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[pyridoxal-phosphate]

Hi everyone, 

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[unarmed walrus]

Try not to fret -- you've only scratched the surface of clerkship so far. You have so much still to experience and odds are you're going to come across things you enjoy in the blocks to come. For what it's worth, surgery and IM were my least favourite blocks of clerkship too (and anesthesia but that's another story). It's hard to know what to recommend to you for electives without knowing more about what you are interested in, but just know that there is so much more to medicine than internal and surgery. You're going to be fine.

[Persephone]

I agree with the above comment and would say if you don't LOVE IM, don't stress about going for many electives in that area, although one or two wouldn't be overkill, or if there's a med subspecialty you are curious about, go explore! I think you can't go wrong with FM electives. It might be helpful to reflect on what aspects of clerkship you have enjoyed so far, even if they seem to be minor details, they can still help guide you towards a career choice that fits you best. For instance, maybe you liked the patient interactions in CTU, or the idea of working on a ward. Detailing what you didn't like is equally useful. So if you HATED ward medicine (raises hand), then you may want to think about exploring stuff that has a good viability for a primarily outpatient-based career (like FM or psych, there are others I am sure). Maybe you prefer to work in a team based setting where you confer with many other physicians or you would prefer a smaller setting. Just spitballing here, but I hope it gives you some idea of how to think about this. You don't have to know immediately either, just keep paying attention to what you discover about yourself as you continue through clerkship.

[Persephone]

Oh and also, as you discover things about yourself, feel free to ask your peers, residents and staff about what might be a good fit based on your preferences or interests!

[shikimate]

I loved a lot of things and hated a lot of things in clerkship. The hate part is easy because you just cross off them from your list.

The love part is difficult. I find I really liked certain parts of something but not the whole thing. Like I enjoyed the interesting things ENT has to offer, but I just can't see myself going through 5 years of ENT residency, let alone doing it for many decades. I really enjoyed some aspects of ob/gyn, but again I can't see myself doing it long term. Gastro was cool too, but IM/CTU wasn't great so was it worth it to do IM just to go into gastro?, so on etc.

So anyways all I can say is find something where you are comfortable doing it and find it interesting enough to be able to continue to do it for the next while. If you really don't know, find something that suits your skillset.  easy ones are hands on = surgery, visual = rad/path/derm, talk = psych

also consider the lifestyle you want to live in the long run. some specialties are flexible and some are not. I never functioned well tired let alone cutting people open after being woken up in the middle of the night so definitely surgery/ob/gyn wasn't gonna be my thing haha. 

As for setting up electives, maybe do 2/5 on a specific field you're inclined to, 2/5 on complementary fields (eg. psych complements FM, plastic complement derm etc), and 1/5 on something chill or just for fun or out of curiosity.

Another strategy some people use is location specific. eg. they really wanna match to a particular city but are open to few different specialties. That's a valid strategy too. You just gotta set up electives in that particular city.

If you still can't decide, last resort pick something that has a really good job market so even if you become a calloused resident and apathetic staff you can at least do your job, take home a paycheque and get on with your life.

 

[jb24]

 

[PolkaDoots]

Look at the carms site of all specialties you can apply to and maybe do some reading/investigating into things that sound interesting to you beyond the core rotations. If something piques your interest reach out and ask to shadow for an afternoon before you commit to a 2 week elective, or ask for contact info for residents to quiz them about a day in the life. There are all kinds of neat things you don't get exposure to very much in your core rotations. Did you come into medical school with any particular interests? What made you want to do medicine?

Even if your CV is pretty bare if you can do some electives and spin a "last minute interest in this specialty" story you would still likely get interviews unless its like.. ophtho or plastics haha.

[burner34098]

I can't remember the website but our school sent out what was essentially a personality/likes and dislikes quiz to help choose specialties that was interesting to do. It asked many questions around a huge number of topics, some obvious (like, do you like kids, do you enjoy working with your hands), but also questions that were less direct (like, do you want long term relationships, do you want to deal with death or acute situations) and you rank each question on a scale. After you do something like 150 questions it spits out a solid list of things you might enjoy

[pyridoxal-phosphate]

On 12/30/2021 at 12:14 PM, pyridoxal-phosphate said:

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