"Oh that's so cool! Do you know what specialty you want to do?"
The automatic question. Maybe I could legitimately be annoyed if it wasn't a question I am passively debating myself. Not that I feel any pressure to decide, but it's something I contemplate every time I am exposed to a new medical setting. This week, I shadowed a pediatrician as part of a primary care preceptorship. I'll meet with him two more times this year. The basic point is to expose us to primary care (the majority of medical practice) and to give us an opportunity to practice basic history and physical exam skills.
I think I am never going to be able to decide my specialty, because I wind up enjoying each specialty I shadow. I thought I would hate general pediatrics, because I like happy kids, but I really don't like crying, sick kids. I was pleasantly surprised by how interesting and challenging I found pediatrics to be. When you take an adult family and social history, you ask almost the same questions for everyone. You do a similar exam on most people. But kids are changing so rapidly - a 15-month-old's physical is different than a 2-year-old's and then different than a 5-year-old's. You have to know developmental milestones for all ages. You have to know how to give parenting advice. You have to be able to diagnose a patient who can't or won't speak to you about their problems. In many ways, pediatric medicine can be more challenging than adult medicine. On the other hand, kids are just pretty awesome. If I become an adult doctor, I'll never get to "listen" to a stuffed giraffe's heart.
I didn't think I would like it, but I did. I think that may continue to be a problem as I have more experiences with different specialties. This is going to be a harder decision than I thought. Oh well, at least I know that I would enjoy doing many different things, which is the best place to be, really.
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