The Petting Zoo Phenomenon

Have you ever gone to the doctor's office (pick your favorite flavor) and wondered how they decided to do whatever it is they do?  Why family medicine?  Why internal?  Why OB/GYN?  Why surgery? (seriously...why?)  If you're curious, lets talk for a minute about how doctors are born.  And how third year medical students are supposed to decide what they want to do for the rest of their life after a few short months of living in the Petting Zoo Phenomenon.

Imagine it's your first day of third year of medical school, and you just spent (at least) 4 years trying to get into medical school, then another 2 slaving away in some dark closet trying to get good grades.  They just let you loose in a hospital.  Ready; go.

-Babies are flying out of people...
-Psychotics (and your attendings) are yelling at you...
-An old lady is hugging you for helping her...
-You sutured a drunk guy's face by yourself....
-You just intubated for the first time...
-You held a chunky 6 month old who came to the office for a well-baby check...(and then gave her shots)
-You heard a heart murmur for the first time in a 9 year old...
-Somebody's bone was poking out of their arm.
-You personally pushed the last round of epinephrine to revive a crack addict who stopped his heart

Third year is a petting zoo.  It's everything we've learned about, but with a beating heart and perfused capillary beds.  Instead of fluffy camels, turtles, and duckies, we have neonates, bleeding people, cancer patients, and snotty noses.  Everything is new and exciting.  Think of how hard it might be to tease out if you love a certain rotation and field because it's right for you, or because it's intense and fun.  The name of the game is to quick....decide what was the most fun, the most intriguing, the most satisfying part.

I'm lucky because peds has been my calling (I've ignored it from time to time, but I've been able to come back to it and know it's where I'm supposed to be).  But I am not immune to the Petting Zoo Phenomenon.  ER was super fun...it was a mess; fast paced, icky, and random.  Oddly, I really liked all of those things.  It was boring primary care ("umm...I woke up with a sore throat...it's not that bad but I thought I should be checked out...".or, "Umm...I've had chest pain for 6 months..." and then BAM, mega trauma car accident, crack addict, heart attack, laceration-sewing fun stuff.  It was bright and shiny and whew it took me a while to tease out if I could picture my self as a 50-something year old attending going "yes, this is where I should be".  It wasn't (at least I don't think it is...).  I can, however, see myself limping around a nursery when I'm 103, performing my millionth newborn examination and catching that one cool anomaly I haven't seen since 2021.

So why is there so much pressure on third year?  In September, we will all apply for our residencies...ie, what field we will commit 3-7 more years of our lives for training then a long career in peds/IM/ER/surgery/OBgyn/brain surgery/whatever.  Hug your doctor sometime...they made a big decision as a young person in a medical petting zoo to be able to help you.  A lot of us are huggers; it won't be weird.