To Be Or Not To Be...

Today was our last ICM session - which was another patient history practice. My group was at Wishard Hospital. Basically we each get to go into a consenting patient's room (usually someone who is about to go home), and talk to them about what brought them into the hospital (history of present illness), what their health was like prior to their chief complaint (complete medical history), social history, and a review of systems (where you go from head to toe asking about any and every possible pain they might have experienced within the last year).

The patient encounters that I have experienced this year have always been good, and everyone has been really nice and excited to help you learn how to be a doctor :-) Though some times it can be awkward and you feel like you are being an annoyance since the real doctor already asked the patient all of the questions you are asking, or you just don't think the questions are really relevant to the present illness - for example, during my second interview (which was my most difficult to do), my patient had end-stage cancer, and I chose not to ask her about her sexual history.

At first it seemed extremely intimidating, but now that we have done it 4 times...it isn't half as nerve wrecking as it was before. We have a clinical skills exam during finals week in the simulation center where we will be tested on how well we can take a complete history on a standardized patient. Next year should be even more fun because not only will we get a chance to do it every week, we also have to do a physical exam...

I thought that after first year I might have more of an idea of what I will want to specialize in, but it has only made my list bigger. I feel like picking a specialty during third year is going to be like a season of the bachelor, because I fall in love with just about all of the one's I meet, and so far, just about everybody is getting a rose...LOL

My tentative list:
1. Dermatology
2. Otolaryngology
3. Internal Medicine - Pulmonology or Gastroenterology
4. Endocrinology
5. Urology (shout out to my dad!)
6. Adolescent Medicine
7. Opthalmology

And Jasmine is a good name for a pediatrician (What kid doesn't want to go to a doctor with the same name as one of the best Disney princesses? Okay, well, the boys probably wouldn't care, but still)...But I like babies, teenagers, and the elderly...sometimes middle-aged adults too... Hopefully this summer I can narrow it down a bit...

But thanks to physiology and gross anatomy, I'm pretty sure I DON'T want to be a cardiologist or an orthopedic surgeon.

Tis all for now...