Time capsule (Specialty choice as of now)

[Titus Times]

Ok im a bit bored so I thought up this thread.

What specialty would you choose if you were applying for residency this year and 3 reasons why.

Everyone says medical students will change their mind about their specialty multiple times throughout medical school. Some people say they went in with a specialty in mind and ended up in that specialty, so I think it would be interesting to see how much or how little our mindsets changed on this journey from pre med to Physician so here goes.

As of now my specialty of choice would be Emergency Medicine.

1. Im a bit of a night owl

2. I think I would love the adrenaline rush, pressure and opportunity to save a life

3. The abundance of procedures and lack of paper work

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[Lollygag]

Neurosurgery!

Because I just think its cool lol

will probably end up changing my mind, I heard most people do

 

[Dick Jones]

Neurosurgery!

Because I just think its cool lol

will probably end up changing my mind, I heard most people do

Neurosurgery as well!

Challenging cases!
Very competitive specialty=Job stability(thinking about starting a fam one day)
In my opinion, it's the best specialty for saving lives!

 

[MedPR]

Ortho.

1. I want to do surgery
2. I like wood working, so the surgical tools used in ortho seem cool to me.
3. As far as I know, ortho is highly respected both in the medical world and the real world.

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[MedPR]

Btw there are websites that you can use to email yourself several years from now.

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[Geebeejay]

I like this idea...

for me, I'll pick.....EM

1. the obvious choice (I have almost 3 years of ED experience already pre medical school)
2. reasonable hours
3. "the trenches" - working in a less controllable, less predictable environment

See ya in 4ish years!

edit: would be cool if admins could lock this thread in August and reopen it in 3 years in Allo for us Probably too complicated to happen, huh?

 

[Lollygag]

Btw there are websites that you can use to email yourself several years from now.

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Sweet

 

[mcloaf]

Neurosurgery as well!

Challenging cases!
Very competitive specialty=Job stability(thinking about starting a fam one day)
In my opinion, it's the best specialty for saving lives!

I'll hop on the neurosurgery bandwagon as well.

However, job stability will be great with nearly anything you choose to pursue as a doc, assuming you do your job competently. Neurosurg definitely isn't considered a family-friendly field, though (something I've been thinking about quite a bit myself ).

 

[MedPR]

Sweet

I used it Junior year of UG and emailed myself "you better be in med school by now a**hole". Got the email last year. I guess I let myself down.

 

[Stumpyman]

Family med

-Love the schedule and day-to-day lifestyle (in general; plus more time to spend away from work)

-Want to have long-term relationships with patients

-General stability of income (although not as lucrative; also have the loan repayment programs)

 

[Lollygag]

I used it Junior year of UG and emailed myself "you better be in med school by now a**hole". Got the email last year. I guess I let myself down.

Hahahaha lol that's hilarious

 

[CaliGirl14]

Plastics

 

[Eon]

IM probably in cardiology, oncology or infectious diseases. depends on what i end up loving to do more, the heart, cancer for my grandpa or microbes.

 

[futureczar]

Otolaryngology! (with other interests being gen surg with specialization, interventional cards/rad/neuro)

1. Its a surgical field... and I almost cant imagine doing anything nonsurgical (I say almost because so many people are so against surgery... so I want to cover my bases in case I change my mind)
2. Enourmous amount of variety. I had no idea what ENT entailed until I got around to looking it up. Think of everything above the neck, and subtract the eyes and the brain... and you get ENT. Head and neck cancers, skull base surgery, facial trauma/plastics, endoscopic sinus surgery, vocal cord/larynx, neurotology... the list goes on and on...
3. Good control over lifestyle. Residency sucks, because you have to learn all of the above things. But afterwards it is all up to you how you want to practice. Want to be a hardcore academic head and neck cancer guy who works 80 hour weeks? Go ahead, there are plenty of complex robotic surgeries to satisfy you. Want to work 40 hour weeks in the clinic with minimal OR time? There are private practices that would kill to have you because of the enourmous demand.

Overall its one of the most exciting fields for my tastes. Unfortunately its also a field that is becoming ridiculously competitive. Apparently the number of applicants increased by 100 over just a few years. (There are only 200 or so spots so thats a hugeee increase). Definitely see myself looking more into it if my board scores are up to par come third year of med school.

 

[phikapdoctor]

General surgery, or cardiothoracic although I heard their hours aren't too swell. I have never been interested in ortho or neuro. ENT looks appealing also.

 

[EnergyDrink]

Radiology.

