Peds residency concerns

[Deceptacon]

hey guys, i wanted to get your opinion on a couple of different things. i'm a third year DO student and i'm having some trouble deciding what i want to do for residency. i've already made the decision that i'd like to work with kids in medicine, so that isn't really the issue.

i've narrowed it down to radiology with a fellowship in peds or general peds (followed by a fellowship), but now i'm somewhat stumped. my main concern is that if i did do a peds residency followed by a fellowship, i'd be stuck at an academic center. forgive my ignorance here but can anyone speak to the opportunities that exist outside of academic centers? i'd hate to do 6 years after school and really be limited in where i could practice.

based on what i know now (very limited) i'd be interested in heme/onc, cards and GI as potential fellowships.

thanks for any information.

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[oldbearprofessor]

hey guys, i wanted to get your opinion on a couple of different things. i'm a third year DO student and i'm having some trouble deciding what i want to do for residency. i've already made the decision that i'd like to work with kids in medicine, so that isn't really the issue.

i've narrowed it down to radiology with a fellowship in peds or general peds (followed by a fellowship), but now i'm somewhat stumped. my main concern is that if i did do a peds residency followed by a fellowship, i'd be stuck at an academic center. forgive my ignorance here but can anyone speak to the opportunities that exist outside of academic centers? i'd hate to do 6 years after school and really be limited in where i could practice.

based on what i know now (very limited) i'd be interested in heme/onc, cards and GI as potential fellowships.

thanks for any information.

You'd need to check in the radiology forum, but I strongly suspect the job locations are more limited specific to pediatric radiology than to fellowship-trained pediatricians. Regardless, whereas it is true that pedi heme/onc, cardiology and GI hepatology and nutrition are primarily located in academic hospitals and non-academic children's hospitals, there are plenty of these in moderately sized towns as well as big cities. You won't do any of these fields in communities of 20,000 folks, unless they are reasonably close to a bigger city you can commute to, but it isn't just a handful of cities that have pedi fellowship trained specialists.

 

[Deceptacon]

You'd need to check in the radiology forum, but I strongly suspect the job locations are more limited specific to pediatric radiology than to fellowship-trained pediatricians. Regardless, whereas it is true that pedi heme/onc, cardiology and GI hepatology and nutrition are primarily located in academic hospitals and non-academic children's hospitals, there are plenty of these in moderately sized towns as well as big cities. You won't do any of these fields in communities of 20,000 folks, unless they are reasonably close to a bigger city you can commute to, but it isn't just a handful of cities that have pedi fellowship trained specialists.

thanks for the info, oldbearprofessor. do you (or anyone else for that matter) think it would be unwise to do pediatrics if i have no intention of not specializing? meaning, if i didn't get a fellowship i'd probably be unhappy doing inpatient/outpatient peds. thanks guys, i'm just trying to figure this stuff out.

 

[oldbearprofessor]

thanks for the info, oldbearprofessor. do you (or anyone else for that matter) think it would be unwise to do pediatrics if i have no intention of not specializing? meaning, if i didn't get a fellowship i'd probably be unhappy doing inpatient/outpatient peds. thanks guys, i'm just trying to figure this stuff out.

As a US MD or DO graduate, unless you go around kicking children for fun, you'll get a fellowship in something, probably something you'll like doing.

 

[jcu]

unless you go around kicking children for fun

Probably shouldn't have mentioned that as a hobby on the interview trail

 

[Cookie Queen]

Have you checked out the AAMC's Careers in Medicine website? You need to get a login from your school, but you should have access to it. Check out the "specialty pages." Then you can view stuff like ratio # of applicants to available spots for fellowships, numbers of ppl in each subspecialty by state, major metropolitan area, etc. It might help with some of your questions. Also, FREIDA (just google that term) is the place where you can view the list of fellowships, might give you an idea on where you could live at least during your fellowship. Some subspecialties have more locations available than others.

Hope that helps!

 

[Sweet Tea]

Probably shouldn't have mentioned that as a hobby on the interview trail

Could be an interesting conversation point in an interview if you're applying for a child abuse fellowship.

 

[Deceptacon]

Have you checked out the AAMC's Careers in Medicine website? You need to get a login from your school, but you should have access to it. Check out the "specialty pages." Then you can view stuff like ratio # of applicants to available spots for fellowships, numbers of ppl in each subspecialty by state, major metropolitan area, etc. It might help with some of your questions. Also, FREIDA (just google that term) is the place where you can view the list of fellowships, might give you an idea on where you could live at least during your fellowship. Some subspecialties have more locations available than others.

Hope that helps!

thanks cookie queen, i have checked out careers in medicine but not the specialty forum. i did the little specialty test thing and it was pretty true to what i was interested in.

on a side note, i was speaking with a peds cards private practice guy and he mentioned that someone should expect to get payed ~300k. does that seem inflated to anyone else? and i should point out that this guy is in his 50's and has been doing this for 20 years.

 

[J-Rad]

thanks cookie queen, i have checked out careers in medicine but not the specialty forum. i did the little specialty test thing and it was pretty true to what i was interested in.

on a side note, i was speaking with a peds cards private practice guy and he mentioned that someone should expect to get payed ~300k. does that seem inflated to anyone else? and i should point out that this guy is in his 50's and has been doing this for 20 years.

Whether they're going to make 300K out of the gate in PP is debatable, but word was that one of the PP guys in the city just north of where I did fellowship was making about 350K a year. He's been in practice ~18 years IIRC.