Third year student and don't know what to apply in--need outsiders' perspectives

[frubeak]

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Hey all,
Looking for some advice, as I've been ruminating over career decisions for a while and still have come to no conclusions. Kind of starting to freak out considering that I'll have to apply to residency soon. I'm hoping that maybe some posters can provide me with some fresh perspectives on fields that I haven't considered that may help me figure things out....

Third year rotations have been going well, but nothing has stood out as being extremely fascinating to me. I often find myself looking at the clock and thinking about what I'll do after work vs. what I should be doing while I'm at work (but I've doing ok on rotations, a mix of high passes and honors).

Overall I prefer to work with kids=females>middle-aged adults>elderly. I like using my hands, but do not want the surgeon's lifestyle or intensity of procedures. Short procedures with instant results and gratification are my favorite. I also like working with healthier patients, though the brainpower required for evaluating difficult patients excites me.

Overall I know that in the future I will be concerned more with lifestyle than work. And by this I am not necessarily referring to income (don't really care so long as I can afford to travel a bit here and there), but hours and stress levels. I want to have a family in the future and have a job that is flexible and accommodating towards that.

I've thought about derm or ophtho, but am concerned that I might get bored (not sure how often this happens, but I feel like some of their work may get repetitive and not require as much puzzle-solving, which I would need to sustain my interest).

Any suggestions for other fields that may be a good match? Thanks for any advice.

 

[Smurfette]

anesthesia?
PM&R (can do pain injections, sports med including HS athletes, etc.)?
ER? (get taste of excitement/problem solving that ends when patient leaves ER)?
GU (better lifestyle than GenSurg, mix of office and OR)?
ENT (see GU; plus do a fair amount of peds work---tonsils, etc. Don't have to do crazy big whacks if you don't want to)?

 

[drizzt3117]

Peds sounds like a good fit.

Hey all,
Looking for some advice, as I've been ruminating over career decisions for a while and still have come to no conclusions. Kind of starting to freak out considering that I'll have to apply to residency soon. I'm hoping that maybe some posters can provide me with some fresh perspectives on fields that I haven't considered that may help me figure things out....

Third year rotations have been going well, but nothing has stood out as being extremely fascinating to me. I often find myself looking at the clock and thinking about what I'll do after work vs. what I should be doing while I'm at work (but I've doing ok on rotations, a mix of high passes and honors).

Overall I prefer to work with kids=females>middle-aged adults>elderly. I like using my hands, but do not want the surgeon's lifestyle or intensity of procedures. Short procedures with instant results and gratification are my favorite. I also like working with healthier patients, though the brainpower required for evaluating difficult patients excites me.

Overall I know that in the future I will be concerned more with lifestyle than work. And by this I am not necessarily referring to income (don't really care so long as I can afford to travel a bit here and there), but hours and stress levels. I want to have a family in the future and have a job that is flexible and accommodating towards that.

I've thought about derm or ophtho, but am concerned that I might get bored (not sure how often this happens, but I feel like some of their work may get repetitive and not require as much puzzle-solving, which I would need to sustain my interest).

Any suggestions for other fields that may be a good match? Thanks for any advice.

 

[OveractiveBrain]

The Peds=Females + Desire for procedures puts you either at a pediatric subspecialist (GI for Scopes, Pulm for Bronchs, Meh Cards for Angio) or OB. Subspecialties are not so easy to come by, particularly in peds, but (as below) you sound like you've got a bawler application, you can propably manage.

OB/GYN offers many "procedures" in the clinic. Most of them are swabs, biopsies (colpo) and microscopes (infxn), but you also have some OR time. Little ORs like cervical dilations, dilation and curettage, endometrial sampling can be what you do. You can even join a practice where someone else does the histerectomies and c-sections.

Your looking at Derm or Optho leads me to believe you've got all Honors and a 260+ on your Step. If you're at that level, stick with Optho. Since you aren't passionate about "helping people" and you have such a great app, why "waste" yourself on the little guys? You can do lasers, implants, eye exams. You're damn straight you'll be board as ****, but oh well, such is the life of someone who makes a million a year...

 

[Geekchick921]

anesthesia?
PM&R (can do pain injections, sports med including HS athletes, etc.)?
ER? (get taste of excitement/problem solving that ends when patient leaves ER)?
GU (better lifestyle than GenSurg, mix of office and OR)?
ENT (see GU; plus do a fair amount of peds work---tonsils, etc. Don't have to do crazy big whacks if you don't want to)?

Peds ENT is my first thought as well, especially considering this statement:

"Overall I prefer to work with kids=females>middle-aged adults>elderly. I like using my hands, but do not want the surgeon's lifestyle or intensity of procedures. Short procedures with instant results and gratification are my favorite."

If you want a personal story, seeing how quickly my daughter improved after ear tubes was enough to start making me consider ENT myself. At 14 months old she'd had a persistent bilateral ear infection with fluid behind her eardrum for 2-3 months. She'd been walking with assistance for 2-3 months but never on her own because it was screwing with her balance, she hadn't learned any new words in awhile and was sleeping horribly, as lying down was causing her a lot of discomfort. Eventually after another round of antibiotics failed to get rid of the infection, we had an ENT consult, and the recommended tubes. After a 15 minute procedure she took a dozen steps on her own later that same day (I got it on tape 🙂). She started sleeping well and her vocabulary blew up because she could finally hear properly again. A year later her language is way past most kids her age.

I know that's not as glamorous as reattaching limbs or anything, but it made a world of difference to me and Chicklet, and pretty much every other mom I know on another message board that I frequent whose child has had tubes put in will sing their praises right along with me, and as a Peds ENT, you'll do a LOT of them.

So yeah, maybe look into that. 👍

 

[DoctwoB]

Your looking at Derm or Optho leads me to believe you've got all Honors and a 260+ on your Step. If you're at that level, stick with Optho. Since you aren't passionate about "helping people" and you have such a great app, why "waste" yourself on the little guys? You can do lasers, implants, eye exams. You're damn straight you'll be board as ****, but oh well, such is the life of someone who makes a million a year...

If you think Ophtho makes a million bucks a year you're highly mistaken.

 

[PistolPete]

Short procedures with instant results and gratification are my favorite. I also like working with healthier patients, though the brainpower required for evaluating difficult patients excites me.

Sounds like anesthesia, ER, derm, obgyn, ophtho, subspecialty peds, PM&R with pain fellowship,

Instant results, liking healthy patients rather than the geriatric population rules out IM, FM, neuro, RadOnc, psych. You stated you hate the gen surg lifestyle, which is fine. Rads and Path are most likely out, since rads has no procedures (unless you do IR, but you'd have to sit through 5 years of residency with no procedures), and path has no procedures and you're patients aren't healthy, they're dead.

Sounds like anesthesia, ER, derm and subspecialty peds fit best.