If you read my about page, I mentioned that I'm a practicing emergency medicine physician in addition to all the work I do on Med School Moose.
For many of the medical students reading this, the obvious next question was "What made you decide to go into Emergency Medicine?" Well, that's what I'll tell you in this post!😸
The decision on what specialty to pursue in medical school relies on many different factors: lifestyle, geography, desired patient population, interest in performing procedures😵💫...way more than I can discuss in this post, but perfect for a future post😉.
For me, my dad was an emergency medicine nurse for over 20 years, so my interest sprouted there🪴. I can still remember him sharing interesting stories and looking through all of his pocket guides having no idea what anything meant🤷🏽♂️.
Although I sampled all of the different specialties during my third year of medical school as all med students do, emergency medicine was always in the back of my mind🧠. I already knew that I liked the unpredictability of working in the emergency department and always having to be on your toes for whatever might come through the door🚑.
I think the benefit of my clinical rotations was learning what I didn't like. I was not a fan of the office work and chaotic schedule of family medicine👨👩👧👦. The long hours of rounding in internal medicine also weren't a good fit🚫. Surgery was appealing, but the rough schedule and lifestyle was something I knew I couldn't dedicate myself to🔪. I even thought about OB/GYN, however being on call for patients close to delivering 24/7 was also exhausting🤰🏽.
The list goes on and on📃, but the combination of knowing the lifestyle and schedule that I wanted as well as the aspects of medicine that I was not as big a fan of led me to emergency medicine🎉. This decision is not a simple one, and the journey will be different for everyone.
For now, my advice is to figure out what is important to you and don't be afraid to discuss your thoughts and feelings with classmates, family, or anyone else important in your life🤗. And of course, feel free to contact me as well if I can help in any way!