Anyway, last night I went to the Internal Medicine annual wine and cheese awards ceremony banquet. Which was nice. Hey, I'm all for any party that involves getting dressed up and free wine and delice de bourgogne. Here's the problem. Thus far, (in life, not just since med school started) I have never met ANYONE in IM that I really liked. IM is like a secret club that you aren't invited to, yet you don't really even want an invitation.
I mean, last night the chair of IM got up to say why he chose IM, and all he could talk about was how he liked carrying people to their death. I mean, seriously? That's it? That is supposed to inspire a group of students to follow in his footsteps? And frankly, the IM folks seem a little, well, anal. OCD. Over the top. I guess that's a good thing if you're a patient... but to work in that environment? I mean, EM seems significantly more quirky, ADD, and fun. Medicine seems like stress, pressure and politics (not that politics don't exist everywhere I KNOW).
Any thoughts on this? I'd love to be convinced otherwise....
Ella -- I don't say this often but, your 2nd paragraph really hit the nail on the head vis a vis my issue with IM. There are a few folks who I really like who do IM, but I just am not feeling it with most of the others. I feel like..... they judge me, I guess. I'm just not in "the in crowd." I never felt that way with EM, Anesthesia, Psychiatry, or Neurology.
ReplyDeleteThank you for summing up all of the feelings I have about IM. You've put it the best of anyone I've seen.
I think you should seriously consider peds.
I love my IM doctor. She is fabulous, very personable, I think you would like her as well. I'm going to be shadowing toward the end of this year actually. She felt the same way that you did actually and now works in a practice with two family med docs and no other IM docs probably because of that same reason!
ReplyDeleteMaybe IM isn't for you, carrying patients to their death, being with them and helping them as they face that, is exactly why I am doing med (and want to go into IM)... Sounds like surgery might be what you are after with all that dreaming of seeing pathology and fixing it. Personally, I don't think you should be convinced of IM, if its not for you it doesn't matter, something else will be a better fit!
ReplyDeleteMy preceptor is in IM, and everyone at his practice is SO chill, and super-friendly... maybe it just varies based on the practice?
ReplyDeleteInterestingly, we had a couple of lectures from a hepatologist this week (he told us about a classmate who sat in the front row and took notes on graph paper. one letter to a box...) and he said that the most anal docs are heme/onc and infectious disease...
It's a tough decision because even though there may be certain "types" of docs, I think the people and the departments vary widely. Maybe you don't like the IM folks where you go to school, but perhaps you would love IM as it is practiced/structured on the West Coast. I think I tend to underestimate how different regions produce different styles of doctoring.
ReplyDeleteFor example, at Seattle Children's, all the pediatric interns take 1 week off during their first month of internship to go on a retreat! They are only able to do this because a bunch of community pediatricians and university attendings take "shifts as interns." This would never happen where I go to med school! Never in a million years!
I also know that the interns meet once weekly for one hour with a social worker and psychologist to reflect and discuss experiences on the floors. (Amazing.)
A friend of mine interviewing there also told me that the interns address the chair of the department by his first name!
It just seems to be a different focus/hierarchy/style. The formality that I see on pediatrics at my institution is just totally done away with at Seattle. I'm sure similar stories exist for other specialties.
Moral of the story: Don't think that how medicine is practiced at your home base is how they do it everywhere! :-)
When you say IM, what do you mean? With IM being made up of primary care, hospitalist, cards, GI, liver, pulm, CC, rheum, endo, geriatrics, alergy, immunology, heme, onc (did I forget anyone?) it's such a huge group with such diverse personalities (oh, crap, I forgot renal) even when you stereotype them by speciality that it's hard to think of it as an exclusive club. Especially since they (uh, we) view ourselves very differently from each other and not as part of the same club.
ReplyDeleteAn interesting observation that maybe is more related to your institution. The three places I was for school, residency and fellowship were not at all like that.
Yep, those guys. Thats who I'm talking about. And for the record I've worked at 4 different institutions, in 3 different regions of the US. I'm not saying this is how it is... I'm saying this is my opinion and the feelings I get. Which is legit... no matter how much you may disagree. That's why they are opinions....
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