Why are you interested in your particular field?

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[J ROD]

liking/having passion for what you are doing every day is what I would look.......over anything else.

First, you have to know whether you wanna go surgery or not.....

Only you know that.....

 

[riceman04]

...b/c all the big girls give me attention when I say I want to be a ____________

[YOUTUBE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bHQee6EqHIo[/YOUTUBE]

 

[2012mdc]

Decided on DR with possibly IR

I figured it out after thinking about the following things

1. patient contact - I don't mind it but certain aspects of it - non-compliance, all the social issues - were off-putting

2. procedures/working with hands - was always drawn to the more technological surgeries/procedures and turned off by the long tedious open surgeries

3. broad scope vs narrow - figured out that I didn't really love one particular area of the body and rather cover everything

4. I love the puzzle solving/diagnostic challenge and many times I found myself enjoying figuring out the disease and process more than actually examining the patient. Unless a patient had some unusual presentation I found PE's to be pretty boring

 

[PistolPete]

Don't think you can have both IM and surgery on your list of possibilities. They are almost at the opposite ends of the spectrum.

Figure out which one you like more and go from there.

Your stats should make you competitive for all the fields you mentioned.

 

[OveractiveBrain]

If on surgery you felt like you were totally in the right place, under 3 hrs worth of hot as **** lights, berated every minute, holding the position of a retractor without being able to see, and you thought "OMG IS THIS AWESOME!" you need to be a surgeon.

If instead you thought "i really like thinking about problems, rounding for 4 hours a day doesn't bother me at all, I like being the one who knows everything and being in charge" go to medicine.

Otherwise, compromise and go into OB

 

[sugeny]

Totally understand where you're at man, I'm in third year too and feel like I'm banging my head against a wall trying to figure this whole 'who am I going to be when I grow up' thing. Narrowed it down to Emergency vs. Gsurg (eventually Peds Surg). I was hardcore ortho until I realized in the middle of my ortho week that I really like a wide spectrum of diseases and types of patient contacts. The ways I've been narrowing things down:

1. I want tangible patient interaction, practical interventions, procedures, and a high tempo.
- This basically eliminated medicine, family, peds, neuro and psych, as they are SLOOOOWWW, full of endless rounding, and usually consist of 'let's adjust their medications...'

2. I need a wide variety of stuff to keep me interested - I actually liked learning on most of my rotations (except Psychiatry, never been more miserable on the supposedly glorious 'psychation') - but surprisingly I think I would wilt if stuck on your typical ROAD, ex. ophthalmology or derm, with just hitting one super focused specialty.

3. The lifestyle issue is HUGE to me. Just realized this year how much I enjoy having spontaneous adventures with friends, being in excellent shape, sleeping a decent amount, etc. I have spent the last two months interviewing every surgeon I could find and their respective ED counterparts. Yes, the new work hour restrictions 'should' help make a surgical career more life-friendly. However, I still believe that pursuing a surgical career means I must accept the distinct possibility that my life outside the hospital will be put on a full stop during that 9 year chase after Pediatric Surgery. This means very little dating (I'm single, young), mountain biking, international traveling, or general mayhem I could be getting into 🙂.

-Pros of surgery: they are the biggest bad*****es in the hospital, it is that classic competitive pathway if you're into that whole 'fulfilling your highest potential' thing, guaranteed career, lovely lovely anatomy (oh how I love anatomy), unique, meaningful interactions with patients, and you run the show!

-Cons of surgery: you become a sun-avoiding, blood loving vampire, without the sultry good looks of the Cullen family, your life will forever be 1) surgeon first, 2) everything else second. Even if you manage to have a family that is tight knit, your whole life will be surgery and family, with few outside hobbies that you do on a daily basis. Also, I can't say how many times I've heard a lady surgeon say "yes, you can totally have a family and be a surgeon! How did I manage it? Well, I had a live-in nanny until the kids were in school..." Side-point: I'm not trying to ask the boring, predictable "can doctors with XX genes be surgeons?" I'm just stating the hours of Gsurg are not friendly for having lives outside the hospital, regardless of gender.

- Pros of Emergency: 1) glorious flexibility, you are one of the most mobile resources in the nation, can pick up and move to almost anywhere in the country within 6 weeks. 2) The hours...nuff said. 3) the wide variety of paths you can take it: sports med, peds, event medicine, locum tenens. 4) the time spent with patients: most patient interaction I've had so far on a service

- Cons: ....it's not surgery with lovely lovely anatomy, no patient follow up, gotta have a thick skin, and be super patient with the dregs of society

SOOO, that's my thought process, leaning more towards ED today, who knows what tomorrow will bring...probably more bangage of head against the wall. OP, I hope this was sorta what you were asking to get.

