What kind of doctor do you want to be?

Growing up I've always known I'd go into medicine to be a doctor, nothing less.  It all seemed so simple at the time.  I even thought that once I got into medical school sure it would be tough but life would be good. Afterall that's where I needed to be to get the degree I wanted.  I though no more freaking out over every test knowning that just one test could lower my grade and lose me a seat in school.  Boy was I wrong.  The first two years every test puts you in a bit of a frenzy to keep an average and you know if you blow just one that could be it for you.  Repeat the class over the summer, repeat the year, or worse yet not be allowed to return.  Board exams even worse.  Yeah, sure you'll pass and still be able to get your degree but that score weighs heavily not on becoming a doctor but taking this childhood dream one step further and determining what KIND of doctor you'll be.  Afterall, not all physicians are created equally, or are they?

Certainly, no, not all physicians are created equally, but one has to consider what they consider most important in their physician.  Is it the high board scores?  high gpa?  good communication and interpersonal skills?  good dexterity in a surgeon?  confidence in decisions and the ability to think fast?  This is something to think about.  I have my opinions and to keep it concise, I definitely don't think a high GPA or high board scores alone are enough to judge physician by.  And this is not based solely on my solid two years of believing that B's = balanced.  I'll never be top of my class on a single test and I'm more than ok with that.

So recently I've been thinking, just what kind of doctor do I want to be... since my work with St Jude Children's hospital I've been very strongly considering pediatric oncology or infectious disease.  This is certainly still a consideration but I've also opened my mind to other options.  ER, Sports med, adult infectious disease or oncology... and several others have drifted in and out.  I'm still very up in the air.  With these ideas I'm throwing around about 4 or 5 different residency ideas.... peds, med peds, internal med, ER, family med.  hmmmm I have a lot of thinking to do over the next year.  So I decided to take a little aptitude test resulting in...

1.  ER
2-7. different types of surgery / heavy procedure based specialties
8.  Nephrology  (fml... if you  know me well you know why)
10. Pediatrics
12. infectious disease
18.  Heme/onc
and finally good old #40.  Cardiology!  hahahaha this was last on the list,  especially amusing because I took this little quiz the last day of my Cardiology rotation at Resurrection Hospital.  I was not surprised at all by this result.  Most of you know my vendetta against hypertension, high cholesterol, and diabetes.  AHHHH.  Go back and read the post from somewhere around last Feb if you care to know more.

For now time to press forward and dig a little into the world of psych at Cook County Hospital.  So far so good.  Every patient different and very interesting.