Pro tips: New career advisors highlight value of specialty-specific guidance for medical students

Choosing a specialty may be the most pivotal decision a medical student makes. In preparation for this process, students at VCU School of Medicine get clinical exposure during their first year and are encouraged as early as orientation to begin exploring which paths align with their values, personalities and goals.  

Now, as part of the robust four-year Careers in Medicine program, four newly hired career advisors in the Office of Medical Education will meet with students one-on-one during every stage of medical school. Each advisor brings a wealth of knowledge to the positions, both in their respective fields and in guiding students as they explore those and related specialties.  

Outgoing surveys reveal that about 65% of VCU medical students change their mind at least once when picking a specialty, and students may meet with multiple career advisors throughout their time here. By their third year, students will select an advisor based on their top specialty choices, then work with them to create their M4 elective schedules and begin preparing for residency applications. The career advisors will also bridge the gap between the Office of Medical Education and the school’s clinical departments, connecting students with mentors, research opportunities and specialty-specific experiences, and helping the departments develop their own specialty advising programs.  

“The more hands on deck, the better,” said Chris Woleben, M.D., associate dean for student affairs. “This is going to take what is already a good program and make it stronger, making it more contemporary and more attuned to the needs of our students.”  

Finding the right fit  

When Carolyn Peel, M.D., entered VCU School of Medicine as an M1 in the 1980s, she told everyone she was going into pediatrics. Clinical experiences like shadowing and scribing were not required or expected of medical school applicants at the time, she said, so her “entire idea of what a doctor did” was what she had seen from her own pediatrician.   

She was randomly assigned to a plastic surgeon for advising. While she described him as “a fantastic surgeon,” she didn’t receive the guidance she needed for a career in primary care.  

“I hit my third year, and without any real advising I was still thinking I was going to be a pediatrician,” Peel said. “Until I did my pediatrics rotation and didn’t love it." 

Two months before she needed to begin applying for residencies, Peel had to reevaluate everything. She realized that the most support she’d received had been from the Department of Family Medicine. Her rotations in those clinics allowed her to see a diverse population, including kids, and watch physicians build longitudinal relationships with their patients, which she had identified as two of her top priorities in a specialty.  

Now an associate professor in the Department of Family Medicine and Population Health, medical director of VCU's Family Medicine Scholars Training and Admission Track (fmSTAT) and one of the OME’s new career advisors, Peel has worked at the intersection of patient care and student advising for more than 30 years. She loves working with students because “they keep you fresh,” and she encourages them to be honest with themselves about their values and what they want their lives to look like. 

When a frazzled M3 comes to her, torn between multiple specialties, Peel helps them identify what information or experiences might give them more clarity. Sometimes that means connecting them with opportunities to see different sides of medical fields, like rotating with a rural family doctor or a community psychiatrist. She also asks the simple question, “What brings you joy?” and reminds students that whatever they choose, they’re going to be doing that for a long time, so it should resonate with them. 

“I can’t tell anybody what to do with their lives,” Peel said. “It has to come from their heart, not mine.”  

‘You pick the subject, but you also pick the people’ 

When the time came for Tashima Lambert Giles, M.D., to apply for residencies, she was confident about becoming an OB-GYN. Though she had originally considered general surgery, she found that the procedural nature of obstetrics and the longitudinal relationships of gynecology checked all her clinical boxes. And, just as importantly, OB-GYN was where she found the most mentors and had the strongest relationships.  

“That’s where I met the most people who, personality-wise, I felt like I’d want to be around for 24 hours in a day,” said Lambert Giles, who’s been an assistant professor in the Department of OB-GYN for two years. “When you’re choosing a specialty, you pick the subject, but you also pick the people.”  

As one of the school’s new career advisors, Lambert Giles wants to help students find their people. That might look like linking M1s and M2s with researchers or finding them shadowing experiences so they can begin building relationships with potential mentors who, years down the line, can write more compelling letters of recommendation than a clerkship director who only knew them on a two-week rotation.  

One of Lambert Giles' long-term career goals is to help diversify surgical specialties. She wants to see departments like hers recruit and retain more physicians who look like the patients they serve, and she believes that that starts with robust, equitable advising throughout all four years of medical school.  

“A lot of students don’t necessarily get the best advising, and they might not apply for more competitive programs because they don’t have the advantages of knowing people in those specialties,” Lambert Giles said. “By virtue of having strong advising early on, we can change the landscape for minority and underrepresented medical students.” 

Like Peel, Lambert Giles is inspired and energized by working with students, and described this generation of future doctors as curious, focused and goal oriented. As a mentor, she said she often reminds students — as her mentors have reminded her — that being a doctor doesn’t define them.  

“We often identify our self-worth in what we do,” Lambert Giles said. “But this is your job, not everything that you are.”  

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The School of Medicine communications team is always looking to highlight student success, faculty achievement, cutting-edge research and innovative initiatives around the MCV Campus. If you have an idea for a story, please submit your pitch to laura.ingles@vcuhealth.org.