This is going to be an interesting next couple of months. I have to decide my specialty that I will be practicing in for the next 40 years! I have lately been leaning more and more toward a career in Obstetrics & Gynecology. Although I am interested in the field of Orthopedic surgery, I just don’t think it is going to provide the variety and intellectual excitement for me over the next 40 years as OB/GYN will. So with this decision comes extra hassle for me. My research is in Physical Med & Rehab and in Pediatric Orthopedics, neither of which have alot to do with OB/GYN. In addition, I have an Ortho mentor that pretty much tells me every time he sees me that he would be so disappointed if I went into OB/GYN. So now I have to seek out OB/GYN mentors and some research in the field to show that I am serious about this dramatic switch.
In addition, I have to plan my 4th year rotations. In retrospect, choosing 3rd year clerkships was a breeze. All of the subjects are pre-determined, and it was just a matter of picking the order of the rotations and the site. With 4th year there are no regulations except that I have 30 weeks to complete, only 6 of which can be research, and 12 of which can be away rotations. Do you know that the course catalog is the size of a textbook! There are over 300 electives at my school alone… wait until you add that to the options at the other schools. Then I have to plan it strategically to get good face time and pick up some skills. I’ve been told by some to do inpatient sub-Is and by others to do outpatient. Some recommend doing a bunch in OB/GYN, while others suggest doing medicine and surgery electives since this will be my last year to pick these skills up. Any thoughts?
And then… the infamous decision of when to take Step 2! I have heard to take it early to get it out of the way and not have to worry about it interfering with interviews. But then others say it’s better to take it late if the Step 1 score was good, so as not to diminish it’s value. Any thoughts?
1. Take Step 2 (CK and CS) early, the feeling of getting those out of the way is only surpassed my matching. I did CK in July, one of my better 4th year decisions. You more than likely will do better on Step 2 than Step 1, I went up like 20 points. It also makes your application look better if you did well on Step1, took Step 2 early and did well on it too. I have a friend who’s bout to match Ortho at the Mayo clinic and that’s exactly what he did.
2. Do a Sub-I in a field totally unrelated to the field you are going into. My Sub-I is in April and it’s in no way surgical. You’re gonna learn all the stuff in your field later, might as well learn some of the stuff you might never be exposed to again.
3. I do not like OB/GYN residents so I do not want you to do OB/GYN. The attendings are cool but I think the residents are bitter. Reason being, during residency they are worked to death, get very little credit and/or appreciation for what they do by their patients, and they get to spend those 4 years watching everyone else build lives and families but are too busy to do the same for themselves. I would be much happier to see you as an Orthopod or even a General Surgeon, but OB/GYN??? You are too nice a person and I think the specialty will ruin you. Leave OB/GYN to the girls that are already mean and bitter.
My father is an OB/GYN. (Don’t know if I ever mentioned that.)
Yeah… I finish my 3rd Year July 3, so I was thinking of getting both Step 2 CK and CS out of the way in early August and then doing my away rotations after that. My only fear is that if Step 2 is anything like the shelf exams, I’m not sure my score will being going up… I just seem to be too tired to maximize my studying like I did the first 2 years.
As for OB/GYN, yeah William, I know your dad is an OB/GYN, we talked about it in the lab, cause I asked how you felt about his work hours. I don’t know why people have this crazy perception about the people in the field. Even my step-grandpa who is an OB/GYN says the new ladies entering the field are crazy. Honestly… that’s why I’m only 75%, not 100%. My thing with Ortho is it’s so manly that I fear I would not match because so much of it is getting buddy buddy with people and I don’t know how easily that comes with the jock crowd. Plus, I just think there are so many women that could use a nice Dr. like me one day! We’ll see…