Halfway There

I have not posted on here in a while, and thought I would post a brief catch up of what is going for me at school these days.

I am finished with my second year of medical school now, with the only obstacle left for this academic year being the USMLE Step 1 exam. I am studying on my own for that and will be taking it in early May.

The first two years have gone by really quickly. Basically there was the pregnant/separated one and then the baby one. I don't remember much else. I'm glad we've been taking lots of pictures and video, especially this year, because I've found that the more focused I am on school and what's going on at home, the less I remember events.

Next academic year, starting in June, I transition to the exclusively clinical part of training. I am excited in some respects, but really concerned about the time commitment as well. The last year I've been able to take a lot of short days where I skip either the morning or afternoon classes, but that won't be an option anymore. Luckily for me, I ended up at a program that is relatively benevolent as far as hours go. Many other medical students still have to frequently do overnight call, wheras at our school that is really not part of the schedule. Shockingly, even the residents don't take overnight call here. Hopefully that will translate into me not feeling overworked/abused at the end of the year.

A lot of people ask me about what specialty I want to go into, and I've never really had a great answer. At this point I do have a couple of leading candidates in my head and we will see how it plays out over the next year. I may change my mind, but right now I like Emergency Medicine the best, with Anesthesia as another possibility. One of the survey things I took told me Family Medicine was something I should consider as well. Other darkhorses include Radiology, Pediatrics, and Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation. The more I read about it though, the more I think that I would really be at home working in an emergency department.

That's it for now. I will try to revisit some of these topics next year as I have more actual experiences to share.