Question

There are a lot of specialties and I haven't gotten a chance to work in all of them. How can I be sure that I'm picking the right field?

Answer 1

There is a great book written just on this topic:

"The Ultimate Guide to Choosing a Medical Specialty". It goes in-depth as to personality traits that match well with different specialties, as well as the lifestyle commitments, residency requirements, and probable lifestyles. I found it highly informative.

Answer 2

Chill ooooouuuut MS1! lol

You'll start to figure out where your talents lie as you progress through 1st and 2nd year. If you can never identify things in histo or anatomy, maybe you shouldn't do pathology or radiology... Now, apply this to other classes. I'm not saying you couldn't be passable in any specialty, but why not choose something where you can be awesome?

3rd year is when you'll get a feel for what you want to do, or you'll at least identify things you definitely want to avoid.

Just do as well as you can right now, so you haven't limited your options by the time you need to make a decision.

Answer 3

In addition to the helpful stuff people said above, you could check out stuff online. Just Google for medical specialties, a day in the life of internal med or surgery or pediatrics or whatever, check out the AMA's website, etc.

For example, here's a useful one:

http://residency.wustl.edu