Issues with picking a specialty

[bluebirdie]

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Hello everyone, I'm going through my 3rd year and I'm finding that I although, I enjoy my rotations, but I don't know if I necessarily found something I want to do with the rest of my life. Anyone here get to 4th year and not find anything that they wanted to go into? And if so, how did they go about choosing a specialty?

 

[usnavdoc]

Hello everyone, I'm going through my 3rd year and I'm finding that I although, I enjoy my rotations, but I don't know if I necessarily found something I want to do with the rest of my life. Anyone here get to 4th year and not find anything that they wanted to go into? And if so, how did they go about choosing a specialty?

In third year you do all the core rotations. Try doing some time in specialties that you see very little of. Anesthesiology, radiology, derm, ENT, whatever you might think is appealing.

 

[deleted87716]

This might help. 😀

 

[JackBauERfan]

This might help. 😀

I think this actually works quite well haha. Too bad it doesn't include ortho, and for some reason all of the ortho's folks I have met have not been mean/surgery type.

 

[Sohalia]

This might help. 😀

I thought that was funny 🙂 Anyway, I think Iserson's book "getting into a residency, a guide for medical students" is good because it goes through every specialty and many fellowships, and gives a description, info on wk hours, etc.

If you like taking tests, there's this website:
http://www.med-ed.virginia.edu/specialties/
and some others which I can't find right now.

I think it would be good to make an effort to spend time with physicians in specialties you don't know much about and would not otherwise see (PM&R?)

 

[MD Dreams]

Hello everyone, I'm going through my 3rd year and I'm finding that I although, I enjoy my rotations, but I don't know if I necessarily found something I want to do with the rest of my life. Anyone here get to 4th year and not find anything that they wanted to go into? And if so, how did they go about choosing a specialty?

If you can't find something that your absolutely passionate about then go into a specialty with good lifestyle and money. This way you'll enjoy it to the same degree of another specialty and the rewards will be better.

I also like the "Ultimate Guide To Choosing A Medical Specialty"

 

[Needleandthread]

Hello everyone, I'm going through my 3rd year and I'm finding that I although, I enjoy my rotations, but I don't know if I necessarily found something I want to do with the rest of my life. Anyone here get to 4th year and not find anything that they wanted to go into? And if so, how did they go about choosing a specialty?

Perhaps, you could decide between broad categories, such as surgery, medicine, or little patient contact. The last category might include pathology, anesthesiology, radiology. There's still some patient contact but it's more as a support staff rather than being the person the patient refers to as "my doctor".

If you hate surgical tasks, then you can rule out a number of specialties, such as OB-GYN, general surgery, ENT, ophthalmology, etc.

Consider the smaller specialties, such as PM&R, Radiation Oncology, Derm, etc.

Psychiatry is so different that people usually know that they want to do it or don't want to do it.

 

[Epithelioid]

I thought that was funny 🙂 Anyway, I think Iserson's book "getting into a residency, a guide for medical students" is good because it goes through every specialty and many fellowships, and gives a description, info on wk hours, etc.

If you like taking tests, there's this website:
http://www.med-ed.virginia.edu/specialties/
and some others which I can't find right now.

I think it would be good to make an effort to spend time with physicians in specialties you don't know much about and would not otherwise see (PM&R?)

I second the "personality test" approach. I took it my second year when I was SURE neurosurgery was my calling. The online test my med school sent me said I'd fit best in Neurology, Radiology, Pathology, or Dermatology, and I was totally disgusted. Two years and a lot of introspection later, I'm happily Rads-bound and impressed by that test's accuracy.

Cheers!

 

[Danger Man]

I think this actually works quite well haha. Too bad it doesn't include ortho, and for some reason all of the ortho's folks I have met have not been mean/surgery type.

If only I had that diagram years ago. Nice!! For ortho, you could have a part of the diagram below medical student that says "athlete/former athlete" with an arrow going directly to ortho. To predict chance of matching, an area for calculating the "Ortho index" could be made available. Ortho index = 1/3 Step I score + 2/3 Maximum bench press (in pounds). Ha Ha!!

 

[penguins]

I took the on-line specialty test. I hope it isn't right!
My #1 fit is PM&R which I have never had any remote interest in. Peds and aerospace medicine are in the top 10 - I hate working with children and their parents...what is aerospace medicine!
The last on the list is FP which beats out orthopedic surgery by just a point.
Neurology was #14. Maybe this explains why all my friends were so shocked that I picked neuro.
Was fun to do though.