Oh hi. This is way belated.
However. I wanted to talk about my last shadowing session.
As a review, the mentor that my medical assigned me is an ophthalmologist. It was the usual shadowing session -- lots of wet/dry macular degeneration (macular degeneration is when the center part of your vision (where you see most everything) begins to deteriorate. The difference between wet and dry is, wet means you develop new blood vessels in that area which hurts your vision more. With dry macular degeneration, that means you are developing things under a layer of cells and the only thing to do with dry macular degeneration is to prevent it from becoming "wet"). However, there were some cool interesting cases but all in all, a pretty standard day.
My mentor and I chit-chatted at the end of the session and she asked if she had convinced me to go into ophthalmology. I told her I find it interesting and her lifestyle seems like a good deal but I was still unsure. Then she asked about my summer plans and I told her about an upcoming family vacation (I know, I know, I haven't told any of you about it yet), a possible externship I am applying for (basically a paid internship away from my medical school) and anything not research related. She was very nice and supportive but told me that if I did ever get truly interested in ophthalmology, I should do research. "Ophthalmology is a competitive field and it will give you an edge."
... uh... thanks? Can someone explain to me, how is it that if 100 (out of 200) of my peers are doing research, that me doing research will somehow give me an edge? Either way, I have my post-undergrad research and if anything ever comes of it (hard to say if a paper with my name will ever arise, to be frank), then all the power to me. If not, I'm going to be a doctor either way so I'm not terribly worried about whether or not I have research on my resume/CV.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
0 comments:
Post a Comment