Minds changed after rotations

[justD.O.it]

---

Members don't see this ad.

I will be starting school in less than a month now and I am curious about how rotations affect students' initial thoughts about the type of medicine they would like to practice. I've heard that only a fraction (10% or so, but who knows how accurate that is) of med students actually end up doing what they thought they'd do heading into their first year of medical school. Could anyone share a specific story about what you thought you would do prior to school, and what you ultimately chose to go into? I mean was anyone dead-set on doing plastic surgery before rotations, for example, and then end up going into pediatrics.

 

[TCOM-2006]

at the end of second year, i was so burned out, that nothing sounded good. i thought i would especially dislike IM, but loved it. i thought i would like PM&R - but it ended up not being a good fit for me. a good friend of mine started off wanting to do geriatrics, and is now going into pediatrics.

so - bottom line is to keep an open mind no matter how sure you think you are about specializing. make a list of priorities, career goals, etc - and see what specialties fit these. i would recomend buying or borrowing "getting into residency" by iverson - search B&N or amazon for this. visit the websites of specialty organizations for more info - here's a list:

http://www.ama-assn.org/ama/pub/category/7634.html

http://www.do-online.osteotech.org/index.cfm?PageID=lcl_spclty
(osteopathic)

if you really have an interest - think about joining these specialty societies if they offer student membership.

check out residency programs / other stats, at:

http://www.ama-assn.org/ama/pub/category/2997.html

http://www.do-online.osteotech.org/index.cfm?PageID=sir_oppmain
(AOA programs)

if you have an interest - make sure to test this with experience, especially if you have an interest in something that's not a core 3rd year rotation, or falls late in the 3rd year. you basically want to know what you want to do by feb/march of your 3rd year (or perhaps earlier for competative specialties) mid-spring so you can schedule 4th year electives. so, i would recommend scheduling what you think you want to do for late fall / early spring, if possible. if you have an interest in optho, derm, PM&R, anesthesia, areospace medicine, medical genetics, etc - try to find some time during the first 2 years to spend a few days with someone in that specialty to evaluate it

 

[raidermedic]

Friend of mine was gung ho surgery since undergrad. Went to school, did well in class, made loads of contacts, did research and published in surgery. Come 3rd year surgery rotation he says "This sucks I would never want to do this for the rest of my life." Now he is going into 4th year with plans of internal med.

 

[justD.O.it]

Thanks for your quick replies, I appreciate your advice. 👍

 

[Vince]

With about 10 years of experience in EMS as a FF/Paramedic I thought I was destined to be an ER doc...although I did keep an open mind about other specialties like General Surgery, Internal Medicine, and Cardiology.

I realized during the first two years that I did have a genuine interest in medicine...but more so of the science and disease processes. The patient care that I actually enjoyed as a Paramedic was not there once I started my third year rotations. Having a medical background definitely helps, but it was a different environment and the environment of being a doctor in today's health care system was not as enjoyable for me. Learning about the different diseases and the diagnoses was pretty cool though...

So I chose a specialty that I would have NEVER predicted before starting medical school and those that I used to work with on the ambulance were astounded when I told them the specialty I was going into. You never know what you are going to become interested in when you start medical school but there are so many different specialties to chose from, you will likely find something that interests you.

GO RADIOLOGY!!!! 😀 👍

 

[Doc34]

IN the link http://opportunities.aoa-net.org/index.htm

Many of those residencies do not offer pay or positions for OGME 1 students. Is this because you MUST DO a 1 year rotating internship, or can you just go into an AOA approved residency and count your first year as the "internship year". For example, I think I want to do PEDS, do I have to a 1 year AOA internship even though I am going to a 3 year AOA residency, or is that one year internship only required if you are going to do an AMA residency.(I need to do at least one year in an AOA because I am in florida)

Thanks

 

[allendo]

IN the link http://opportunities.aoa-net.org/index.htm

Many of those residencies do not offer pay or positions for OGME 1 students. Is this because you MUST DO a 1 year rotating internship, or can you just go into an AOA approved residency and count your first year as the "internship year". For example, I think I want to do PEDS, do I have to a 1 year AOA internship even though I am going to a 3 year AOA residency, or is that one year internship only required if you are going to do an AMA residency.(I need to do at least one year in an AOA because I am in florida)

Thanks

Yeah,
The D.O. residencies require the one year intership, and you match into that just like your residency. If you go allopathic you skip the internship and then petition to get your first year of residency to count as your internship. The D.O. route is 4 yrs and the allo route is 3, so you save the year. Allo peds is wide open for D.O.'s so you could save yourself a year of resident pay and get into your career.

