Students....what specialty do you think you'll end up in?

tallaght01

Inspired by the aptitude test put up by physiologyrocks, why don't you have a go at predicting what specialty you'll end up in. Doesn't have to be the specialty you think you're most suited to, but the one you think you'll spend your career working in.

It might be interesting to look back on it (if we ever remember) when everyone is qualified.

Not just for healthcare students. Sciencey people are welcome to predict what area they'll be working in, too. IN fact, it's not just for students. Docs who haven't fully settles into their career job can also post.

When I was a science student I predicted ending up in clinical biochemistry if I didn't get into med school.

When I started med school I was going to do A+E. Then, after my paeds blocks, I decided neonates was for me. I would have stayed in neonatal ICU if it weren't for working in some very very deprived parts of the UK (where male life expectancy was 63 years old!) and doing some time in Africa where I saw the impact that HIV and gender inequality has on the health of populations.

So, I wormed my way towards public health, and now want to end up doing HIV work in the international context.

Also, have a dream of setting up a service for refugees for PTSD/torture/sexual assault counselling,as these issues are HUGE in that population, but seem to be completely ignored. I would love to be involved in teaching public health to students, too. Oh, and I wanna be involved in academia. I might also do some more clinical work in sexual health medicine.


But I could end up being a rural GP. Who knows.

So, get the crystal ball out, and start the predictions.

Hospital or industrial pharmacist.

tallaght01

Deleted User wrote: »

Hospital or industrial pharmacist.

Dude, you've just picked 2 of the 3 main specialties that pharms go into. That's cheating :P

tallaght01

tallaght01 wrote: »

Dude, you've just picked 2 of the 3 main specialties that pharms go into. That's cheating :P

But in fairness, only about 30 percent of pharmacy students go into these specialties.If you pushed me, I'd choose industrial. Don't know if they would take me though:)

charlieroot

My current choices would be cardiology/general surgery.

Pro's / Con's as I see it:

Cardiology: Love the physiology/pathology/pharmacy associated with it. Find the idea of having long term relationships (hopefully with your patients rewarding. Having spent a couple of weeks observing a cardiology team - find the day-to-day work very interesting if a little stressful. Really like the diagnostic gadgets they get (some of my friends have nicknamed me ECG boy)! The downside - extremely competitive, quite high stress, you deal with some very sick patients - I seen a patient going into cardiac arrest due to tamponade in front of my eyes while on a routine ward round. The lack of recognition for how serious a diagnosis of heart failure is to people and them not realising just how bad this is.... personally I prefer to be told I had cancer(depending on the type than HF and the lack of hospice and supports services for HF patients. Also, the lack of long term effective solutions to HF.

General Surgery: Love being in surgery - time seems to zip by. I've been very lucky I think with regards my exposure to surgery. I've only done two years in med school and already I've lost count of the number of times I've scrubbed in. I have to say I'm completely fascinated by cutting someone open, taking something out or putting in, or just rearranging the furniture so to speak often amounting to huge changes for the person, usually for the better. I also find doing manual work (i.e. with your hands/instruments) very stimulating. Cons - ridiculous! working hours. Very poor life/work balance. I don't like the personalities of some of the people involved - I'm not sure if surgery seems to attract these kinds of people or if working in surgery changes your personality somewhat. High stress - really don't like the idea of being called on to say do an emergency bowel resection after averaging 3 hours sleep for the previous two days.

tallaght01

Deleted User wrote: »

But in fairness, only about 30 percent of pharmacy students go into these specialties.

There's my interesting fact learned for today! NO idea it was that low.

sam34

well, back in my student days, i hadnt a clue for teh first few years. had a bit of a a yearning for neurology, but wasnt 100% sure. i actually hated teh first few years at college, and really only persevered in the hope that it would someday get better, plus i couldnt handle the hassle of telling my folks i didnt want to continue, but ahd no alternative suggestions either - they would not have reacted kindly to that discussion!

then, in fifth med, i did my psych placement and absolutely loved it.

even though i was totally clueless about psych prior to taht, i never looked back really,after those few weeks, i knew thats what i wanted to do.

to this day i havent regretted it for a second, and there is no other career i would rathr have (well, except to be an astronaut, but i dont think NASA are accepting applications these days!)

tallaght01

I think you can get into NASA if you're a doctor AND you can navigate sime high-tech craft.

But, sadly, I don't think the family tractor counts :P

sam34

tallaght01 wrote: »

I think you can get into NASA if you're a doctor AND you can navigate sime high-tech craft.

