Congratulations on choosing internal medicine! You can look forward to a career that combines problem-solving and interpersonal skills with technical expertise-along with many professional and personal rewards.
Undecided? Often it's the medical student having the most difficulty making a career choice who finds internal medicine the most rewarding. Because its practitioners are required to develop such a vast medical knowledge base, internal medicine satisfies the intellectual curiosities of those with many diverse interests.
Historically, internal medicine has been the choice of physicians who enjoy the cognitive aspects of medicine. Internists are medicine's detectives; symptoms and histories are their clues in solving the crimes of disease. To unravel the mysteries of illness, internists need to be familiar with just about every aspect of medicine, and to be able to use that knowledge daily in both intervention and prevention tasks. Your training will lead to an artful mastery of many areas in medicine and to an understanding of the psychosocial processes that affect the course of disease.
While you can count on your career being intellectually stimulating, internal medicine is also personally rewarding. You will get to know your patients well as you guide them through diagnosis, treatment, and convalescence. And you will experience the fulfillment that comes from helping others learn about themselves, and enjoy the gratitude people express to you when they get well.
The unique intellectual and social aspects of internal medicine make it a rewarding and enjoyable career. Welcome!
Questions or Comments?