So I'm pretty sure I want to do Peds for a living, and now I need to decide how to structure the rest of my medical school education. So:
1) My school gives us a whole lot of electives (about 7 months). I'm using 2 of them to rotate with the military, that leaves me 5 to play with. If you were trying to prepare for your Peds Intern year, what would you use them for?
With that many: Neo, Cardiology, ID would be my top three. Do neo in the .mil, esp to familiarize yourself with Neodata, which I'm sure is still used (though could be wrong). Truthfully, do cardiology in the .civ at a program that actively does surgery and cath (as a proximation of volume) so you can see a diversity of pathology. A much as I can be accused of bias because of my love of the field, it truly does make may in peds nervous and the time spent on rotation-even as a med stud can do wonders for building your confidence in some of the most (and less) nerve wracking of positions in residency. A keen mind for ID is very beneficial. My next two favorite would be Peds EM and ENT (either general or peds specific. Radiology-general or peds specific, would also be helpful.
2) Do you know of any good audio learning resources for Peds? Something I could listen to consistently now through Intern year?
Truth be told, no. PREP Audio review is a lot of mental masturbation that isn't high yield, and often is too esoteric to be useful for a resident.
3) Same as above, but for books. What kind of Textbooks/question books/qbanks to pediatric residents work their way through during internship? Anything I could get a head start on?
Peds in Review, which you will likely get a subscription to in residency (sure of it for a .mil residency). Great reviews-probably your #1 review resource. You'll start getting "throwaways" in the mail: Contemporary Pediatrics, Annals of Pediatrics, Pediatric Infectious Disease, and the AAP Newsletter after you start residency. My favorites are CP and PID-lots to peruse and learn from. I like the others less, but still decent reads. I once put togrther a list of high-yield reads for a peds rotation here-I'll see if I can dig it up. You will get CDs and online access to PREP questions during your residency. You shouldn't need any other Q banks. Books will be based on preference. Some like to start early with board review materials: Laughing Your Way and Med Study being two more popular options. An often overlooked (and could use an update) book is http://www.amazon.com/Just-Facts-Pe...=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1295846317&sr=8-1. But, truth be told, I don't think any of them is high-yield for a med student. UTD, emedicine, and PIR are probably some of the most high-yield resources for you as an MS.
4) Any other advice? Skills you wish you had worked on? Things you wish you had done?
No. Just enjoy it and have some fun while learning. Procedural skills come with practice (that said, I had one week to hang with anesthesia during my MSIII surg rotation mostly just doing intubatons and that made me quickly comfortable (and good at) doing tubes and BVM on all ages during residency (despite the fact that all of the MSIII experience was with adults).
