Eh-team Menu

28 May 2012

Medical Horoscopes

A aptitude test is floating around among my Facebook medical buddies, with 130 questions which will help slot you into the specialty where you think like the average consultant of that ilk. My top 10 were definitely not what I was expecting:



The test is mostly mostly horsefeathers, in my opinion.  Children are probably my least favourite patients. Bears are more predictable.  And population health (needed to do preventative med) makes me want to gouge my eyes out with a pickle fork.  OK, if you can't stand interruptions in your schedule, emergency medicine may feel a bit grating. Or if you can't abide with the thought of your patients dying regularly, oncology and palliative care are probably not for you.  Or you'll get used to it.  It's amazing the things we learn to accept and work with as we are transformed from lay people into doctors:
  High caffeine levels and minimal sleep.
 Asking awkward questions non-awkwardly, and keeping a poker face regardless of the answer. 
Living under bureaucracy that tells us when and where to show up (if we're lucky), but demands we be flexible lest they change it all at the last minute.
Consuming and regurgitating stacks of information and theory, and learning how to synthesize it together to make decisions on the spot.
And then have patients not fit the textbook. Ever.

So in the end, we need to find out what we want to be when we grow up by experience, not tendency. It would be sad if all oncologists thought the same. Or every surgeon fit the stereotype. Thanks goodness we are all different.

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