Changing Specialties

Written by Alison Yarp, MD, MPH

We go to medical school, often at a young age, when we are still figuring out what we want to do in our lifetime. Usually, by the end of our degree, we are confident that we know our future specialty choice. Either we had experiences with it in the past, enjoyed our time during the clinical rotation, or something else brought us to our choice. However, it sometimes takes more time to figure out where you belong, which is what happened to me.

I was pretty sure I wanted to do emergency medicine when I started medical school. I was an EMT in college, and I enjoyed the variety of experiences and acuity it provided. However, I began to doubt my path in clinical medicine right before I started my third-year rotations. Did I want to begin rotations? Did I actually want to be a doctor?

I started my rotations, but nothing felt quite right as each specialty came and went. Even emergency medicine, the one I thought would get me excited again, did not remove the doubts in the back of my mind. Finally, in my second semester, I found psychiatry, and it seemed like it was what I was meant to do.

I decided to apply to psychiatry and matched to a program after a successful interview season. I started residency, and things seemed to fall into place. I was enjoying what I was doing. Then, however, the doubts returned. Something just did not feel right.

During my intern year, I discovered the existence of a specialty called Preventive Medicine and Public Health. I had done my MPH in medical school and was shocked that I had never heard of it before. Ultimately, for various reasons, I took some time off at the beginning of my second year, and I realized I wanted to do something different. I missed the broader perspective of public health compared to traditional clinical medicine. So, with this in mind, I resigned from my psychiatry program to pursue preventive medicine and public health.

The following year was challenging. I freelanced while I applied and interviewed because the timing of my leave and resignation left me with a gap year. However, I matched to a Preventive Medicine program and now feel like I am where I should be. My doubts about my path have disappeared, and I do not want others to experience these feelings.

As I have been more open about my journey, I have found more and more people out there like me. Questioning their decisions, but not sure if there is anything else they can do. I am here to tell you there is hope. If you ever feel trapped or doubt where you are or what you are doing, please reach out to a trusted advisor, mentor, or friend.

This is partly why I created MARCo Community. When leaving my first program, I did not know who to reach out to or where to find support. Leaving jobs is something people do all the time, but it is not spoken about much in medicine. So I wanted to create a community for medical trainees where they can find this support and advice that is often hard to come by. MARCo stands for Mentoring, Advising, Relating, Connecting, and I hope this is the type of community it becomes. I want trainees who doubt their path to know they don’t have to go through it alone. You can forge a new course or even just modify the one you’re on. Either way, you will find something that fulfills you, even if the journey takes a little longer.