reflections and such

[naegleria brain]

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I'm still in med school, and not yet in clinical years, although Ive shadowed a lot on the floors; and here are my thoughts:

med school preps you for an internal medicine/family/etc. type practice. There is little surgical exposure. each exam you have to think like an internist to answer the question.

i hate that. i loved calculus in high school; i like being presented with the problem, and then solving it. i think surgery is more like that; you are presented with the patient, his radiographs, and the problem. you go in with your arsenal to fix it. no gleaning over a travel history or history of illness to find some detail that could possibly point you to the correct diagnosis, then get him tested for it, and hope your drug works.

anyway, that's what i'm doing here, i know my personality, the way i think, suits me better for surgery over internal medicine.

but what kind of surgery is the question? i'm hoping third year on rotations in surgery i'll figure that out

what do you guys think of all this?

 

[footcramp]

third year exposes you primilarily to general surgery. if you want to know what the subspecialties are like, you should do some shadowing now. that way you can have some sense of what interests you and can schedule your fourth year electives accordingly. you will only have a few months of fourth year electives under your belt before you have to commit to a specialty on ERAS.

 

[toxic-megacolon]

Being able to "think like an internist" when the occasion calls for it is one of the things that separates Surgeons from Surgical PAs and SAs.

 

[drpectin]

Being able to "think like an internist" when the occasion calls for it is one of the things that separates Surgeons from Surgical PAs and SAs.

While our residencies and boards might differ from non-operative specialties, ALL medical students and interns are required to take the same exam to be licensed physicians.