Volunteer students in each task group arrange Specialty Nights and Residents Night during the winter and/or spring semester. The purpose is to make some personal contacts and find out more about the specialties.

   Usually the outgoing 2^nd year students, who remain on the task group, will pass over the duties to the incoming 2^nd year students who have been in the group the previous year. The students in each of these groups for the current academic year will be posted in the near future.

  Specialty Night for 2010 will be held on Tuesday, February 24th; 7:00 - 9:00 p.m..  This year physicians from the following specialties will be giving question and answer seminars: 

Anesthesia (Dr. Samarasena)
Cardiology (Dr. Rose)
Emergency Medicine (Dr. Seviour)
Family Medicine (Dr. Miller)
General/Thoracic Surgery (Dr. Mann)
Genetics (Dr. Turner)
Nephrology (Dr. Barrett)
Obstetrics/Gynecology (Dr. Bartellas)
Pathology (Dr. Fontaine)
Pediatrics (Dr. Bridger)
Psychiatry (Dr. Adey)
Radiation Oncology (Dr. Stuckless)
Radiology (Dr. Heale)
Urology (Dr. Duffy)  

Personal Contacts

   This is part of your information gathering. Informational presentations are arranged with physicians and residents in the various specialties. It is a type of informational interview, in which there is a meeting of a group of students with a specialist and/or resident for whom they prepare a specific set of questions. These questions will help the students get a valid idea of what that specialty is about and whether or not it will suit them.

   The informational interview has 3 purposes:

1. To learn about practicing or doing a residency in a specialty area of interest.
2. To gain information about new developments in various specialty areas of interest.
3. To build a network, by asking for more referrals from the person you ãinterview.

   Keep a record of your searches for each specialty area, including the opinions from presenters in the area. You can use the cumulated data to help put your list in order and confirm that the right things are on the list. When you have completed this you will be in good shape to make sensible and informed selections for your clerkship rotations, including electives. This is not a job that is easily accomplished in a short period of time. You need to start in your first or early part of second year, so when that moment comes at the end of second year you are ready to make a well-informed choice for yourself! Look back at the attributes you identified in your values, interests, skills, environmental and practice needs assessments, and critical factors and see how well they match with the answers you have obtained in your specialty research.

1. How/why did you choose this specialty?
2. What do you like most /least about this specialty?
3. What are the various practice settings for this specialty?
4. How do you balance your career with the rest of your life?
5. Describe the schedule of your program, covering the following aspects:
   *daily hours *call schedule *days off per month
6. What is the salary range for work in this specialty?
7. Are there other recommendations you would make to a new physician considering this specialty?
8. What attributes do you think are the most important in anyone considering this specialty?
9. If you had it to do over again, would you choose this specialty? Why/why not?
10. Who else would you suggest I speak with? May I let them know you referred me?