the future of medicine. I can help more people, more of the time, by being one of those two type of physicians, than by specializing and having my own little office. This also allows me to work with people who the system forgot and don't have insurrance, because when the present to the hospital and get admitted, we treat them just like the ones will full insurrance--or at least my hospital seems to. Plus, I really like how our ED docs and hospitalists work with the nurses!
 
I do see the allure of emergency medicine but what makes it an absolute no on my list is that aside from "frequent flyer" patients who are always in the ER, you don't have longterm followup of patients. I really like developing relationships with patients and seeing their successes (and failures and setbacks) over the course of months and even years. Of course, i guess that's one reason psychiatry has such an appeal. glad to see many others here are interested in psychiatry! and hey we need er docs to manage our patients' acute crises so i'm glad there are lots of future er docs on sdn as well (i just wont be one of them)
 
Neurology because it's cerebral. Though I've been told I have the personality of a pathologist.

In general, I'd prefer to look at scans/slides/xrays and make a diagnosis at my leisure than touch people in a high stress environment.
 
Primary Care Sports Medicine representin'!
 
Probably family practice for me. If not that, then maybe older pediatric-young adult specialty (dont remember what it is called, its basically where you treat ages 10-early 20s. I dont think there are many doctors that practice it, but I have seen it before). I used to think that I wanted to be a plastic surgeon, but I decided against that.
 
FutureDrCynthia said:
Probably family practice for me. If not that, then maybe older pediatric-young adult specialty (dont remember what it is called, its basically where you treat ages 10-early 20s. I dont think there are many doctors that practice it, but I have seen it before). I used to think that I wanted to be a plastic surgeon, but I decided against that.

you are referring, i think, to adolescent medicine. which rocks! i want to do adolescent psychiatry- this is definitely an awesome agegroup to work with.
 
Deciding between Med/Peds or Family Medicine.
 
Jambi said:
Wow, A lot of you want Emergency Medicine. Those of you that want to specialize in EM, what prompted you down that path? I for one am choosing EM because of my past work experience. I've been an EMT for five years now and have fallen in love with Emergency Medicine. You know what they say though, Love is fleeting :) .

Jambi

1.5 years of working in an ED as a volunteer(got lucky. the program I did had us take care of the day-to-day going on's of all the EM clinical research projects, keep track of every patient in the ER during our shift, and allowed us to talk to patients, shadow physicians, and observe everything going on including every trauma that went on)
 
Mediculous said:
You know, I think that you'll likely change your decision in the future. I have been in Ob/Gyn(technically, just Gyn) for a few years now, and working for UPS can take it's toll on you. Why do you think they offer so many incentives? Handling boxes all day isn't what it's cracked out to be.

Are we all just ignoring this or am I the only one that caught it and thinks its funny???
 
klinzou said:
Are we all just ignoring this or am I the only one that caught it and thinks its funny???

I didn't just ignore it. Funniest thing I've read all day. :laugh: :laugh: :laugh: :laugh: :laugh: :laugh: :laugh: :laugh:

For me, it's orthopedics, orthopedics, orthopedics!!! I'm an athletic trainer, so that's got something to do with it. If not, well, maybe pediatrics.
 
klinzou said:
Are we all just ignoring this or am I the only one that caught it and thinks its funny???

i was ignoring it (laughing inside and being thankful my boyfriend doesn't seem to mind handling boxes..... :p sorry- too much information. its late. )
 
haha...great post, it's ok carleneM. You're right, it is late :)

Workin as an EMT has made me lean towards Emergency Medicine. On my last few rotations in the ER, my preceptor (EMT supervisor during rotation) 'gave me' a few patients at a time. It was a 16 hours shift, so we had plenty of patients to see. Anyway, when patients came in, he had me get their info, history, complaints, meds, etc.. Then come up with a series of tests that I would run, why I would run them, what i would expect to find if something came up abnormal and my course of treatment. It was quite possibly the most fun that I've ever had in a hospital.

If not emergency medicine, I've always had a thing for cardiology/cardiothoracic surgery/vascular surgery (pending on how long i actually want to be in school). My dad had quadrouple bypass surgery when i was 11 and I've done work on a couple of cardiac tissue engineering projects thus far.
 
