family friendly peds residencies

[ctenj]

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I don't think I've seen this addressed before on this forum... I was just curious to hear about how family friendly the peds residencies you're currently at (or have interviewed at) are and if anyone has specific suggestions on particularly family friendly residencies (or ones to avoid). I know, obviously, peds programs by their very nature tend to attract people who love kids and therefore, tend to be more family-friendly than say surgical subspecialties, but within peds, there still must be a spectrum...

To give a little context, when I enter residency, we'll have a 5 year old and a 3 year old (and we're interested in adding to our family). My husband will be an anesthesia attending so will have more flexibility schedule-wise than I will, but I want to make sure I can be there as a mom and a wife (as much as that's possible during residency) in addition to hopefully becoming a great pediatrician.

Thanks!

 

[ctenj]

I should add that due to the location of our families, we're looking mostly on the East Coast as far north as Maine/NH and as far south as VA/NC, but are willing to consider outside of those areas as well...

 

[michigangirl]

Hopkins is very family friendly...a number of residents have children (male and female) and I found it to be very easy to have balance.

 

[Vita]

Most of the programs I interviewed at seemed pretty family friendly. I think Peds in general is a family friendly field.

I did mostly Southeast programs, and it seems like the smaller ones were more family friendly. Wake Forest had a good number of residents with children. I rotated at Virginia Tech Carillion and a few residents have children. UT Chattanooga had several residents with kids as well.

 

[Slade]

One thing to keep in mind is that larger programs have way more leeway when you take maternity/paternity leave whereas in smaller programs, where there is less padding/backup, residents are scrambling to cover you.

 

[SB100]

Peds is definitely family friendly. Most of the programs I visited have about 1/4 to 1/3 of their residents married, with 1/2 of those having kids.

 

[Sweet Tea]

Out of 19 people in my residency class, 7 of us had babies while residents. And that was just my class...other classes were gestating, too. I was at CHKD in Norfolk, VA. The nice thing about everyone being pregnant is that we were all in the same situation and we were all willing to help each other out. Just one of the reasons why I loved my residency program.

 

[kristing]

Here's what I asked in my interviews, as I was in a similar familial situation when I was interviewing: How many of your residents have families? How many are married? This was telling to me. I down-graded a program that seemed to be a decent fit because only like 15% of the residents had families/were married... and all the residents I met seemed to be 25 years old.

See if there are support groups for spouses/families. The residency I ended up in had a HUGE social/support group. I think that's a great sign, too.

Peds will always be more family friendly than other programs. But there are variations within it.