Pulmonary Medicine – The Whole Tamale

Overall it was a pretty tame rotation which is why I am lumping it together all in one post, and also because I kinda just saw it as a continuation of my ICU rotation as a Pulm/Crit super rotation (and not because I forgot/ got lazy). It was definitely slower paced on the ICU, but it allowed for a lot of time for learning and education and stuff, while still allowing me to get home before rush hour. I really enjoyed learning more about pulmonary physiology and tying it back to our basic physics. It reignited one of my many life goals of creating a science museum on exploratory body science. Anyways it seems like between the two services of ICU and pulmonary consult/ clinic, life as a PCCM attending seemed more chill than I expected, but that is also coming from a limited medical student lens. But the key phrase is “than I expected.” I still imagine it’s pretty demanding to get there in terms of the fellowship training, and the high likelihood of having to have call for the rest of my professional life. What I do like about Pulm/Crit is that you have the ability to specialize in a certain area while also still being more or less a generalist when on the ICU in terms of still needing to have a pretty robust knowledge of all of medicine. Then the next part of concern is if this is a career that would be compatible with my med-peds training and my family/ life goals. Lots to think about and looking forward to figuring thing out (or getting more confused during residency).