The Next Step!

So, I've written some about the interview trail and I can happily say that it is finally coming to an end.  I have my last interview this coming Monday and then I am finished!!!!  woo hoo!!  Don't get me wrong it has been great to be able to travel to all of these different residencies and learn about the unique opportunities avaliable through different programs.  There are some very unique opportunities out there.

It's interesting too, because the path my career will take seems to have changed slightly during the interview trail.  I was often asked, "Where do you see yourself in 5 years?"  I had a standard answer, which was really quite honestly doing a lot of things.  I see myself someday working abroad (either months at a time or a few years), I also enjoy teaching and can see myself one day working at a residency program.  I also want to deliver babies for a while, probably not for my entire career, but definitely for a while.  I enjoy women's health and moms and babies.  Do I see myself working in a hospital after residency?  I'm not quite sure about that one yet, maybe if I were at a residency program I would.  Group visits are something I want to give a try at some point in my career and the thing that I have added since being on the residency trail is that I think someday I want a Master's in Public Health.  It's funny because I have always said I enjoyed family medicine partly for the preventative medicine part of it and before starting the interview trail I never really looked beyond an individual patient, but with a little bit more education - I could in theory reach out to entire communities and populations.  Maybe someday even end up in some adminsitrative work.
    It's crazy because there are still so many options open to me through my choice of family medicine.  Anyways...back to the title of the post - The Next Step.  Now is the time that Sief and I make our rank list.  This is when we compile a list 1-10 (or the number of places we interviewed) and rank them in our order of preference.  Once we have completed our list we submit it and the residency programs do the same.  They rank the people they interviewed 1-100 (or whatever number) and then we wait... and wait....and wait...until March 18th to find out if we matched and where.  That's 55 days away.

Let the countdown begin, because it will be here before we know it!  We're one step closer :)