What to pay attention to on rotations to decide field?

[Armadillos]

---

Members do not see this ad.

Was curious what you all think is most important to pay attention to during rotations when trying to figure out what you want to do with your life?

I figure the obvious answer is "Am I happy and do I enjoy working with these patients?" But I feel like by the time your an attending your experiences with the patients might be a lot different based on the reality of needing to see X patients a day to be economically efficient. Because I imagine being a medstudent on a lot of services is completely different than what you will experience as an attending.

So was curious what you all thought were the things to look out for on rotations that might help push me towards one field or another?

 

[evilbooyaa]

Was curious what you all think is most important to pay attention to during rotations when trying to figure out what you want to do with your life?

I figure the obvious answer is "Am I happy and do I enjoy working with these patients?" But I feel like by the time your an attending your experiences with the patients might be a lot different based on the reality of needing to see X patients a day to be economically efficient. Because I imagine being a medstudent on a lot of services is completely different than what you will experience as an attending.

So was curious what you all thought were the things to look out for on rotations that might help push me towards one field or another?

Bolded is absolutely true. Focus on what the attending does and see if you would enjoy doing that. If you really have no idea what you're interested in prior to med school, or after some other exposure, you will likely end up somewhere in the 6/7 main 3rd year rotations most schools have (Medicine, Surgery, Psych, Peds, OB/GYN, Family, Neuro). Maybe ED depending on your preferences.

If you aren't sure what you want to do, I'd pick Internal Medicine so you can have a broad range of fellowships to consider in 3 years. That's if you can handle a 3-year IM residency.

Also, your obvious answer is correct. You will find yourself liking certain aspects of most professions.
Figure out what's important to you. #1 - Surgical fields or Medicine fields or both (OB/GYN amongst others)
#2 what else is important to you - Location? Close patient interaction? Pay? Inpatient/Outpatient?