My wife is a doctor, I met her prior to med school and was along for the entire ride. Craziness. What year are you? My unsolicited advice would be to choose the specialty that gives you the most satisfaction regardless of pay or residency length or strenuousness. I once dreamt of space too. We'll get there!
I'm from Germany, our system is slightly different.
Instead of a premed we have a pre-clinical part which is already part of the medical curriculum. It takes two years and in those two years we're supposed to learn everything about how the healthy body is supposed to work( the subjects are (neuro)anatomy, biochemistry and (neuro)physiology, sociology&psychology, physics, general chemistry, terminology and biology). After those two years (=4 semesters) we have our first hurdle called "Physikum", which you have to pass in order to advance to the next part. If you fail the Physikum (which basically tests everything you've learned in those 2 years) thee times, you cannot continue studying medicine in Germany. Afterwards comes the clinical part, where we have the individual specialties as subjects (internal medicine, radiology, surgery, etc.) and go on rounds, etc. This takes another 3 years (in the free time between semesters we have to do internships). Afterwards we have a so-called practical year, where you work full-time in surgery, internal medicine and a specialty of your choice for 4 months each. Then, once you're done with that, you can take your "Hammer-"exam (the word means the same in German and English ;) ) and if you pass that, you're finally an M.D. (after at least six and a half years; more if you have to repeat something).
I'm currently in my seventh semester (3 1/2 year), so I'll still have some time to decide:) That's what I always tell to myself as well, but sometimes, when you see some intern next to the verge of a breakdown, you'll wonder if you made the right choice (or in my case "will make the right choice")What year are you?
My unsolicited advice would be to choose the specialty that gives you the most satisfaction regardless of pay or residency length or strenuousness.
It's interesting how the curriculum is set up in Germany. I think that in the states practical experience comes too late in the process. You can be book smart and excel in the classroom only to find out in year 3 that you are not at all suited to practicing medicine. Do you have any inclination at all as to what type of specialty you'd like to practice, or are you completely unsure?That's what I always tell to myself as well, but sometimes, when you see some intern next to the verge of a breakdown, you'll wonder if you made the right choice (or in my case "will make the right choice")
No doubt about it. There were times in 4th year med school that my wife looked like a zombie. She was barely sleeping and working way too hard and in between it all, she was supposed to be studying and preparing for board exams.
Damn expired link... After spending a month in the radiology department, it's is definitely in my top-five.What bothers me is that you have almost no patient-contact and (more so) that you do almost nothing curative (well, there's interventional radiology, but you'll end up doing almost exclusively interventional or diagnostic). But apart from that it was a great experience. Immunology is the other thing that interests me the most currently, especially since it is developing rapidly right now and making great strides with certain diseases (also, for an internal medicine specialty it has relatively young patients). Apart from that I can only tell you what I don't want to do, OB/GYN, surgery and dermatology (not because I don't respect them, I just don't want to do them). I once considered psychiatry, but I was quite let down by my experience with it, sadly. But I have still some time left and there are fields I haven't even dipped into (neurology, anesthesia, etc.), so I'll see what the future brings. I'm afraid this is a universal problem with medical education. The more research advances, the more is added to the curriculum, but almost never is something thrown out and the time you have available stays the same. It's a difficult situation and I don't see any easy solution for it (make medical education even longer? Specialize during medschool and you'll end up with MDs that can't think outside the box, etc...) What specialty did your wife chose (and how?)I think that in the states practical experience comes too late in the process.
My wife was doing a radiology residency at a prestigious program here in the US and after a year withdrew from the program. She loved the program, the people in it and the quality of the learning but she really, really missed patient interaction. My advice here (again unsolicited) is that if patient interaction is at all important to you, don't go this route. She tried to console herself with the thought of interventional too, but it wasn't enough. She is now applying to Derm residencies and just finished her last interview last week. Imagine going through that process TWICE?! It's been pretty crazy. But to answer your question, we made a list of the specialties that interested her. We knew we wanted a family so things like Surgery etc were out, although she seems to have an aptitude for surgery. Then we made a pros/cons list for each specialty. In the end Radiology won because we thought the science/technology aspects of it would be intellectually stimulating enough to make up for the lack of patient care. We were wrong. We chose Derm because my wife loves the pathology involved. She likes being able to diagnose complex internal problems from the clues left on the skin (I'm not a doctor, I'm sure there's a more elegant way of putting this). She is doing a research fellowship at Duke right now and the work she's doing is very interesting. As she puts it, by the time the patient has arrived there they've seen a number of physicians that can't diagnose. She enjoys it quite a bit. It was a good change and I'm glad we made it now rather than 10 years from now. Anyways, good luck! Immunology sounds like a really fascinating field.After spending a month in the radiology department, it's is definitely in my top-five.What bothers me is that you have almost no patient-contact and (more so) that you do almost nothing curative (well, there's interventional radiology, but you'll end up doing almost exclusively interventional or diagnostic). But apart from that it was a great experience.
This is funny.