But, sadly, I don't think the family tractor counts :P

well, they'd never accept me the way i drive!
lets say i ahve some problems with visuo-spatial tasks and certain parking manouvres...

Chunky Monkey

Used to think cardiology before I started. Now quite interested in neuro- either neurology or neurosurgery, just find the nervous system very interesting.

Would stroke care come under neurology or general medicine?

To be honest though, don't really have a clue Really not keen on oncology (emotional burden) or paediatrics (parents) atm.

DrIndy

i still don't really know what i want to do - but ED suits me and I feel I fit into it - so i'll roll with it for the moment.

PhysiologyRocks

Ooh, I like this thread!

At the moment I love surgery. I think it's amazing that you can go in and physically fix what's wrong. It's fascinating to see, and the people I've seen do it seem to really enjoy it.

I'd also love to do something that would make my job quite general and broad. Preferably, I'd keep it in the hospital. I really love being there. That said, I wouldn't rule anything out.

bleg

I'd like to work in formulation techniques for the administration of protein drugs orally.

MrPain

I'm interested in both child oncology and orthopaedics(sp?) as they are both area that have affected me personally, I had a bone tumour you see.
But considering I haven't even started med school yet, I'll have to wait and see.

imported_guy

im want to start GEM after i graduate, and i'd love it if i became an anesthesiologist, but if i end up in something like surgery or GP or even asychiatry i wouldnt really mind, i really hope i end up in america though (unless they socialise the healthcare system, im all for it unless im working as a doctor in it...)

smileypony

Im not even a student yet, hope to get in 2010 but I really wanna do psych. The test had me as neuroscientist no.1-yikes!! If not psych ill probly end up working in Public Health area cause it almost justifies my primary degree!
Interesting thread i do think!

allsaintssue

When I do (Eventually!) finish nursing and head on into GEM (*touch wood*), I always thought Cardio was the way I'd go but after doing my nursing placement in A&E, my head was completly turned!I LOVED A+E!!I also picked up a shift there recently as a HCA and remembered how much I loved it.
Otherwise I have my theatre placement coming up which I'm really looking forward to.I got to see a tonsillectomy and a couple of c-sections done and even though they were vastly different surgeries that happened on vastly different placements it really opened my eyes to the wonderful world of surgery...and trust me I struggled to find something I liked in by OB/GYN placement!!!
To be honest, I do change my mind an AWFUL lot (except about wanting to study medicine of course!:rolleyes:) but I like to attribute that to my being a gemini and not being a scatterbrain, so I am totally sitting on the fence regarding a prediction, the only thing I can say for definite is that I will NEVER work in OB/GYN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Purple Gorilla

I'm only heading into 5th year, but hopefully I'll be a GP

Gazza22

Biomedical student, probably end up in clinical Cytopathology/Haematology.

Or i could eventually jump ship into medicine like you did tallaght!

A Neurotic

It's ridiculously early for me to guess, but I think I'd be very interested in Psychiatry.

But, as I haven't even started first year med yet, it's very hard to say

Echani

I used to have a lot of interest in A&E medicine, but having spent a bit of time in it I've been veering away from that lately. I also lost a lot of interest in surgery over the last year, possibly because I didn't have any proper surgical rotations, so that may change over the next year.

I've spent a lot of time in Cardiology this year, and I can definitely see myself ending up doing that. There's a good mix of hospital and outpatient medicine, complex long term care, as well as enough interventional procedures to keep the surgeon mentality in me happy

I want to spend a bit more time in oncology, and maybe haematology to see what working in those fields is actually like. I spent a couple of weeks in oncology after 1st year, without knowing any of the pathology or much of the specialised pharmacology, but I still found it very interesting. If haematology/oncology were tied together a bit more in Europe as they are in the US, it'd be a close number #2 on the list at the moment.

D.R cowboy

I would some day love to work in neuropsychology

JSK 252

Deleted User wrote: »

Hospital or industrial pharmacist.

JSK 252

I just want to be a pharmacist.

Pure and simple.

GradMed

I'm thinking about pediatrics, hopefully some shadowing in Crumlin early next year will give me an idea of what it's really like.

bythewoods

I haven't started Medicine yet (I'm only going into PreMed in, uh, a week.. so I'm nothin' yet) but I've always seen myself being a Psychiatrist.
I'm taking a psychology elective in "Brain & Behaviour" this semester (Good ol' UCD) so maybe that'll give me a bit'a direction.
I obviously don't quite know, but I'd definitely be inclined to sway towards it.

