My Medical Career

As a medical student in my second year one of my favourite past times is pretending like career development and specialty choice are important decisions for me in the here and now. In truth they're not, not really, not now at least. Still, when I graduate, become an intern and start my career as a medical doctor it will be at turbulent and dynamic time in postgraduate medical education.

2012 is the year I start work as an intern, a year where the number of medical graduates will have increased by more than 80% since 2005. Questions are already being asked about how this will effect the quality of internships in Australia and what level of supervision will be allowed by stressed hospital systems. The availability of specialty places will be even more of an issue. Gaining admission to specialty training programs is already a competitive business and as the wave of medical graduates progresses through their postgraduate years competition will increase exponentially. A difficult endeavour in specialty training is set to become all the more frustrating and stressful.

 So, I wonder if maybe my medical career is, perhaps, a more pressing issue to me right now than I thought. Perhaps it's worth considering the difficult times that are sure to lie ahead of me and mentally prepare myself as best I can. As long as I don't lose sight of more immediate concerns as a junior medical student maybe it wouldn't hurt to look forward a little, to start thinking about where my real interests lie and where I might see myself in 10 or so years time.