What specialty did you decide on and how did you decide on it?
This was quite a challenge for me. I’ve always had difficulty choosing career paths because I’m usually drawn to several options. After college, I was stuck between futures in healthcare, education, and municipal engineering. Choosing a medical specialty was a similar journey. The most help came when I began clinical clerkship during 3rd year. The easiest approach for me was to first answer: do I like surgery or not? Though I liked procedures, I discovered I wanted more patient interaction than surgery which pushed me toward the world of medicine. My biggest struggle was between family medicine and internal medicine. My 3rd year clerkship site was a hospital with a great family medicine residency and I knew that track would be a good option for me since you get longevity with patients and a wide range of training. The reason I ended up in internal medicine was because I wasn’t sure yet if I might want to specialize (internal offers more options), and though I enjoyed obstetrics and pediatrics as a med student, I knew they weren’t major career interests of mine. The toughest part might be determining if you like a field itself or more the person you happen to be working with. I would bet many doctors today practice in fields because they once had an enthusiastic attending in that field who took an interest in their learning and made them feel motivated and inspired. That’s not such a bad thing!
Gavin Kuns, DO '18