The third year of medical school is about rotating through core specialties both to learn and to find out what we enjoy. I began my third year a few months ago and so far I have experienced surgery, psychiatry, and one internal medicine-ish rotation. Every medical student hopes to have an "epiphany" in their third year that reveals to them the specialty they were destined to go into. I may have had mine.
(italicized is optional reading)
Surgery sucked. Every morning:
"Good morning Mr. Johnson"
"good morning"
"how is your pain?"
"bad"
"have you had a bowel movement yet?"
"yes"
"okay, goodbye"
(your colon freezes up after surgery [postoperative ileus] and its unfreezing is often the surgeon's cue to eject you)
Medicine is filled with minutia to rote memorize--laundry lists of symptoms, side effects, treatment algorithms, details, data, details, details, data, details, data point, data graphed, chart, algorithm, details. UGH! I liked learning about how things work in the first two years. It was tedious, but I had the time to draw things out and make concept maps--using the (big picture)-visual INFJ intuition to retain the minutia. This however is not sustainable when hospital hours grow long and study time grows short. I found myself struggling before going to see a patient to think "this symptom... what is the 10-items-long differential diagnosis? What are the symptoms, historical points, and physical exam findings I need to ask about or look for for each of those? Lists upon lists upon lists of things to remember. After each interview, I'd stare at my notes in horror--the chaos, the disorganization, the things I forgot to ask, the things I hadn't considered, I had covered maybe 1/2 the things that I should have asked about. Nightmare. I feel like I'm the only person in my class who can read a paper and 5 minutes later not be able to regurgitate the symptoms, side effects, fine points of it. I hear that medicine gets intuitive after near a decade of practice, but it will be an agonizing process to get there. Nightmare. Don't get me wrong, it's all fascinating, but what really kills me is the mad mental scramble I have when I interview my patients to recall the factoids I understand so well, but free-recall so poorly.
Psychiatry was a dream. I showed up in the morning, walked into my patients' rooms and asked them "how you feelin?" then sat back and listened. I'd ask a few questions to guide their responses and a few yes/no questions to rule out the relatively limited list of other possible psychiatric issues they could have. Certainly, knowing the drugs, their side effects, efficacy, interactions, et cetera will be necessary, but the breadth is nowhere near as massive as in general medicine. Only some of the interview is what my patients say--the rest is how they feel. NiFe very happy.
tl;dr: Surgery is cold and stupid. Medicine is an ocean of lists to memorize (sensor stuff AUUUGH). Psychiatry is intuitive (mmm.... iNNNNtuition). Any other INFJ medical students or physicians have some input? Anyone with comments? Anyone with questions?
Really, I just want to open up the forum (pun intended) to talking about INFJs and the medical field.
(italicized is optional reading)
Surgery sucked. Every morning:
"Good morning Mr. Johnson"
"good morning"
"how is your pain?"
"bad"
"have you had a bowel movement yet?"
"yes"
"okay, goodbye"
(your colon freezes up after surgery [postoperative ileus] and its unfreezing is often the surgeon's cue to eject you)
Medicine is filled with minutia to rote memorize--laundry lists of symptoms, side effects, treatment algorithms, details, data, details, details, data, details, data point, data graphed, chart, algorithm, details. UGH! I liked learning about how things work in the first two years. It was tedious, but I had the time to draw things out and make concept maps--using the (big picture)-visual INFJ intuition to retain the minutia. This however is not sustainable when hospital hours grow long and study time grows short. I found myself struggling before going to see a patient to think "this symptom... what is the 10-items-long differential diagnosis? What are the symptoms, historical points, and physical exam findings I need to ask about or look for for each of those? Lists upon lists upon lists of things to remember. After each interview, I'd stare at my notes in horror--the chaos, the disorganization, the things I forgot to ask, the things I hadn't considered, I had covered maybe 1/2 the things that I should have asked about. Nightmare. I feel like I'm the only person in my class who can read a paper and 5 minutes later not be able to regurgitate the symptoms, side effects, fine points of it. I hear that medicine gets intuitive after near a decade of practice, but it will be an agonizing process to get there. Nightmare. Don't get me wrong, it's all fascinating, but what really kills me is the mad mental scramble I have when I interview my patients to recall the factoids I understand so well, but free-recall so poorly.
Psychiatry was a dream. I showed up in the morning, walked into my patients' rooms and asked them "how you feelin?" then sat back and listened. I'd ask a few questions to guide their responses and a few yes/no questions to rule out the relatively limited list of other possible psychiatric issues they could have. Certainly, knowing the drugs, their side effects, efficacy, interactions, et cetera will be necessary, but the breadth is nowhere near as massive as in general medicine. Only some of the interview is what my patients say--the rest is how they feel. NiFe very happy.
tl;dr: Surgery is cold and stupid. Medicine is an ocean of lists to memorize (sensor stuff AUUUGH). Psychiatry is intuitive (mmm.... iNNNNtuition). Any other INFJ medical students or physicians have some input? Anyone with comments? Anyone with questions?
Really, I just want to open up the forum (pun intended) to talking about INFJs and the medical field.
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