I keep hearing things about the "culture" of each of the medical subspecialties. People advise me that I need to carefuly evaluate the culture of medicine, family practice, psychiatry, pediatrics, neurology, surgery, ob/gyn, etc. before I make a decision on what specialty I should pursue. The problem is that I just don't believe that there is such a thing.
I just finished a psychiatry rotation. One of the residents was a very thoughtful person, actually anal is a better word. The other was a very nice, laid-back person. One attending was very thoughtful and scrunched up his brow whenever he pondered over a patient. The other was a kind of odd fellow, but no odder than people I've met from other specialties. No one fit the stereotype that another summed up with, "All people in psych are worse off than the patients they treat. Psychiatry just attracts those types." I just use psychiatry as an example of the idea that there are all kinds of people each of the specialties and there is no unifying "culture."
I just finished a psychiatry rotation. One of the residents was a very thoughtful person, actually anal is a better word. The other was a very nice, laid-back person. One attending was very thoughtful and scrunched up his brow whenever he pondered over a patient. The other was a kind of odd fellow, but no odder than people I've met from other specialties. No one fit the stereotype that another summed up with, "All people in psych are worse off than the patients they treat. Psychiatry just attracts those types." I just use psychiatry as an example of the idea that there are all kinds of people each of the specialties and there is no unifying "culture."