 

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[ACSurgeon]

yes thank you very much (and everyone else who replied)!

Yeah my list is kinda silly because it's waaay too broad right now. I mean at first I thought I knew I wanted to do surg then things kinda felt different when I actually got to experience rotations like neuro and IM for example and thus my decision has become harder. Things like hospital hours, outside life, types of patients you see are all things I never thought about before. I'm just afraid of making the wrong choice I guess, like so many others I'm sure.

Personally, I like anatomy and doing PEx that mean something (neuro for example). But I like knowing what is wrong and being able to fix it (IM/surg). But I am also very interested in the field of dx rads bc pts sometimes bug the crap out me and working with tons of diff people can get annoying after a while with all the diff attitudes, personalities, etc. I also just like the technology and aspect of rads in general as well - those guys and gals are geniuses. So yeah that's what I've been thinking about. Just have a long way to go...

I think the order of priority should be:

1- What you want to do on a day-to-day basis.

2- a clost second is lifestyle. If you don't like the idea of working 60+ hrs per week, certain fields are NOT for you. I don't think much emphasis should be placed on lifestyle during residency (unless you know you're a wimp). Also, keep in mind that there is a lot more flexibility than you might think. I'm currently working with two community surgeons. They work 4 days each. They're on call every othernight for their little hospital, and every 5th weekend for several hospitals within a 40 minute drive. They are almost never at the hospital before 7 am or after 5 pm (exeptions occur). They are doing very well financially. Also, they work 23 miles away from a large city - so they could live in a city while maintaining this type of work. .

3- Money should come at the bottom of the list. For one thing, we have no idea how compensation is going to change in the next 5-10-30 years. I'm sure a lot of dermatologists/radiologists will be unhappy with their career choice if money was not as good as it is. Second, no matter what specialty you chose, based on today's compensation values, you'll make a decent living. Don't be greedy and chose something that pays more instead of doing what you love.

I was debating between urology and gen surg. I stuck with gen surg because I liked it too much more than urology, and the lifestyle/compensation was not enough to change my mind. When the competitiveness of the urology match was taken into account, it was a no brainer (not that I was a terrible applicant, but I didn't care enough about urology to take the chance that EVERY urology appicant takes).

Now that I'm working with community surgeons, seeing what they do every day, I'm loving it. Everyday makes me happier about my decision.

Why I chose general surgery: because I wanted to be the go-to person. I wanted to be the person who is comfortable putting in ports/central lines, fixing hernias, resecting bowels and other abdominal organs, taking care of trauma patients (real trauma patients) and ICU patients, etc. It was the mix of broad medical care with the ability to fix people with my own hands. Just remember, a chance to cut, is a chance to cure😎

 

[ACSurgeon]

If on surgery you felt like you were totally in the right place, under 3 hrs worth of hot as **** lights, berated every minute, holding the position of a retractor without being able to see, and you thought "OMG IS THIS AWESOME!" you need to be a surgeon.

If instead you thought "i really like thinking about problems, rounding for 4 hours a day doesn't bother me at all, I like being the one who knows everything and being in charge" go to medicine.

Otherwise, compromise and go into OB

You don't have to love every minute of a certain field to go into it. Nobody gets a rush from retracting in the OR without being able to see the operative field. Most medicine residents do NOT enjoy rounding for 20 hrs a day.

You do, however, have to think you're doing something you LOVE. I think surgery is the best field. Every time we fix a SBO, I get a little rush. Every time I make an incision. This will likely get old before the end of intern year, but the bottom line is I will still think it's the best field, because I love the pathology, organs involved, and type of work involved.

 

[ACSurgeon]

-Cons of surgery: you become a sun-avoiding, blood loving vampire, without the sultry good looks of the Cullen family, your life will forever be 1) surgeon first, 2) everything else second. Even if you manage to have a family that is tight knit, your whole life will be surgery and family, with few outside hobbies that you do on a daily basis.

I don't that this has to be true. There are plenty of types of jobs for surgeons with better hours. You might work at a smaller hospital, or do shift work where you lose continuity of care, but a lot of ER jobs are the same.