Decisions II

Another approach to figuring out what to do is to ask what I'm looking for in a specialty. The first cut is easy: I want a patient care specialty. I enjoy working with patients and their families. That rules out fields like radiology, pathology, and laboratory medicine.

The next step - surgical or nonsurgical - is also easy. I don't like surgery enough to commit to it. Surgery is fun; it's hands on, interventional, and technically challenging. It can be rewarding to see something wrong and fix it. But it requires a great investment in time and has its culture and preconceptions. I'd miss the cognitive aspects of non-surgical fields.

A related question is whether I want a procedural or non-procedural field. I think it'd be fun to do something procedural but I'm not opposed to doing something completely cerebral. I would include things like anesthesia and interventional cardiology in a short list of interesting fields. There are other benefits to doing something hands-on; as the medical landscape changes over the next few decades, I think allied health professionals (nurse practitioners, physician assistants) may broaden their scope of practice. They may do more of the health maintenance and management of patients, but seem less likely to extend too much into the procedural aspects of medicine (other than nurse anesthetists). By having a set of procedures one can do, a physician better secures his or her area of expertise.

Lastly, looking at patient population, one could ask adults or children. I think I'm an adult-type person, but I wouldn't mind caring for children. Why adults? My answer isn't very satisfying; I simply always imagined myself as an adult doctor. This leads me into a field like medicine but fields that do both adults and children like emergency medicine might be fun too.