From the day I decided I wanted to go to medical school, my family and friends have been asking me what type of doctor I want to be; and I usually reply with a generic combination of “I’m not really sure,” and “[Blah] specialty seems really interesting at the moment,” followed by a story of some cool medical thing I saw last week.
Rocking up to wards in the hopes that today you’ll find your specialty
As expected, the further I get into my degree, the more common this question has become but ironically, the more unclear I am about how to answer. In reality, I have zero clue, and spend my time procrastinating by completing Buzzfeed quizzes on what sort of doctor I should be (here’s a good one), and seeing which Grey’s Anatomy character I relate to the most. But I feel compelled to come up with something I think I might end up doing just to make my life seem like it has some sort of direction.
Medical students and junior doctors are seemingly spoilt for choice and have a couple of years to explore which path to propel our careers along. I remember going home at the end of the first week of every rotation I had last year thinking that I could see myself pursuing that field. Furthermore, I have been told several times that there are plenty of other careers I have the option of pursuing with a medical degree outside of the hospital. How is one supposed to choose?!
Standing in the corner of the OT wondering where your life is headed
I think some of the best advice I have received in this regard is to try and follow the registrars and consultants in each specialty around and see if I want to live the life that they live; and also that as time progresses, everyone will just naturally gravitate towards certain specialties. So I guess this is where I am at the moment, and also the basis for this project – trying to talk to different to doctors from different specialties to gain some insight into their jobs and their lives and how much I want to be like them.
Hopefully by the end of this interview series, I’ll have a better answer when someone asks me “What type of doctor are you going to be?” And hopefully you will have found it helpful too!