Picking a specialty part 2:

[stonewall22]

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So, I'm curious about something....I'm about to start school, well, a few months anyway, and don't know what specialty I'd like. I realize that's normal and am actually happy to be going into this without feeling like I've made some sort of decision. When I read about different medical fields, they nearly all sound like the would be enjoyable to me in some ways. For example, I think the following look pretty cool (I realize I'm not there, but from what I can learn these look cool):

family medicine
neonatology
orthopaedics
neurosurgery
urology
OB/Gyn...Reproductive endocrinology

Each school has a limited number of electives. From what I've read, most have between about 4 and 8 months of electives. Anyway, some of these I will see in core rotations (family medicine, OB/Gyn, maybe a little neonatology), but the others I'd need to use electives. So, I use electives to see orthopaedics, urology, reproductive endocrinology, and neurosurgery so that I can choose, but then I'm out of electives to do audition rotations, and some of these are pretty competitive and my chances of matching decrease quickly without doing auditions. How do people get around this? Is there another way to gain more exposure to some specialties without doing an elective rotation?

 

[spicedmanna]

Well, I'm hardly in a position to give advice on clinicals, given that I'm not exactly there yet (talk to me in a few months). However, that being said, there are rotations (and/or days) where you aren't going to be crazy busy all the time and you can talk to and follow some of the docs outside of your direct rotation around a bit, as long as it doesn't interfere with your regular duties (or theirs). I'll give you an example. Last summer, I did a short rotation at the ICU and we had a patient with a history of liver failure who presented with very bad gastroesophogeal bleeding due to varices. The GI consult had to scope her emergently to stop the bleeds. I asked to be there for the ride and got a chance to watch and be a small part of that procedure (well, mostly just stayed out of the way, though). Voila, some time experiencing GI and I'm sure if I were there longer, now that I knew that GI doc, I could have found some time to follow him around some more.

Also, some folks ahead of me, already doing their rotations, have told me that they sometimes try to take some ER calls, when the wards aren't too crazy, so that they can get some experience with that. Anyway, it seems that you can pick up a few things here and there, if you want, and you get a chance to interact with consults to your service, etc., from other specialties. If you are nice and stay out of the way, you may be able to experience some of the work that these specialists do.

Just a quick reminder that I'm only talking out of my limited experience. Thought I'd share it anyway.

 

[InspireMe]

Well I'm not on rotations yet (just a few months to go and something called "Step I" 😱 I have to get through), there are a limited amount of electives and I myself am trying to find out how to allocate them. In my experience I think you do have time, not to mention more access, to get a little more "exposure" to some of the fields of medicine you mentioned prior to rotations. School organizations will allow you to better gauge each of the fields and hopefully before your rotations you'll have a better idea of what you to go into (hence be able to plan accordingly). Just study hard and play hard and when it come time to do so ROCK the boards!

 

[NPEMTIV]

Don't forget that once you start medical school (primarily second year) you'll start learning a lot more about these specialties and you'll most likely be able to narrow it down a bit. A lot of specialties sound interesting until you learn enough about the monotony of each. Then suddenly it may seem less glamorous. As an example I really thought Pulmonology sounded interesting until I learned how much of my day would be spent performing PFTs.

 

[JaggerPlate]

I want to be a neurosurgeon/rockstar (performing ns during the day, playing with my band at night) who also does derm on the weekends - more of a hobby, and travels to poor nations to do PC work during my vacations??

Will I be able to do this as a DO?

 

[scpod]

I sometimes wonder why people even ask advice anymore, because they usually either don't believe what you are saying or they just don't take it. Like the guys who keep asking what they should read during the semmer to get ahead. Everyone tells them that they should read nothing and have fun because you cannot get ahead-- it's all wasted time. You look back, only after your first semester of med school, and say, "Damn. They were really right about that."

With that in mind I'm going to tell you that a lot of things look pretty cool until you live the life. About 6 months into your third year you will have a much better understanding of the way things work-- and you really won't believe me until you experience it. After 9 rotations, there are some things I thought were pretty cool before that are just absolute No's on my list. A lot of the specialties that look attractive to you now will look like monotonous punishment after you've been there for a while. I think that about halfway through third year you will have narrowed things down considerably. No, you won't necessarily have made a final choice, but you will have gotten to the point that you don't need 5 elective months and 5 more months of audition rotations. For instance, when you are doing Peds or OB you may have a chance to see enough neonatology that you can rule it out. You'll get to talk to attendings, and residents, and other students in your class about how they feel. Trust me, your fellow students are great sources for information. We talk to each other all the time about what's happening.

Take this time and forget about what you want to do in your fourth year. You need to spend all your time on making sure you do the best you can in your first two years, learning the material well and doing great on the boards. Don't put the cart before the horse!

 

[Luba Licious]

Don't forget that once you start medical school (primarily second year) you'll start learning a lot more about these specialties and you'll most likely be able to narrow it down a bit. A lot of specialties sound interesting until you learn enough about the monotony of each. Then suddenly it may seem less glamorous. As an example I really thought Pulmonology sounded interesting until I learned how much of my day would be spent performing PFTs.

Pulmonologists generally don't perform PFTs...that's what RTs do. Pulmonologists spend their entire day with people who have smoked their life away and now have COPD. With a little sleep medicine and critical care thrown in.

 

[futuredo32]

You could always shadow physicians in different specialties a little bit here and there during your first two years of med school.