I've been told that a lot of people read my blog (people who I never would have imagined), and I ought to update it, so I guess it's back to updating. I can't promise every day, but I'll definitely try to do better!
In any case, I have to honestly say that the last two weeks or so have not been horribly interesting for me. I'm currently a little over half way through my IM rotation. That part is very interesting (and exciting), but the rotation itself has not been amazing. I've pretty much always known that I wasn't going to go into IM, but this rotation has cemented that for me. It's boring, with a capital B-O-R-I-N-G. The day pretty much goes like this:
round on patients -> morning conference -> more rounding -> more rounding -> quick lunch -> noon conference -> even more rounding -> sometimes some more lectures. In between all that rounding and all those conferences is some time to write notes and do scut work.
Some people enjoy it, but it just does nothing for me. Even in my psych rotation, I felt that I was really involved in patient care and that I was helping people. I don't really feel that way at all in IM. I am jealous every day when I see the surgical students and hear about all the stuff they get to do. I haven't done my surgical rotation yet, but I have spent some time in the OR. And when I'm there, I never want to leave. When I'm rounding in IM, I mostly just wish I was somewhere else. I guess this is how medical students are supposed to know what they want to do for the rest of their lives...you wait until something clicks. Since I haven't done surgery yet (and by extension, no surgical subspecialties), I haven't had anything click yet. But, I have had things definitely not click!
P.S. - for those who know where I'm doing my rotation, I'm definitely not saying that it's bad at that particular hospital. The attendings and residents are mostly all very friendly and as helpful as possible. It's just a very busy hospital, so the interns don't always have the time to teach that they may at other places. But, there is plenty of opportunity to learn and see just about any disease process you care to see. If you're looking for somewhere to do IM, where I am is not a bad place to wind up.
