utility of doing peds for one month of off-service during intern year?

[TheMan21]

Matched at my first choice (yay!), and like most programs they offer the choice of doing one month of peds in place of one month of medicine during my intern year. I am interested in child psych, so initially this seemed like a good idea. However, I interviewed at one program in November that didn't offer this option. Their rationale for this was that it made for a disjointed experience that precluded interns from getting adequate exposure in either medicine or peds. Do you guys agree with this?

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[notdeadyet]

Their rationale would be sound if you were destined to be an internist or pediatrician.

If you are considering child psych (which many to most entering interns are), getting exposure to young patients and (more importantly) their parents would be time well spent. It was a good reality check for me to learn I was more interested in child psych in theory than in practice and made it easier to let go of the idea of going into child later.

I think it would be a good investment of your time...

 

[TexasPhysician]

If doing C&A, I'd recommend 1+ peds months.

 

[masterofmonkeys]

I recommend doing it regardless of future career plans. You don't need that many months of medicine to be pretty comfortable with it. The vast majority of med school is based on internal medicine in one way or the other. On the other hand, the pediatric approach is totally different, and while the illnesses that you deal with are often more benign, the experience in peds is somehow more nerve-wracking nonetheless.

I'm most likely not going to go child in the end, still very happy I have some experience in gen peds (2 months) however. I think it makes me a better physician than I"d have been without it, which makes me a better psychiatrist.

You never know what's going to walk through that door. Also, you will have children/nieces/nephews/godchildren/friends'-children. Doesn't hurt to be able to otoscope like a boss on a 2 year old (yes otoscope is now a verb)

 

[alina_s]

Matched at my first choice (yay!), and like most programs they offer the choice of doing one month of peds in place of one month of medicine during my intern year. I am interested in child psych, so initially this seemed like a good idea. However, I interviewed at one program in November that didn't offer this option. Their rationale for this was that it made for a disjointed experience that precluded interns from getting adequate exposure in either medicine or peds. Do you guys agree with this?

I'm a C&A psychiatrist and I actually agree with the program that doesn't offer the peds rotation option. I did a peds rotation and it was by far the toughest rotation of my intern year. Maybe the rules have changed since then due to work hours, but I don't think I ever slept on call, and I did it mid-year, in time to be sick for most of the rotation and miles behind all of the peds interns I worked with. I was only one in my class who did the rotation and they didn't have a system for how to treat psych interns- FP interns got a half-sized patient load in recognition that they weren't familiar with that particular hospital and had spent the rest of the intern year doing other things, but I was treated like a seasoned peds intern. Intern year is tough enough and you don't need to add more variety (and stress) to it. Most programs will let you do some child psych as an elective, mine even did it in 2nd year, and that was vastly more useful in deciding whether I wanted to go into fellowship. And even if your program lets you do inpatient peds instead of inpatient medicine, I thought medicine rotations were easier.

 

[Firewood]

Depends:

Inpatient pediatrics = Hell no!
Outpatient = Worthwhile, especially if you're considering C&A.

FYI, I just finished a peds month and found it very useful if for nothing else than the ADHD exposure.

 

[notdeadyet]

Yeah, I may amend my reply. My program's month of peds was outpatient. I'm not sure that inpatient would be as helpful...

 

[Doctor Bagel]

I'm a C&A psychiatrist and I actually agree with the program that doesn't offer the peds rotation option. I did a peds rotation and it was by far the toughest rotation of my intern year. Maybe the rules have changed since then due to work hours, but I don't think I ever slept on call, and I did it mid-year, in time to be sick for most of the rotation and miles behind all of the peds interns I worked with. I was only one in my class who did the rotation and they didn't have a system for how to treat psych interns- FP interns got a half-sized patient load in recognition that they weren't familiar with that particular hospital and had spent the rest of the intern year doing other things, but I was treated like a seasoned peds intern. Intern year is tough enough and you don't need to add more variety (and stress) to it. Most programs will let you do some child psych as an elective, mine even did it in 2nd year, and that was vastly more useful in deciding whether I wanted to go into fellowship. And even if your program lets you do inpatient peds instead of inpatient medicine, I thought medicine rotations were easier.

I've never had interest in C&A, so I wouldn't have considered doing a peds month. We do have the option of replacing an inpatient medicine month with inpatient peds. I know one person who did it, and he really regretted it -- inpatient peds here (and at my medical school) is harder than inpatient medicine. It sounds like he had a brutal, miserable month. Anyway, one month of anything isn't going to make that much of a difference in the long run, so I don't think it should be a big deciding factor or a priority.

 

[TexasPhysician]

I agree that outpatient peds is where you would find benefit. I did multiple months of outpatient peds and loved it. Inpatient sounds awful.