Idk if I'm cut out for medicine:/

Hey, So I'm an F1 on my last rotation of the year. I started off on surgery and really disliked everything about it, but after moving to medicine started to enjoy it a lot more. I do feel like I'm growing in confidence and taking a lot from the job, but I find myself struggling from time to time. The day job is fine, it just on-call shifts where if something stressful happens it really gets to me, and if someone is rude/unpleasant with me it really effects me. On one hand I enjoy a lot of aspects of the job and hospital medicine in general, but every now and again I just have such a setback and I start to wonder if this is right for me or if I'm cut out for it. I have considered going into a speciality that's more clinic, 9-5 based rather than hospital medicine but I don't know if I'd regret that because like I said there are a lot of aspects I do enjoy. I'm basically just struggling to know if I'm built for this career and what to do about it. Any advice or help would be really appreciated - thank you ❤️

Reply 1

Vyshto Andeddu

19

Original post by Anonymous

Hey, So I'm an F1 on my last rotation of the year. I started off on surgery and really disliked everything about it, but after moving to medicine started to enjoy it a lot more. I do feel like I'm growing in confidence and taking a lot from the job, but I find myself struggling from time to time. The day job is fine, it just on-call shifts where if something stressful happens it really gets to me, and if someone is rude/unpleasant with me it really effects me. On one hand I enjoy a lot of aspects of the job and hospital medicine in general, but every now and again I just have such a setback and I start to wonder if this is right for me or if I'm cut out for it. I have considered going into a speciality that's more clinic, 9-5 based rather than hospital medicine but I don't know if I'd regret that because like I said there are a lot of aspects I do enjoy. I'm basically just struggling to know if I'm built for this career and what to do about it. Any advice or help would be really appreciated - thank you ❤️

I recommend talking to your boss and see if they have any suggestions as there is a likelihood that they may have experience what you are currently feeling. Hope this helps :smile:

Original post by Anonymous

Hey, So I'm an F1 on my last rotation of the year. I started off on surgery and really disliked everything about it, but after moving to medicine started to enjoy it a lot more. I do feel like I'm growing in confidence and taking a lot from the job, but I find myself struggling from time to time. The day job is fine, it just on-call shifts where if something stressful happens it really gets to me, and if someone is rude/unpleasant with me it really effects me. On one hand I enjoy a lot of aspects of the job and hospital medicine in general, but every now and again I just have such a setback and I start to wonder if this is right for me or if I'm cut out for it. I have considered going into a speciality that's more clinic, 9-5 based rather than hospital medicine but I don't know if I'd regret that because like I said there are a lot of aspects I do enjoy. I'm basically just struggling to know if I'm built for this career and what to do about it. Any advice or help would be really appreciated - thank you ❤️

I imagine that the ups and downs are normal and it's normal to feel as if you have picked the wrong career path. @Democracy @GANFYD @usycool1 @Helenia are best placed to give you some more medicine-specific advice and experience :ta:

Reply 3

Helenia

20

Original post by Anonymous

Hey, So I'm an F1 on my last rotation of the year. I started off on surgery and really disliked everything about it, but after moving to medicine started to enjoy it a lot more. I do feel like I'm growing in confidence and taking a lot from the job, but I find myself struggling from time to time. The day job is fine, it just on-call shifts where if something stressful happens it really gets to me, and if someone is rude/unpleasant with me it really effects me. On one hand I enjoy a lot of aspects of the job and hospital medicine in general, but every now and again I just have such a setback and I start to wonder if this is right for me or if I'm cut out for it. I have considered going into a speciality that's more clinic, 9-5 based rather than hospital medicine but I don't know if I'd regret that because like I said there are a lot of aspects I do enjoy. I'm basically just struggling to know if I'm built for this career and what to do about it. Any advice or help would be really appreciated - thank you ❤️

This is a really, really normal way to feel at this stage - you're very much finding your feet and there will be lots of things you don't know, plus you're learning to deal mentally with uncertainty, and with things not going your way. Everyone finds different things easier or harder, whether that's practical procedures, or the stress of an on-call, or relationships with colleagues/patients. And some people are just arses, whatever specialty you go into.

If there are still aspects that you're enjoying, follow those, and hopefully you'll find an area which suits you. It's still early days in your career and it sounds like you're getting better and finding things that work for you, so don't give up yet!

Reply 4

Democracy

20

Original post by Anonymous

Hey, So I'm an F1 on my last rotation of the year. I started off on surgery and really disliked everything about it, but after moving to medicine started to enjoy it a lot more. I do feel like I'm growing in confidence and taking a lot from the job, but I find myself struggling from time to time. The day job is fine, it just on-call shifts where if something stressful happens it really gets to me, and if someone is rude/unpleasant with me it really effects me. On one hand I enjoy a lot of aspects of the job and hospital medicine in general, but every now and again I just have such a setback and I start to wonder if this is right for me or if I'm cut out for it. I have considered going into a speciality that's more clinic, 9-5 based rather than hospital medicine but I don't know if I'd regret that because like I said there are a lot of aspects I do enjoy. I'm basically just struggling to know if I'm built for this career and what to do about it. Any advice or help would be really appreciated - thank you ❤️

Medical on calls are legendarily stressful for FY1s and new SHOs - this is due to the volume of work, huge number of jobs, weird handovers, and lack of familiarity with a large number of patients (many of whom are quite unwell) along with your own relative newness.

With time you will become more confident in working out which jobs are not necessary to do on call, which ones can be handed over or deferred, and which patients aren't actually that far off their baseline (despite panicked calls about their NEWS). Eventually you will also make peace with the fact that it's impossible to finish all the jobs, some patients will become more unwell despite your best efforts, and you can't always know everything.

Your SHO and registrar expect to be contacted by you, so don't worry about discussing things with them.

I'm sure you are built for this career - it is very early on in your postgraduate training. It's also completely fine to decide you'd rather do a less acute specialty. I've been doing this job for years and I'm still working out my likes and dislikes :tongue:

Idk if I'm cut out for medicine:/

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