 

[OrthoFixation]

Yeah,
The D.O. residencies require the one year intership, and you match into that just like your residency. If you go allopathic you skip the internship and then petition to get your first year of residency to count as your internship. The D.O. route is 4 yrs and the allo route is 3, so you save the year. Allo peds is wide open for D.O.'s so you could save yourself a year of resident pay and get into your career.

I think you may have a mixed bag of fact or near facts here.

First of all, only five states require DO's to have the DO internship year. Oklahoma and Florida are in that group. Maybe MI or OH, but I'm not sure.

The first year (PG-1) is typically considered "Internship" whether allo or osteo. The remainder is considered "Residency." Most PG-1 provide exposure to varied departments. This exposure can be reduced in a combined program (like an integrated Plastics program). After you Internship PG-1 year, you become eligible to take step III of licensing, whether osteo or allo.

The only way I've heard of adding a year is doing the PG-1 osteo for licensing then starting PG-1 again in an allo program. Seems silly when few to none have been denied the petition route when a DO goes allo residency. This is a licensing issue, nothing else.

I've never heard of a PG-1 position not being "paid."

I can't spend the time to research it, but it has been discussed in great length on SDN. My thoughts may not be 100% correct, but the last couple of posts seemed very misleading.

 

[allendo]

I think you may have a mixed bag of fact or near facts here.

First of all, only five states require DO's to have the DO internship year. Oklahoma and Florida are in that group. Maybe MI or OH, but I'm not sure.

The first year (PG-1) is typically considered "Internship" whether allo or osteo. The remainder is considered "Residency." Most PG-1 provide exposure to varied departments. This exposure can be reduced in a combined program (like an integrated Plastics program). After you Internship PG-1 year, you become eligible to take step III of licensing, whether osteo or allo.

The only way I've heard of adding a year is doing the PG-1 osteo for licensing then starting PG-1 again in an allo program. Seems silly when few to none have been denied the petition route when a DO goes allo residency. This is a licensing issue, nothing else.

I've never heard of a PG-1 position not being "paid."

I can't spend the time to research it, but it has been discussed in great length on SDN. My thoughts may not be 100% correct, but the last couple of posts seemed very misleading.

The osteo internship is paid. It's basically your first year of residency. See osteo ER residencies start at PG-2, you have to go through intern year first. Thats one of the biggest reasons that osteopaths try to land allo em residencies. Your correct about the 5 states that require the internship for licensure, thats why I mentioned the fact that you can petition the AOA for your first year of allo residency to count as the equivilent or your AOA intern year and therefore you could be licensed in those 5 states. So if you were to go into osteo ER residency, you match into internship, then do the 3 year residency. So the total 3+1=4. Although, there are allo ER residencies that start a pg-2, but the majority start at pg-1 and only last 3 years.

 

[double elle]

I didn't read the other replies....so, sorry if I re-iterate some things.

It's funny because I was just talking about this the other day with a fellow intern.

The comment I made was "I wonder if I would have gone into surgery if I'd done my rotations somewhere else."
I had absolutely NO interest in surgery during 1st and 2nd years. I didn't NOT have an interest...but I just figured I'd do a primary care thing. However, my rotation experience during third year was so positive that I was hooked. My FP experiences were very disappointing. My medicine experiences were great as well. But, seriouly, had I been in a bigger institution - where I never got closer than 5 feet from the OR table...standing behind people higher in rank than me...would I have chosen surgery? I have no idea. A good friend had a terrible - I mean terrible!! - surgery rotation and never scheduled another. She had planned on seriously considering surgery our first 2 years. I tried to convince her to come up and rotate where I was, but she wouldn't. She matched anesthesia...but, I will forever consider her a surgery person - because that's what her personality is to me. There is no doubt in my mind, that - if she'd had the same experience as me - we'd be interns together in a surgery program.

If you have something you REALLY like the first 2 years...or an experienc with a specialty that lead you to med school in the first place - then go ahead and do your first required rotation in that subject. If it's a great experience...good for you...you've found your calling. However, if it's a horrible experience, and you find yourself extremely disappointed because you expected something entirely different..PLEASE schedule another roation in that field....just do it at a different hospital, town, clinic...WHATEVER. You just never know how much influence an environment or doc has on your experience. If you really thought you wanted to do that specialty, you owe it to yourself to try it again somewhere else.