Fellowships? How important is it to do residency at program with fellowships?

[bgabes]

Hi,

I'm 3rd year looking to go into peds and was curious as to what to look for in a residency program if you're considering going on to a fellowship? Specifically, I'm interested in possibly ped cards and would like to know if it's critical you complete a residency at a program with a card fellowship?

thanks, Brian

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[Danger Man]

Brian, I am speaking as a former peds intern from a small program that had but one fellowship program (neonatalogy). Over the past two years, this residency program has sent people to Boston (nephrology), Northwestern (PICU), St. Jude's (heme/onc) and Columbia (cards). My conclusion is that it is not imperative to train in a residency program that has a wide array of fellowships and I certainly would not base my decision to train at a particular program solely on the available fellowship programs. Some people may argue that programs without fellows allows residents to have more diverse clinical experiences.

 

[Call Me Dr.]

I think it's a toss up. At programs without fellows, you may have more direct access to procedures or attendings. On the flip side, programs without fellows tend to have lower acuity or fewer subspecialty patients. You can get into fellowship coming from any type of program but residency programs with fellowships may 1) have more opportunities for you to participate in research specific to cardiology during residency, and 2) have more built-in networking opportunities. You very well may change your mind about fellowship during your training (many do!), so don't make this the most important criteria in choosing a residency program.

 

[Call Me Dr.]

Wow. I must be crazy tired. I *just* realized that I somehow stumbled into a thread from 2006!