Inevitably, you are not going to like every specialty of medicine. I am one of those people that, for the most part, love everything. However, I have had a couple of rotations that were just not my cup of tea. It could be the specialty itself, the people you are around, or the setting. So how do you force yourself to still arrive early, work hard, learn as much as you can, all with a smile on your face?
Well, my first piece of advice is to go in every day still hoping that you could potentially fall in love with the specialty. The second you decide ‘NOPE, this is definitely not for me,’ then you are just bound to have a horrible month. Try to have an open mind every day.
Next, vent. Call whoever you call, meet up with friends, talk with other people also frustrated. Don’t throw yourselves a pity party, but just talk to people to know that you’re not alone in feeling this way. Medical school can really, really suck sometimes. You are paying SO much money to learn (but also do the scut-work for free). You have to do it, and it will probably make you a better doctor someday. But sometimes it’s really hard to put things in perspective when you are just falling deeper and deeper into debt for all of it.
Last, find ways that the specialty you are on will help you in your future practice. You can find a way. Medicine is medicine and all of it is connected somehow. You might have to dig deep, but find a way to make the rotation make you a better doctor.
And after all of that, be glad the rotation is only temporary and you can move on to the next!