Pathology--studying the nature of disease, working behind the scenes, communicating with other doctors on a high level without having to express sympathy for head and tummy aches using dumbed-down language, and using science to find and apply cures for illnesses. Or maybe no specialty, and heading for industry or venture capital using fundamental medical knowledge.
 
Acherona said:
Neurology because it's cerebral. Though I've been told I have the personality of a pathologist.

In general, I'd prefer to look at scans/slides/xrays and make a diagnosis at my leisure than touch people in a high stress environment.

Well, that's not neurology. Neurology is a medicine-based specialty. Sounds like path or rads would be more your speed.

On the other hand, you seem to spend a lot of time on here. Maybe you can specialize in eating poutine while you surf SDN and bait Republicans on the internet, occasionally taking a well-deserved break to hit the slopes in borrowed finery.
:p
 
CarleneM said:
you are referring, i think, to adolescent medicine. which rocks! i want to do adolescent psychiatry- this is definitely an awesome agegroup to work with.

Yes, thats what I was talking about. I think that would be a great age group to work with. They are old enough to tell you whats wrong but they are still at a younger age than what internal medicine doctors have to work with. I think pediatrics would be a good field, but I don't want to have to deal with the number of infants and kids under 3 or 4. I like kids that age, but they cant tell you whats wrong...well the 3 or 4 year old can but its still hard. Iknow that I would have that age group in FP, but not as many. I would really like to work with patients age 8 to 30. Thats why I am stuck between FP and adolescent medicine. In FP I would have that age group along with all other ages. and in adolescent med I would have almost that age group. The thing that worries me with FP, is that I am going to end up with mostly older patients (40 and up), I go to a FP dr and I have noticed that he has lots of patients that are older. I dont have a problem with that age group, I just don't want the majority of patients in that group.

CarleneM: I noticed that you were wanting to be a child and adolescent psychiatrist, that cool. I thought about something similar to that if I don't go to medical school (like I don't get in or something). I was thinking of becoming a adolescent psychologist though. I think that either are great fields. I though of psychology because I was teased and picked on a lot in high school and I thought it would be great to help kids who were having to go through the same ordeals. I thought it would be great to help kids who have gone through worse than teasing (I don't have experience with that though) too. Really though, your decision is great. Psychiatry is seems like it would be tough, so its great to see people who want to do that. :)
 
airadface said:
have you volunteer in this dept yet? :eek:

Nope, but it appeals to me for the time being! I'm sure I'll get a reality check in medical school. :D
 
What about med/peds.....won't that take care of your issues.....I am not sure....just a thought

FutureDrCynthia said:
Yes, thats what I was talking about. I think that would be a great age group to work with. They are old enough to tell you whats wrong but they are still at a younger age than what internal medicine doctors have to work with. I think pediatrics would be a good field, but I don't want to have to deal with the number of infants and kids under 3 or 4. I like kids that age, but they cant tell you whats wrong...well the 3 or 4 year old can but its still hard. Iknow that I would have that age group in FP, but not as many. I would really like to work with patients age 8 to 30. Thats why I am stuck between FP and adolescent medicine. In FP I would have that age group along with all other ages. and in adolescent med I would have almost that age group. The thing that worries me with FP, is that I am going to end up with mostly older patients (40 and up), I go to a FP dr and I have noticed that he has lots of patients that are older. I dont have a problem with that age group, I just don't want the majority of patients in that group.

CarleneM: I noticed that you were wanting to be a child and adolescent psychiatrist, that cool. I thought about something similar to that if I don't go to medical school (like I don't get in or something). I was thinking of becoming a adolescent psychologist though. I think that either are great fields. I though of psychology because I was teased and picked on a lot in high school and I thought it would be great to help kids who were having to go through the same ordeals. I thought it would be great to help kids who have gone through worse than teasing (I don't have experience with that though) too. Really though, your decision is great. Psychiatry is seems like it would be tough, so its great to see people who want to do that. :)
 
mmm specialize in poutine....Hey, get back to the MD/PhD forum you! This is PRE-allo. Looks like someone has been on SDN for 5 years, ahem. Don't you have some neurons to poke or something.

tr said:
Well, that's not neurology. Neurology is a medicine-based specialty. Sounds like path or rads would be more your speed.

