Mission trip in place of peds rotation for peds hopeful?

[rdk322]

Hi, I'll be starting my third year this summer. While I haven't been out in the wards, I'm mostly interested in Peds or FM as it stands now. My school offers 1 mandatory peds rotation in third year and peds is a bottleneck rotation at my site (not enough supply for the demand) so I doubt I'd get to do more than one in third year.

I've wanted to participate in my school's mission trips abroad and finally found one that's within my budget but turns out I need to have the trip counted as my peds rotation as they coincide. Should I even apply? It says that if I get chosen for the trip, I'll need to return in fourth year for another mission.

Thank you for all your kind help

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[ProfMD]

Not a pediatrician, but I don't see how you will match in peds without a peds rotation. Plus, you will want to establish relationships with the peds faculty at your school so you can get good letters.

 

[rdk322]

Thank you @ProfMD! Yeah, I can see how that'd be problematic. I just wish I knew whether I liked FM more than peds or vice versa! I know I have a few FM rotations and the mission trip is with my FM faculty member plus I thought it was super cool

 

[Doctor-S]

Hi rdk322,

It's advisable to participate in a peds rotation now - while you're a 3rd-year med student - and while your mind is still (hopefully) primed to soak in a lot of useful information from the attending, and other experienced peds supervisors. In so doing, you'll have a chance to obtain valuable on-the-job-training, as well as future positive letters from the peds medical staff.

If you want to participate in a medical mission abroad, you can do it later, and on your own timeline. Plus, you'll have MORE experience (which should make you a welcome asset to your medical mission co-workers). Experience counts. It's not super-cool to watch a young child expire in front of you because you didn't know "what" to do, or "how" to do it, or "when" to do it, or whatever, in a timely manner. You're probably better off in the peds rotation at this time in your career.

Thank you.

 

[Crayola227]

usually there's ways to make connections in the department completely outside of rotations

approaching faculty for research opportunities, to shadow outside of your typical schedule for "funsies", if your school holds special interest group events or if you start one and communicate with faculty

I don't know much about matching peds except it isn't all that competitive
two mission trips sounds awesome fun and educational and might set you apart,
hopefully early 4th year outside of the mission trip you can sneak in a peds SubI for a letter? in that case you'd be set.

I don't know how much the bottleneck affects 4th year electives vs the core rotations. My school I know the people who want a Peds SubI for matching purposes by golly get them even though ppl just wanting to do core get screwed for schedule. I would hope most schools would do all they can to get more students into peds and do the same.

Talk to the peds dept.

as far as FM vs Peds, I think the best way to decide is to do your core rotations and talk to mentors. Read on SDN what the typical complaints are for the field. What keeps people passionate about it too.