EM/PEDS.. is it worth it?

[marcusaurelius]

---

Members do not see this ad.

I may be repeating here my post here, but they seem to be having some technical difficulties...

I am an MS3 that likes both EM and Peds. I am wondering if I am competitive, and if its better doing the combined, doing EM then peds fellowship, or Peds then EM fellowship. Anyone that has any insight into this subject would be great, it is not easy to find info on it. Firstly, my competitiveness...I believe there are about 6 spots in the country for the combined, in AZ, IN, and MD... daunting prospect to say the least...Step I 244, honored about 2/3 of preclinicals, honored majority of 3rd year rotations. Most glaring negative, I only passed medicine, my first rotation. I have set up a PEDS/ENT research project, but otherwise have no research (or many other extracirics) during med school. I did do a year of research at Yale before med school. No pubs from it though. My 4th year schedule is due in a week, and I just want to know if combined is a good option (realistic), or a res and fellowship better. Plus, what to do 4th year to make myself competitive? Any advice much appreciated.

 

[jerseygirl22]

Go do sub-I's at these programs...they are likely only to pick you if they really know you.

you are competitive, just go and seal the deal with an awesome month at these places
😉

 

[toxic-megacolon]

Go do sub-I's at these programs...they are likely only to pick you if they really know you.

you are competitive, just go and seal the deal with an awesome month at these places
😉

Also, I don't think that University of Maryland, a great program, filled all their EM-Peds spots last year. I heard the same about Arizona, but not sure about that one.

 

[DoctorWannaBe]

I'm a 2nd year at University of Arizona and wanted to offer some advice since I just went to a talk by the director of the EM-Peds residency here. He said that hardly any people go from doing an EM residency to the EM-Peds fellowship. Once you get an EM residency, you can already treat kids, so I guess most EM docs feel it's not necessary to do an extra fellowship. If you go the Peds route and then do an EM fellowship, you can't treat adults. Therefore your job options are more limited, as you'll have to find a hospital that has enough Peds-EM volume. However, you can always work in a general Peds clinic by going this route if you want. You probably already know that it takes 5 years to do the EM-->fellowship route, 6 years for the Peds-->fellowship route, and 5 years for the combined route.

I'm not sure how competitive you are since I haven't started looking into that stuff. However, the residency director said that most people applying for the Peds-EM residency are also applying for the EM residency as a backup. The chance of getting into the combined residency is about the same as getting into the regular EM residency because there are less spots but less applicants. I think he said there are something like 600 applicants for about 15 EM spots and 40 applicants for the 2 EM-Peds spots in AZ.

By the way, AZ doesn't have a 4th year rotation in EM-Peds, but you could always do an EM rotation here. Good luck with whatever you decide to do!

P.S. He recommended signing up for the Brown Peds-EM listserv because it has a lot of information. There are archives on the site too. http://listserv.brown.edu/archives/cgi-bin/wa?A0=PED-EM-L

 

[marcus_aurelius]

nice screen-name, couldnt have picked a better one myself.

i say go for it....seems like a really cool field.

 

[UVa2005]

I agree with the posts above. I would just add that it will depend on where you want to work. If you want to work in a community hospital than it won't matter. I know community hosp ER docs that are just boarded in peds and not EM. If you want to work in an academic center in em peds than I would recommend the peds route since they will have preference for the jobs (just based on my experience). Just a thought.

 

[me4peds]

I agree with the posts above. I would just add that it will depend on where you want to work. If you want to work in a community hospital than it won't matter. I know community hosp ER docs that are just boarded in peds and not EM. If you want to work in an academic center in em peds than I would recommend the peds route since they will have preference for the jobs (just based on my experience). Just a thought.

Nice to know that there are opportunities for Peds boarded ppl to work in the ER without having the EM fellowship. I don't mind working in community hospitals, in fact I think I'd prefer that. How do you find out more about those jobs? Do you know anyone who would be willing to give me advice on this? I'm about to start a Peds residency and am aspiring to work in a peds ED someday, but not sure I have the commitment for a fellowship just yet. Would appreciate any input u may have.

 

[adrenal_medulla]

By the way, AZ doesn't have a 4th year rotation in EM-Peds, but you could always do an EM rotation here.

True, but just so you know if you want a pediatric EM experience U of A does have a peds EM rotation up in Phoenix at PCH. I wonder if Tucson will eventually put a rotation together under their peds/EM program down there.

 

[nocallaochicas]

As usual, I don't have much personal knowledge, but I have been reading a fair bit about this. I recommend looking carefully at the threads that discuss this on the EM forum. The biggest thing to consider, imvho, is that a combined peds-EM residency does NOT let you sit for the peds EM boards. A peds-EM fellowship is required for this. So, if you want to work in a academic center in the peds ED (most peds EDs are at academic centers, no?), the combined program will not be sufficient. One would have to do the combined program and the fellowship! Again, reading the threads in the EM forums gives a lot more info...and the info is from much more knowledgeable folks.