On the other hand, you seem to spend a lot of time on here. Maybe you can specialize in eating poutine while you surf SDN and bait Republicans on the internet, occasionally taking a well-deserved break to hit the slopes in borrowed finery.
:p
 
Its all about surgery for me, hopefully plastic and reconstructive. I've wanted to be a surgeon since junior high and never really thought about anything else.
 
Hi DrCynthia,
Is there any particular reason you'd want to go up to 30? As an adolescent medicine doctor you could see people up to 21. Actually, at children's hospital where i work, a number of docs do keep some of their patients through early adulthood. you wouldn't see a new patient that is 28 but if you had been seeing a certain patient since, say, 16 you could opt to keep them, at least in some practices and if they wanted to stay with you obviously. I don't know about training- maybe you could opt to do an internship in general medicine or family practice and get board certified in that as well so you'd have an adequate background to see them into early adulthood. I think there are definitely options and ways you could work it so you could see your target agegroup pretty much exclusively especially as you move up the ladder from resident to attending to program director etc etc


FutureDrCynthia said:
Yes, thats what I was talking about. I think that would be a great age group to work with. They are old enough to tell you whats wrong but they are still at a younger age than what internal medicine doctors have to work with. I think pediatrics would be a good field, but I don't want to have to deal with the number of infants and kids under 3 or 4. I like kids that age, but they cant tell you whats wrong...well the 3 or 4 year old can but its still hard. Iknow that I would have that age group in FP, but not as many. I would really like to work with patients age 8 to 30. Thats why I am stuck between FP and adolescent medicine. In FP I would have that age group along with all other ages. and in adolescent med I would have almost that age group. The thing that worries me with FP, is that I am going to end up with mostly older patients (40 and up), I go to a FP dr and I have noticed that he has lots of patients that are older. I dont have a problem with that age group, I just don't want the majority of patients in that group.

CarleneM: I noticed that you were wanting to be a child and adolescent psychiatrist, that cool. I thought about something similar to that if I don't go to medical school (like I don't get in or something). I was thinking of becoming a adolescent psychologist though. I think that either are great fields. I though of psychology because I was teased and picked on a lot in high school and I thought it would be great to help kids who were having to go through the same ordeals. I thought it would be great to help kids who have gone through worse than teasing (I don't have experience with that though) too. Really though, your decision is great. Psychiatry is seems like it would be tough, so its great to see people who want to do that. :)
 
Aristotle said:
I admire all of you able to make a decision and stick to it. I'm probably the most indecisive person :laugh: I've been thinking about hem/onc but then again I would like to see a human being from time to time instead of researching all the time.

i've been thinking hem/onc now too for 2 years, and i think it's up to you how much clinic time you get. i think you do have to do at least 6 months of research during the hem/onc fellowship, though, but that's no big deal. so you can totally leave hem/onc an option :thumbup:
 
Med/Peds - Palliative Care for me (I hope)
 
I used to think psychiatry, but I have already changed my mind to EM. EM is something I can truly see myself doing in the future, but then again, I'm only in HS...
 
Dr.Cait said:
I used to think psychiatry, but I have already changed my mind to EM. EM is something I can truly see myself doing in the future, but then again, I'm only in HS...

Dr Cait -- have you had any experience in the ER?
 
MedicineBird said:
Dr Cait -- have you had any experience in the ER?
Didn't he say he was in high school ? There's no way he can have any experience in the ER.
 
Blake said:
Didn't he say he was in high school ? There's no way he can have any experience in the ER.
DrCait is a girl. I volunteered in the ER in high school so it is certainly possible. I was mainly doing scut work but did get to see people coding etc and some docs and nurses were very encouraging in allowing me to observe. i also volunteered in a free clinic in high school doing mainly intake stuff but hey, these opportunities are in fact out there for high schoolers.
 
CarleneM said:
DrCait is a girl. I volunteered in the ER in high school so it is certainly possible. I was mainly doing scut work but did get to see people coding etc and some docs and nurses were very encouraging in allowing me to observe. i also volunteered in a free clinic in high school doing mainly intake stuff but hey, these opportunities are in fact out there for high schoolers.
Didn't know that. They just wouldn't let an high schooler volunteer in the ER where I live though.
 
Top