Artifacts

  1. What are some of the day-to-day responsibilities in your career, what is your schedule for the day when you go to work?
  2. What major did you choose in college and how do you feel about choosing this major for your career?
  3. What kinds of extracurricular experiences (research, internships, co-ops, student organizations, study abroad, etc) did you have in college? How did those experiences benefit you professionally? What do you suggest to get started on early and things to make sure to do in order to be able to become a professional in this career?
  4. Describe the process by which you arrived at your undergraduate major.
  5. Describe the process by which you arrived at your position in your career. Is special certification, licensing, or an advanced degree required for your job? If so, what?

The person I interviewed was Dr. Neha Patel who works as a pediatrician. She works part time and sees patients from 9 am to 5 pm, three days a week and aside from that, she must follow up on lab work, imaging, and other studies that she has ordered. In pediatrics, she has a lot of forms such as back to school forms for medications and sports. In addition, there are many phone calls throughout the day from families who have questions. Those other things are done in between seeing patients throughout the day.

In college, Dr. Patel was a psychology major with an emphasis on biosciences. Her major was tailored more towards medical science and not just mental health. She liked the balance because she had all the prerequisites for pre med, but it was nice to have areas of focus that were different, but they were still related to medicine.

In college, Dr. Patel did research over the summers in an animal laboratory. The research was with mice and it was through the nutrition department. She did other things such as tutoring for an adult literacy program that she really enjoyed. This allowed her to take something else that she learned and apply it to help people in a different way. She also did an internship at a psychiatric hospital by shadowing someone allowing her to have patient contact and more of an idea if she wanted to do certain things in the future. She believes that experience is helpful in getting into medical school, but not everything must be medically related. There is not necessarily a set number of hours that is required for medical school. It is good to dabble in other interests so that it is shown that there is more to someone than just medical school. This will also be helpful to decide if this is something that they will want to do and if it is medicine, which path to take.

Dr. Patel chose psychology as her major since she has always thought interpersonal relations and the way people think was interesting. She wanted to focus on other things other than the hard core sciences. Her university required non traditional elements in education and many of her favorite courses were non hard core sciences such as anthropology. This allowed her to have a different perspective on things and use her brain in different ways. She believes that choosing a major all depends on a person’s interests and what they will excel in.

Regarding certification, after getting into medical school, one must take the United States Medical Exam that has two parts. One part is taken halfway through medical school for basic sciences and facts and the second part is taken at the end of medical school to be able to practice and get into residency. At the end of residency, any specialty that is chosen will have a Board Exam. Now, there is a new process where every ten years, one must recertify in order to continue practicing. Throughout the time that one is  practicing, he/she must do CME which is continuing medical education by attending conferences, doing readings, and answering questions.

I chose to interview Dr. Patel because I am currently considering a Pre Med track and therefore, I wanted to talk to someone who went through the experience and would be able to give their account of the process in which they went through in order to arrive at the position that they are in now. I also know that I really enjoy interacting with children and therefore, I was considering pediatrics for the future and since Dr. Patel is a pediatrician, I thought it was a really good idea to get her view of her career.

Although I did not ask many questions relating to if Dr. Patel enjoys her career as much as I did about the experiences and process of arriving to her position in her career, I feel that I now know more about what should be done in order to achieve the goal of becoming a doctor. After interviewing her, I felt more aware of the various components of the process which was reassuring. Regarding career exploration, I feel that I want to continue on the Pre Med track and become a doctor. From the daily schedule that Dr. Patel provided of her day, I feel that that schedule sounds appealing. I love working with children so seeing patients would be fulfilling. I also understand that the other parts are necessary in the job description and I find that those responsibilities are understandable. Regarding major exploration, I feel that I agree with what she has to say with the fact that it depends on individual interests and the areas that an individual is going to excel in. She chose psychology as her major since it allowed her to explore other things other than just chemistry and biology. In order to determine my major, I will have to discover my interests.

The interview with Dr. Patel helped to reinforce many of the ideas that I already had some information about such as the fact that it is important to choose a major based on what an individual is interested in. It is also important to participate in activities that are of interest so that one can decide what they want to do with their future and also because it shows medical schools that an individual is more well-rounded. I did learn from the interview about the details of a day for a pediatrician. There are many other responsibilities that a pediatrician has other than just seeing patients. I also learned about the process for certification for becoming a doctor. This involves the USME, board exams, recertification every ten years, and also CME throughout the process of practicing. This information is particularly useful because it allows me to really know what I am signing up for when I choose this path.

In order to make a confident decision, I feel that I still need to expose myself to the activities of a pediatrician or a doctor more. I want to be confident that if I choose this path that involves hard work and sacrifices, that I will be happy with the result and genuinely love what I am doing. I can get more exposure by shadowing a pediatrician in order to gauge if I am genuinely interested in becoming a pediatrician or any type of doctor. I can also do research in order to become more educated regarding the lifestyle of a doctor.

The major exploration tools that were most helpful to me was actually just talking to my advisor and discussing my interests and how that can be reflected in various majors. I also attended the various Monday lectures that gave me an idea of the various majors that were out there and that I could explore. The Monday lectures had people from specific majors and we were allowed to ask questions and get the perspective of someone who went through the process of getting a degree in their major.

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