My mind has been racing lately about choosing a specialty. Though this decision is quite a ways away, I can’t help but think time is flying by and Match Day will be here before I know it. This post is dedicated to getting all the thoughts in my head down onto electronic paper. The biggest concern on my mind is the fear of choosing the WRONG specialty. I choose a specialty and, during residency, find out it’s not for me. I could try to transfer residencies, which is almost impossible, drop out and reapply to residency, give up on being a doctor or stubbornly power through and be miserable for the rest of my life. Knowing my personality, I might end up picking the last option. The next biggest concern, which is probably the catalyst for all these thoughts, is USMLE Step 1. This one exam could decide the rest of your life. If I want to be a neurosurgeon, and my score is barely passing, it is an improbable dream. I don’t want this test to place me in a specialty because I have to be there, I want to choose it because it fits my personality and makes me happy. Whether that means I go into Primary Care or Plastic Surgery. I want the choice to be mine not Step 1’s. My last fear, in my head currently, is not having time to sample every specialty that may interest me. Yes, I have shadowed but I hear about new specialties each week. 3rd year rotations only show the most common specialties. I am not a common guy, maybe my destiny lies in an obscure field that most people overlook, like Wilderness Medicine.
What am I looking for? There are 4 things guiding my specialty choice at this very moment: the people, stereotypes, my personality, and the “Aha!” moment. Stereotypes have drawn me to different specialties because I feel there is some truth to them. This specialty doesn’t involve too much “thinking” but a lot of “doing.” This specialty is for people who don’t like people. Or this specialty is really messy. If my personality matches the stereotype in some form, I look into it. I love work and I enjoy staying busy. Maybe I need a specialty that involves constant labor. (surgery or emergency medicine?) The people, the ones you will work with and bond with, are the next thing I want to look at. I want to be with people I like because medicine is not performed as a one man show but as a carefully orchestrated ensemble. Lastly, there is the “Aha!” moment. This may or may not exist for some people. You say “Aha, this is the feeling I was searching for in a specialty.” I had a mini moment shadowing in the emergency room at a county hospital, but I want to make sure it recurs after multiple days doing the same thing over and over. Now my brain can rest…until the next specialty comes along.