Who wouldn't want X-ray vision?

I really enjoyed shadowing in ID though.

 

[Titus Times]

Lol x-ray vision ^^

MedPr Whats the site called.

 

[sunflower18]

Adult or Pediatric: Neurology, Critical Care, Heme/Onc, Anesthesia, Neurosurgery, ID, Cardiology.. or Neonatology

AHH. I think, right now, I would probably go for pediatrics, hoping to specialize in one of those fields later. I don't think I could stand being a general practitioner.

So I'll go with peds subspecialty.. probably critical care or neonatology:
- love kids and families
- love high acuity, very sick population
- want an intellectual challenge

 

[lobo.solo]

Interventional cardiology

Reasons:

1. Working with my hands performing an invasive procedure.
2. trend toward less and less invasive procedure as opposed to open-body surgery.
3. Field is going to advance hand in hand with technology.

 

[nychila]

Orthopedics:

1. Surgery is rewarding
2. Good money
3. Conducive to private practice

Cool thread.

 

[Spinach Dip]

Anesthesiology

1. It's always fascinated me (Seriously! I got to help with some veterinary anesthesiology last summer and it was amazing!)
2. Only have to deal with patients when they're asleep (Okay, not entirely true, but closer than many docs get)
3. Don't have to make any incisions or suture anything together after you're done
4. Good pay (One of the highest, though I've heard the hours can suck)
5. Every hospital in the country is a potential employer

But #1 is by far the biggest motivating factor.

 

[ShenanigansMD]

Nephrology, so I can develop a caffeine molecule that doesn't force my patients to take extra bathroom trips.

 

[drshark]

Anesthesia

1. i like needles
2. i like listening to music
3. ducks

 

[Aerus]

Family Medicine.

1. Love the hours and lifestyle.
2. Love the constant, long-term social interaction with patients.
3. I get to study/know a bit of everything!
4. Much more chill than many of the higher up residencies (ignoring ROAD).

 

[Dick Jones]

I was referring to after the push for more physicians. At this time, I believe they're trying to solve the physician shortage. I think harder specialties will be somewhat shielded from competition. But who knows....

 

[Jas1360]

Trauma surgeon

1. I'm actually undecided
2. One of my interviewers thought that's what I was going to choose based on all the things I have done
3. It sounds like something that won't be boring

 

[dextor2003]

gen peds or med/peds

1. love kids
2. get to build long term relationships with them and see them grow up
3. if med/peds, would get to see a breadth of cases in both adults and kids; more different types of cases = more challenging/fun

 

[j0tt3r]

IM or OB/GYN

1) Opportunity for long term patient relationships
2) Huge range of research options
3) See both chronic and acute issues

 

[Bluto385]

EM

1. See and treat a little of everything
2. Intense but shorter number of weekly shifts relative to other fields
3. Fun interaction with medical team gives it the "locker room" feel. Time will tell how many ED's actually operate like this.

 

[Xlorgguss]

Cardiothoracic/Ortho/ENT/General Surg or PMR

I mean obviously I'm pre-med so I just have an *idea* of what I might like.

Surgery & Sub-specialties

1. Surgery is exciting. You see new cases that challenge you and keep you on your toes.
2. You see the immediate effect of your interventions.
3. I am more interested in anatomy and physiology then medicine and drug interactions?

PMR
1. The patient interaction would be nice.
2. Opportunity to have a successful private practice
3. Interesting individuals like spine trauma patients. It seems like a nice culmination of physical rehabilitation, physical therapy, occupational therapy, and medicine all rolled into one.

 

[Bacchus]

Neurosurgery as well!

Challenging cases!
Very competitive specialty=Job stability(thinking about starting a fam one day)
In my opinion, it's the best specialty for saving lives!

There are competitive specialties besides neurosurg where you can start a family and actually see them.

 

[Charles Darwin]

Medical genetics, IR, ortho, anesthesiology

 

[DrGuy]

Trauma Surgeon
1. James "Red" Duke M.D.
2.I met Dr. Duke while volunteering at "his hospital" and he showed me how awesome surgery is
3.Why the hell not!!!

 

[badasshairday]

I'm an intern now. Fun to think back about how I've changed.

Pre-med: not sure, but ophthalmology was cool as my volunteer experience was in a rural eye clinic in a developing country.

Medical student prior to clinical rotatoins: ANesthesiology. Did some research on it between M1 and M2 year.

3rd year medical student: Seriously considering anesthesiology, radiology -> VIR, IM -> cards, gen surg -> vascular surg.