There are other firlds I wouldn't mind getting involved in as well, of course. Possibly Gynaecology or even oncology of some sort.
Sure, we'll see.

Jessibelle

Ideally (after I get into medicine) I’d love to work in either neonatology or neurology, and within a hospital setting more-so than a research setting. With that said, that’s because of any shadowing I’ve done to this point, they were the most interesting, and when I’m fully immersed it’s bound to change again. Sure according to the test, I’m a born surgeon… given my general lack of manual dexterity ye may want to start worrying now…

sillymoo

I can see myself being the team doc for the Irish footie team when we win the world cup in 2018.

Failing that maybe a GP

mrmeindl

I'm only in 2nd year so from my limited experiences so far its probably 1;GP and number 2 would be orthopedic surgeon.
GP is top of the list because selfishly I don't want to have to slave away for years working in an Irish hospital doing crazy hours to become a Surgeon. This being said I might come across some speciality that I discover I like and end up doing that...ya never no dermatology could be the one;)

MedHead

Well from my very limited experience and the conversations Ive had with doctors I kind of have this mental list of things i find interesting (in no particular order):

Radiology (interventional)
ICU/ Paeds ICU
Cardiology
Emergency medicine
Anesthesiology

My cousin is working in Melbourne doing a dual ICU and anesthetics residency and it sounds like the most amazing thing ever.

Who knows where Ill end up, still have a few years till graduation so Im in no rush to decide! :P

Must Have Music

bythewoods wrote: »

I haven't started Medicine yet (I'm only going into PreMed in, uh, a week.. so I'm nothin' yet) but I've always seen myself being a Psychiatrist.
I'm taking a psychology elective in "Brain & Behaviour" this semester (Good ol' UCD) so maybe that'll give me a bit'a direction.
I obviously don't quite know, but I'd definitely be inclined to sway towards it.

There are other firlds I wouldn't mind getting involved in as well, of course. Possibly Gynaecology or even oncology of some sort.
Sure, we'll see.

pre-med is the best year ever!! I miss it so much!!!! make the most of it! I'm in res year, just started, and I think I wanna do paeds or emergency medicine - i do NOT want to be an orthopaedic surgeon, radiologist, anaesthesist or neurologist. other than that I'm sorta sitting on the fence til i get more experience!

Boethius

I'm only starting med so won't throw my hat in the ring yet but I have a question for all those who trained in Ireland. How hard is it to find training places in specialties like neurology, cardiology etc... here.

They're two examples that I for some reason think are rare here and just curious what kind of career path might you need to take in order to train in said areas (here or then abroad if necessary).

Tanking you

Carsinian Thau

I genuinely have no idea.

I think that it probably will not be paeds, A&E , OBGYN , psych or GP but apart from that, no idea.

I don't think that there's anything wrong with the ones I listed above but they just wouldn't be for me.

bythewoods

Must Have Music wrote: »

pre-med is the best year ever!! I miss it so much!!!! make the most of it!

Trinity actually offered me the 5 year course this morning, so I'm thinking of dropping out of UCD (and therefore premed) to do that instead...

ZorbaTehZ

If I do stay in med., which seems unlikely, then ideally none... clinical doesn't really interest me at all, I'd like to end up in research, something biophysics/biochemistry related, too many areas that I find interesting at the moment to say exactky where.

chanste

I'm yet to start the course, but if my impressions at the moment which (unfortunately) are largely based on TV shows is anything to go by, then I think I'd like to work in A&E, or at the very least do a decent stint in one.

Also (and people will probably think I'm a detestable creature for saying this) but I think if there is a path that presents itself as something which could be financially more rewarding than other specialties, I would realistically think I could be swayed into almost anything.

mardybumbum

bythewoods wrote: »

Trinity actually offered me the 5 year course this morning, so I'm thinking of dropping out of UCD (and therefore premed) to do that instead...

bythewoods

mardybumbum wrote: »

Done and done.
See ya there, winnersssss

ViveLaVie

Nobody ever says gastro...

Icemancometh

ViveLaVie wrote: »

Nobody ever says gastro...

Why would they? But it's the usual sexy specialities that get mentioned; neurosurgery, cardiology etc. No one ever says rheumatology or public health (disclaimer: these are two areas I find extremely interesting)

As it is, I'm training to be a GP. If you said that to me when I started out, well, I wouldn't have been too surprised (being aware that about half of Irish graduates end up as GPs anyway). But it wasn't why I got into medicine. It's funny how things change. Specialities that appealled along the way; public health, anaesthetics, surgery (not orthopaedic), radiology, haematology. If I could do surgery without the 100 hour weeks and ten years of bull****, it might be where I'd end up. But primary care grabbed me instead.

