I just finished my pediatrics rotations (I'm almost a IVth year) and really loved it. I enjoyed the kids, the diseases, and the challenge of diagnosis with sometimes-limited information and even enjoyed working with some of the parents. So I am seriously considering doing a peds residency over adult medicine, but I have a couple of concerns that I thought people might help me with.
In general I get a sense that peds residents are a little less academic than those in general internal medicine residencies. I have a strong research background and it seems that peds residents (and attendings) don't really read the literature as much as IM residents (and attendings). Is this a universal feature or just specific to my experience? I realize there are limited double-blind trials in children for obvious reasons but I wonder if this mindset is more prevalant among pedi people.
Also, I have noticed there is generally less independence of the residents (and especially interns) as compared to IM. I realize that kids are well someone's children and thus there is a heightened sense of not wanting mistakes to occur, and so how do people deal with the lack of independence during residency? Are there certain hospitals with greater independence than others for residents and interns?
Finally (sorry for the length), for people interested in trying to combine research and medicine, what specialties are common for people to apply to within pediatrics, any word about short tracking or this new integrated research residency? Thank you all for your help
-V
In general I get a sense that peds residents are a little less academic than those in general internal medicine residencies. I have a strong research background and it seems that peds residents (and attendings) don't really read the literature as much as IM residents (and attendings). Is this a universal feature or just specific to my experience? I realize there are limited double-blind trials in children for obvious reasons but I wonder if this mindset is more prevalant among pedi people.
Also, I have noticed there is generally less independence of the residents (and especially interns) as compared to IM. I realize that kids are well someone's children and thus there is a heightened sense of not wanting mistakes to occur, and so how do people deal with the lack of independence during residency? Are there certain hospitals with greater independence than others for residents and interns?
Finally (sorry for the length), for people interested in trying to combine research and medicine, what specialties are common for people to apply to within pediatrics, any word about short tracking or this new integrated research residency? Thank you all for your help
-V