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- Dec 13, 2013
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--also posted in peds--
Hey everyone--I've used this site as a guide through undergrad and med school, and it's been very helpful--thanks to everyone contributing to make it a great resource. This is my first time posting, and I really appreciate your ear (or actually, eyes) and any advice or help y'all might have to offer.
I'm wrapping up my third year, so the ball's rolling regarding dean's letter, CV, resume--all the residency app stuff. Mid-year, I had been through rotations like medicine, surgery, and OB-GYN and pretty much came to conclude my personality and strengths would be better fitted for a consult/behind the scenes role, like rads, anesthesia, path. I just wasn't energized by patient interaction and clinic like some people were; instead, it seemed to exhaust me (and that's just in the--let's face it--noncontributory role of the med student). I'm not a very warm and fuzzy person on the outside. So when my radiology elective came around, I was really looking forward to something very different, and I could kind of see myself in that role. The "expert" diagnostician, working with other physicians, getting to focus on one study at a time and not juggling social issues/fielding consults/prepping discharge that is the world of the inpatient primary. Also, everyone in rads was very chill and very much my kind of people. I specifically really liked peds rads, as pediatric disease can be so unique, and they seem to be the last people in the field who really get to touch every modality regularly (in academia, anyway). So, I was pretty sold on it at that point.
Then, peds came, and I got confused. I felt less stiff on the rotation and cared about the patients more. I still didn't care for social stuff, but I enjoyed patient care more because it wasn't your adult COPD/CHF/diabetes/HTN cocktail. It was usually one specific problem to work on and solve. And I also found that I really cared about the special needs kids (cerebral palsy, genetic syndromes, crippling epilepsy) a lot. They just made me think that these are the kids that need so much help, and no one really talks about them. Anyway, I didn't really give peds that much thought by the end of the rotation just because it was getting close to the end of MS3, I was tired, and I just settled in to having already made up my mind. Now, though, I'm finishing the year with a peds subspecialty elective, and I'm really having a great time and starting to seriously reconsider. Again, everyone in peds is happy, they bring me out of my shell, and many of the patients are a lot of fun. Also, a lot of the diseases afflicting them are terribly interesting.
I'm to the point where I'm working on my personal statement, and I just can't seem to find anything to say about radiology. I can think of a whole list for peds, though. Is that my answer? Anyone else out there struggle with a decision like this--if not exactly the same, between similar fields? Am I forgetting to think about something that I should really consider?
What mainly scares me about this is peds seems so, so different from radiology.
Hey everyone--I've used this site as a guide through undergrad and med school, and it's been very helpful--thanks to everyone contributing to make it a great resource. This is my first time posting, and I really appreciate your ear (or actually, eyes) and any advice or help y'all might have to offer.
I'm wrapping up my third year, so the ball's rolling regarding dean's letter, CV, resume--all the residency app stuff. Mid-year, I had been through rotations like medicine, surgery, and OB-GYN and pretty much came to conclude my personality and strengths would be better fitted for a consult/behind the scenes role, like rads, anesthesia, path. I just wasn't energized by patient interaction and clinic like some people were; instead, it seemed to exhaust me (and that's just in the--let's face it--noncontributory role of the med student). I'm not a very warm and fuzzy person on the outside. So when my radiology elective came around, I was really looking forward to something very different, and I could kind of see myself in that role. The "expert" diagnostician, working with other physicians, getting to focus on one study at a time and not juggling social issues/fielding consults/prepping discharge that is the world of the inpatient primary. Also, everyone in rads was very chill and very much my kind of people. I specifically really liked peds rads, as pediatric disease can be so unique, and they seem to be the last people in the field who really get to touch every modality regularly (in academia, anyway). So, I was pretty sold on it at that point.
Then, peds came, and I got confused. I felt less stiff on the rotation and cared about the patients more. I still didn't care for social stuff, but I enjoyed patient care more because it wasn't your adult COPD/CHF/diabetes/HTN cocktail. It was usually one specific problem to work on and solve. And I also found that I really cared about the special needs kids (cerebral palsy, genetic syndromes, crippling epilepsy) a lot. They just made me think that these are the kids that need so much help, and no one really talks about them. Anyway, I didn't really give peds that much thought by the end of the rotation just because it was getting close to the end of MS3, I was tired, and I just settled in to having already made up my mind. Now, though, I'm finishing the year with a peds subspecialty elective, and I'm really having a great time and starting to seriously reconsider. Again, everyone in peds is happy, they bring me out of my shell, and many of the patients are a lot of fun. Also, a lot of the diseases afflicting them are terribly interesting.
I'm to the point where I'm working on my personal statement, and I just can't seem to find anything to say about radiology. I can think of a whole list for peds, though. Is that my answer? Anyone else out there struggle with a decision like this--if not exactly the same, between similar fields? Am I forgetting to think about something that I should really consider?
What mainly scares me about this is peds seems so, so different from radiology.