ViveLaVie

Icemancometh wrote: »

Why would they? But it's the usual sexy specialities that get mentioned; neurosurgery, cardiology etc. No one ever says rheumatology or public health (disclaimer: these are two areas I find extremely interesting)

As it is, I'm training to be a GP. If you said that to me when I started out, well, I wouldn't have been too surprised (being aware that about half of Irish graduates end up as GPs anyway). But it wasn't why I got into medicine. It's funny how things change. Specialities that appealled along the way; public health, anaesthetics, surgery (not orthopaedic), radiology, haematology. If I could do surgery without the 100 hour weeks and ten years of bull****, it might be where I'd end up. But primary care grabbed me instead.

Why not? It is very broad, lots of variety in scope with different kinds of ailments and room for surgery and traditional medical care. Lots of research opportunities too. It's always the 'sexy' specialities, as you dubbed them, that get touted. Just saying, from my experience, it never gets a mention. I'm not doing medicine or anything, but I've had an awful lot of contact with doctors and trainee doctors and it's always cardio etc that they want to specialise in.

opinion guy

ViveLaVie wrote: »

Why not? It is very broad, lots of variety in scope with different kinds of ailments and room for surgery and traditional medical care. Lots of research opportunities too. It's always the 'sexy' specialities, as you dubbed them, that get touted. Just saying, from my experience, it never gets a mention. I'm not doing medicine or anything, but I've had an awful lot of contact with doctors and trainee doctors and it's always cardio etc that they want to specialise in.

To be a cynic - cardio is where the big money is....

ViveLaVie

opinion guy wrote: »

To be a cynic - cardio is where the big money is....

Really? I never knew that there was much of a difference in what you'd get paid??

Icemancometh

ViveLaVie wrote: »

Really? I never knew that there was much of a difference in what you'd get paid??

There's not for public contracts, but for private work, all bets are off.

ViveLaVie

Icemancometh wrote: »

There's not for public contracts, but for private work, all bets are off.

Fair enough... much of a difference? I always thought gastro problems would be fairly prevalent. There also aren't as many doctors doing it, so they get spillover. Like when Brendan Drumm was practicing over ten years ago he was the only paediatric gastro specialist for a while, and had patients coming down from the North and all over the rest of Ireland to see him. A few more cropped up after but he was always chock a block with patients. I imagine he was making a lot of money.

Odysseus

tallaght01 wrote: »

Also, have a dream of setting up a service for refugees for PTSD/torture/sexual assault counselling,as these issues are HUGE in that population, but seem to be completely ignored. I would love to be involved in teaching public health to students, too. Oh, and I wanna be involved in academia. I might also do some more clinical work in sexual health medicine.


But I could end up being a rural GP. Who knows.

So, get the crystal ball out, and start the predictions.

I would not say that I know a good few psychoanalysts doing some very interesting work in this area, both here and outside of Ireland. However, there is of course a need for more services.

Odysseus

I knew I would end up in my area Addiction as i got paid work during my first year of my degree. I glad I stayed as we deal with so much more that just addiction/drug use.

Piste

Psychiatry or A&E. Or I might pack in medicine altogether and go into health policy.

FairytaleGirl

I did the AP test - now Im just a prospective med student haha but i got ;

Rank Specialty Score [SIZE=-1]1[/SIZE][SIZE=-1]physical med & rehabilitation[/SIZE] [SIZE=-1]46[/SIZE][SIZE=-1]2[/SIZE][SIZE=-1]rheumatology[/SIZE] [SIZE=-1]46[/SIZE][SIZE=-1]3[/SIZE][SIZE=-1]pediatrics[/SIZE] [SIZE=-1]44[/SIZE][SIZE=-1]4[/SIZE][SIZE=-1]pathology[/SIZE] [SIZE=-1]44[/SIZE][SIZE=-1]5[/SIZE][SIZE=-1]occupational med[/SIZE] [SIZE=-1]43[/SIZE]

I figured I would want to pursue Ortho surgery, OB/GYN, or Paeds.

Dr.NickRiviera

Really interesting thread. I kinda have a fair idea of what I would like to get into and reassured that the test confirmed that. Although infectious diseases came top of the list somehow...hmmm

Larianne

I'm thinking OPD/MSK or Neurology - acute neurosurgery/rehab.