This post is a conversation with an anonymous PGY-1 internal medicine resident, as part of our interview series with residents across various medical specialties to help medical students decide which path is right for them. Let’s dive in!
For a side-by-side comparison of each medical specialty, check out this FREE Medical Specialties Breakdown download including required exam scores, salaries, and more!
What’s your favorite part of being an internal medicine resident?
I like how investigative it is. You’re always looking for the why, the underlying cause of something. You have to consider a wide variety of possibilities in the differential diagnosis and understand so much medicine to help your patients. I enjoy constantly learning, and really thinking about things and the reasons behind them.
My inpatient IM rotations in medical school were always my favorite because of this. Additionally, I really feel like I develop a bond with my patients when they’re admitted because I see them every single day (sometimes multiple times) and I feel like I can really provide comfort in this vulnerable time.
Were you considering any other fields?
I briefly considered emergency medicine residency, but ultimately realized it wasn’t for me when I would wonder what happened with my patients days after my shift ended. I liked EM, but not having follow-ups with patients after they’re admitted would really bother me. Personally, I prefer to know what a patient’s diagnosis is and develop a bond with them over time when they’re admitted. I also like having continuity in the outpatient clinic as a PCP and being the primary point of care for my patients.
Are you happy in your residency?
I really love being an internal medicine resident. The hours during wards can get long—there’s a lot of responsibility with long hours of rounding like wards and ICU, but it’s actually so much better than wards as a medical student in my opinion!
When you’re on wards as a medical student, it’s interesting, but you usually present your few patients then follow along on rounds for the rest of the time. As an internal medicine resident, you have more patients and can be putting in orders or checking up on your patients during rounds. You’re not just passively following along.
What advice do you have for medical students interested in internal medicine?
The best thing you can do if you’re interested in internal medicine is to just focus on medical school and develop a good foundation of medical knowledge. You can also take electives in fields that you can specialize in outside of internal medicine: cardiology, GI, pulmonology, etc. This will give you that good foundation and maybe you will find yourself interested in specializing in one of those things.
What fellowships can you pursue after residency? Are you considering any?
I’m interested in interventional pulmonology so I’m considering a pulmonary/critical care fellowship (three years after internal medicine residency) with another fellowship in interventional pulmonology afterward (one year). One of the things I liked about internal medicine is that I could pursue a lot of different specialties afterward. I didn’t even know interventional pulmonology existed until my pulmonology rotation halfway through my PGY-1 year of residency!
Overall, I’ve enjoyed being an internal medicine resident and would be very happy working as a hospitalist, PCP, or pulmonologist/interventional pulmonologist. I actually initially applied for a surgical field as a fourth-year medical student and ended up switching because medicine was a better fit for me. Sometimes you don’t know the best fit for you right off the bat and that’s okay. Not everyone loves every field, you just have to find what’s best for you!
Want to hear more from other residents across various medical specialties? Check out these other interviews on the Blueprint Med School blog!
