Internal medicine (IM) is my passion and I honestly couldn’t see myself doing anything else. Here are the top 10 reasons why I love this field:
1. Patient interaction – The absolute best part of my job is the fact that I get to build meaningful relationships with my patients and their families. This gives me a real sense of purpose and satisfaction❤️
2. Scope of practice – In IM, we see EVERYTHING from head to toe. We manage all the vital organ systems and that’s exactly why I love it. Medicine physicians must be skilled in multitasking, interpersonal skills, and analytical thinking.
3. Coordination of care – We work very closely with various subspecialists, NPs, PAs, nurses, and other allied health professionals to manage each patient’s case. As the primary provider, we are the leader of the team.
4. Pathophysiology – IM is a very cerebral specialty. We’re constantly thinking about the physiology of disease processes in order to effectively treat our patients.
5. Variety in clinical practice – As IM docs, we have the ability to work in the hospital, clinic, or both!
6. Preventative Medicine – We don’t only treat diseases, we help prevent them too! This is a huge part of our everyday practice.
7. Ability to subspecialize – Medicine residents have the ability to further specialize their training by doing a fellowship. But if you don’t want to subspecialize, you can definitely start working as a general internist straight out of residency.
8. Lifestyle – One of the best things about IM is that we get to choose the lifestyle we want (after residency). We can work Mon-Fri at the clinic, or 7 days on-7 days off as a hospitalist, or some combination of both!
9. Practice Environment – In general, I’ve found the practice environment of Internal Medicine to be nurturing and supportive. I love that we have the ability to work as a team to provide patient care.
10. Length of residency – IM residency is 3 years long. While it’s one of the shorter programs, we work VERY hard during these three years to gain a ton of knowledge and experience.
Do you have questions about internal medicine? Ask away in the comments below!
AUDREY SUE CRUZ, MD 
Hello Dr. Was worth reading your blog.
Am a second year medical student, for now almost everything’s going well but i have one problem. Whatever am learning in internal medicine (Harrison’s) it’s very hard to remember the algorithms of the diseases, which makes me not able to diagnose the cases am trying to go through. Any advice on what shall i do or how shall i take it. Thank u. 😊
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