Lying about wanting Primary Care

[Doctor246853]

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I was talking to a med student at the school Im doing summer research at and she told me that she told all the schools she applied to that she wants to do primary care. She has NO interest in primary care at all and is interested in surgery. Im sure this helped her out with the shortage of primary care so she pretty much played the system. My question is does this happen often that you guys know of? I know this is a dumb question but I was just curious.

 

[flatearth22]

 

[NickNaylor]

No. Other than being asked about general interests I was never asked what I specifically wanted to go into with respect to specialty.

While there are some schools that have a specific mission to train primary care physicians, most won't care. It's certainly not worth lying about. That's just silly.

 

[CodeBlu]

Happens all the time. That person has to live with their conscience, or lack thereof.

The politically correct option would be "I am interested in a lot of fields. I don't really know what field is best suited to me, until I am able to start experiencing it as a medical student. Primary care, surgery, psychiatry. I could end up anywhere. But first I want to keep my options open and test the waters."

Edit: I'm shocked Nick wasn't asked at all. A lot of my friends were asked "so what kind of medicine do you want to practice?"

 

[Doc of the Walk]

If not saying you have an interest in family medicine will not hurt your chances, why is it so important to shadow a family med person?

 

[CodeBlu]

If not saying you have an interest in family medicine will not hurt your chances, why is it so important to shadow a family med person?

Who said it was important?

You don't have to do anything you don't want to.

 

[NickNaylor]

Happens all the time. That person has to live with their conscience, or lack thereof.

The politically correct option would be "I am interested in a lot of fields. I don't really know what field is best suited to me, until I am able to start experiencing it as a medical student. Primary care, surgery, psychiatry. I could end up anywhere. But first I want to keep my options open and test the waters."

Edit: I'm shocked Nick wasn't asked at all. A lot of my friends were asked "so what kind of medicine do you want to practice?"

I was asked this at just about every interview, but it's easy to give a non-specific answer (which, in this case, was true for me). I'd usually say something along the lines of "I think I'd prefer something more procedural, but other than that I have no idea." I was never directly asked "so what specialty do you want to go into?"

 

[Doctor246853]

Thats some funny ****.

 

[Doctor246853]

I was asked this at just about every interview, but it's easy to give a non-specific answer (which, in this case, was true for me). I'd usually say something along the lines of "I think I'd prefer something more procedural, but other than that I have no idea." I was never directly asked "so what specialty do you want to go into?"

Dude..you are a god.

 

[LizzyM]

There is nothing new under the sun. I know a guy who did this to get into a state school back in the mid'70s. He ended up in academic medicine in a medical subspecialty and then was hired by a pharmacutical company that set him up in his own lab.

 

[Doc of the Walk]

Who said it was important?

You don't have to do anything you don't want to.

I always got the vibe that it was important because in 90% of WAMC threads, Catalystic is always suggesting to shadow a Family Med person if they haven't done so already

 

[CodeBlu]

I always got the vibe that it was important because in 90% of WAMC threads, Catalystic is always suggesting to shadow a Family Med person if they haven't done so already

Most people have a family doctor... good place to start maybe.
CatalystiK must have a good reason for doing this though. I'll have to ask.

 

[cge0]

...

 

[pfaction]

So when people say this, do you just not care about what they just said? That is, do you take the response to this question as neutral with no consequence on admissions?

I can speak from experience that people can have in-school epiphanies / decision changes.

I thought PCP was for me, but I decided to go into cardiology instead since I learned my family has a history of CVD.

 

[Charles_Carmichael]

I've told all my interviewers that I'm interested (currently) in pursuing radiation oncology, but that I understand that I may change my mind. No one gave me any grief. As long as you have some rationale behind why you're currently interested in a specialty, I don't think it will hurt you to say that you're interested in that field rather than primary care. Of course, use some common sense and don't talk trash about other fields.

 

[LizzyM]

So when people say this, do you just not care about what they just said? That is, do you take the response to this question as neutral with no consequence on admissions?

My school is not in the business of producing primary care providers so we aren't looking for people who are going to lie about wanting to do that (or actually want to do it). We want to attract people who want to be leaders in academic medicine and therefore research experience is highly valued.

 

[NewYorker9]

Dude..you are a god.

agreed