Now I'm an intern, about to start Radiology residency in July, with ultimate goal of Vascular and Interventional Radiology.

 

[Lucidity]

Urology
1. Nearly 2 years of experience working with Urologists, really like the personality of the physicians.
2. Surgery...I am impatient and like to fix things...
3. I doubt any field has better anatomical jokes

 

[Lucidity]

Urology
1. Nearly 2 years of experience working with Urologists, really like the personality of the physicians.
2. Surgery...I am impatient and like to fix things...
3. I doubt any field has better anatomical jokes

4. Can be a lifestyle speciality...many of the docs I meet pull in a decent income and actually see their families doing so.

 

[Titus Times]

Didn't think we'd see such a wide range of specialties, NICE.

Keep em coming

 

[Mdtichen]

Neurosurgery. I've had two PI's that are both neurosurgeons so they have been pushing me in that direction.

 

[mcloaf]

4. Can be a lifestyle speciality...many of the docs I meet pull in a decent income and actually see their families doing so.

Truth. I did most of my shadowing with urologists and work with some now in the lab, definitely a pretty baller specialty with a nice balance and great perks.

 

[Amba]

Urology
1. Nearly 2 years of experience working with Urologists, really like the personality of the physicians.
2. Surgery...I am impatient and like to fix things...
3. I doubt any field has better anatomical jokes

My reasons for urology are the same. Add in great research opportunities, awesome fellowships, and decent lifestyle (for being a surgical subspecialty). Downsides are constant penis jokes by my friends and long residency.

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[aspiringdoc09]

Psych/Neurology. I may end up in a combined residency or lean more towards Neuro because of my research interest in neurodegenerative diseases.

3 Reasons for Psych:
1) I've always played the listener in all my relationships.
2) The brain is completely fascinating to me and its processes
3) I like giving useful and sound advice especially the motivational type.

3 Reasons for Neuro:
1) The brain is AWESOME (#2 from above)
2) I'm interested in research in this area
3) It's an area that is still puzzling.

In 4 years I will see where I end up. I thought about neurosurgery before I finally shadowed. I don't like the clinic side because it lacks diversity (same thing day in and out). Also, most neurosurgeons are spine surgeons and there isn't too many brain neurosurgeons, which is my interest. I did enjoy the OR side but you have to do both and being 50% happy isn't enough.

 

[Charles Darwin]

My reasons for urology are the same. Add in great research opportunities, awesome fellowships, and decent lifestyle (for being a surgical subspecialty). Downsides are constant penis jokes by my friends and long residency.

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I heard it's long AND hard.

 

[tn4596]

Ophtho
-gets to cut into people's eyes
-few calls/emergencies
-never seen an unhappy ophtho so...it must be a cool job

 

[acslater99]

General Surgery:


1. Feels like it will be a great high for me
2. Love the inside of the body (Dissected a Fetal pig which was fun!)
3. It's competitive, and I'm a competitive person.

Great thread!

 

[matanpucla]

Ophtho
-gets to cut into people's eyes
-few calls/emergencies
-never seen an unhappy ophtho so...it must be a cool job

damn you beat me to it.

ophtho looks awesome. i had a bad eye infection a few years back and spent a lot of time with them, then shadowed afterwards.

on the other hand peds is very interesting, i like working with kids, and shadowing PICU docs on their rounds was great.

 

[Member212920]

Definitely Neurology...

1. Mother has MS
2. Love the complexity of the brain and how it functions like electrical currents (engineering major)
3. So many different diseases and long term patients to deal with

 

[ComradeDoktor]

A subspecialty of internal medicine, possibly infectious diseases:

1. Challenging diagnoses, lots of "zebras"
2. Opportunities for global health work
3. Very academic, opportunities for research
4. Hours aren't quite as awful as general surgery

 

[deleted393595]

Rocket surgery

 

[Spinach Dip]

My reasons for urology are the same. Add in great research opportunities, awesome fellowships, and decent lifestyle (for being a surgical subspecialty). Downsides are constant penis jokes by my friends and long residency.

I woulda called that an upside.

 

[Bacchus]

A subspecialty of internal medicine, possibly infectious diseases:

1. Challenging diagnoses, lots of "zebras"
2. Opportunities for global health work
3. Very academic, opportunities for research
4. Hours aren't quite as awful as general surgery

Just don't get too romanticized. There are a lot of ID consults for Abx recommendations that the primary team can figure out or get through a phone call. Its not all Dengue, Schistosomiasis or Ebola.