Peds cardio elective - where?

This forum made possible through the generous support of SDN members, donors, and sponsors. Thank you.

Lara

Senior Member
7+ Year Member
15+ Year Member
20+ Year Member
Joined
May 26, 2002
Messages
537
Reaction score
0
I'm interested in having one of my away electives be in peds cardio - it's definitely a subject I feel I should brush up on, so I'd like the best possible experience. Any recommendations for where to go? I'd prefer either coast + Chicago since those are the areas I'd focus on for residency.

Members don't see this ad.
 
I know that it doesn't fall into your criteria of both coasts or Chicago, but I did a month in peds cards at Baylor in Houston and had a blast. It was an outpatient rotation, so I was in clinic Monday-Friday with no call and no weekends, but I also had opportunities to go into the cath lab and echo lab as well. Attendings were great, lots of teaching done during my time there, and tons of variety in the clinics with at least 3 attendings in clinic each day, I got to come in every day and pick which attending I wanted to work with. In terms of the East Coast, I've heard that Columbia in NYC is pretty strong in cardiology, and if you're looking for something smaller, MUSC in Charleston, SC (my home school) has a really good cardiology program for a mid-sized residency program. Also, the rotation offered at MUSC is an acting internship on their cardiology inpatient unit, so you'd get to see a bit more postop care.

One last thing, if you want a broad overview of cardiology and want to learn more about identifying different murmurs and things that will help in all areas of peds, I'd encourage you to do a rotation in cardiology that is more outpatient based. If you're interested in cardiology as a possible career choice and want to see the hospital side of things, the inpatient route is the way to go. Make sure you know which type of rotation you're applying for before you select where you want to go. Good luck with your search!
 
Lara said:
I'm interested in having one of my away electives be in peds cardio - it's definitely a subject I feel I should brush up on, so I'd like the best possible experience. Any recommendations for where to go? I'd prefer either coast + Chicago since those are the areas I'd focus on for residency.

I am in a good position to answer this question because I was in the same position as you as a 4th year. Wanted to brush up on cards before rez and I wanted to see a program in Chicago. I did an away at Children's Memorial. It was a very good rotatin. 2 weeks outpatient and 2 weeks inpatient. Very well organized. They expect you to be at clinics, attend one surgery, one cath, one stress test, one echo at least. The inpatient basically you can do as much as you want. I didn't want to bog down in inpatient stuff, and I think the resident on the service just wanted to get their stuff done. They were real cool about not scutting me out. So during the 2 week inpatient stuff I also went to some clinics and saw consults. Consults are great. They teach you how to be more efficient becaus often they get consulted on real complex kids.

As a whole the attendings can seem stressed out and they are real tough on each other at conferences, but I was treated very nicely and it was a great experien e. They also have a great lecture series. So I highly recommend this rotation. Ultimately I did not elect to do rez there, but I valued my rotation.
 
Members don't see this ad :)
arydolphin said:
One last thing, if you want a broad overview of cardiology and want to learn more about identifying different murmurs and things that will help in all areas of peds, I'd encourage you to do a rotation in cardiology that is more outpatient based.

That's basically what I'm looking for - I want to become much more proficient in auscultation and EKG's. :) Thanks for the advice.

I'd love Memorial and there's been some matches from Temple, so it's definitely worth considering...especially since I probably do need to rotate to have a shot. A California elective could open more doors in general though (I'm really starting to want better weather than the Northeast). Arrgh, it's tough to decide!
 
I did a rotation in peds cardio at Arkansas Children's and had a great time! Now, I know it's nowhere on your locale radar, but it is a WONDERFUL program. It is a very busy cardiology service and I saw tons. It was both inpt and outpatient clinics, also cath lab, echos, as well as proficiency at EKG's and auscultation.
 
Top