Friday, September 24, 2004
Foreknowledge
This week has been really boring. One thing I did learn, though, is that I did really well on my Internal Medicine NBME Shelf exam. So now I've received emails from the Dean of Student Affairs and the Dean of the college congratulating me. Who would have thought - me, the person whom they gave an only lightly-veiled threat to dismiss, gets a letter of congratulations from all the big-wigs at my school.
I'm befuddled.
One of my fellow students at my Family medicine rotation keeps giving me the line, "It must be nice to know what you want to go into."
I think it is nice to have an idea at this stage in my "career." Of course, like I constantly tell people, I have a lot more background than most others. I've worked in the medical field for 5 years already - I have a lot more exposure to the different fields than someone who came directly from college (or even someone who had another non-health-related occupation). It isn't fair to compare my experiences or thoughts to someone with no frame of reference. There is plenty of time - the third year is for experimentation with many different fields to find one that fits your personality. The worst thing about it is we have very limited experiences compared to the multitude of specialties available. Going through 8 or 10 different basic fields does not adequately expose a student to the hundreds of fields open for specialization. In reality, all choices are made on faith when it comes to match day. You don't know if you'll like the place you match, if you'll really like the field you've chosen, or if you might want to change in a year or so.
The truly unfortunate thing is once you've started a training program it's very difficult to change without having to start over. I've heard of physicians that finished residency and worked for a year or two before they learned they couldn't stand it and then started over with residency. That is one advantage to nursing, NPs, and PAs. There is no specialization - you can move to another field if you hate what you are doing without any hassle.
I'm done blathering for now... I'll post some more later. Besides, I have to write a synopsis of an Ethics Committee meeting I attended. ¶ 9:31 AM
I'm befuddled.
One of my fellow students at my Family medicine rotation keeps giving me the line, "It must be nice to know what you want to go into."
I think it is nice to have an idea at this stage in my "career." Of course, like I constantly tell people, I have a lot more background than most others. I've worked in the medical field for 5 years already - I have a lot more exposure to the different fields than someone who came directly from college (or even someone who had another non-health-related occupation). It isn't fair to compare my experiences or thoughts to someone with no frame of reference. There is plenty of time - the third year is for experimentation with many different fields to find one that fits your personality. The worst thing about it is we have very limited experiences compared to the multitude of specialties available. Going through 8 or 10 different basic fields does not adequately expose a student to the hundreds of fields open for specialization. In reality, all choices are made on faith when it comes to match day. You don't know if you'll like the place you match, if you'll really like the field you've chosen, or if you might want to change in a year or so.
The truly unfortunate thing is once you've started a training program it's very difficult to change without having to start over. I've heard of physicians that finished residency and worked for a year or two before they learned they couldn't stand it and then started over with residency. That is one advantage to nursing, NPs, and PAs. There is no specialization - you can move to another field if you hate what you are doing without any hassle.
I'm done blathering for now... I'll post some more later. Besides, I have to write a synopsis of an Ethics Committee meeting I attended. ¶ 9:31 AM
