I Dunno If I Wanna Be A Pediatrician or OB/GYN.

[Dr.Kimmy86]

Help me....I don't Know if I want to be a Pediatician or OB/GYN.. I mean I love kids and stuff, but I don't know if I can really relate to them as I can women's health..Help...which do you guys think is the most rewarding?

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[Kiki2004]

I'm in the same situation. I am currently going into my fourth year and trying to set up electives, particularly at places where I want to do residency. Problem is, I am split in the middle as to doing OB/GYN or Peds! I'm going crazy I love both, but I can't decide. Some days I think I want to do OB/GYN b/c I love surgery and working with a healthy patient population, for the most part. But I am currently doing my core peds rotation and having a good time, too.

I do admit sometimes the kids drive me crazy especially when I have to examine their ears and they let out that screeching cry and kick you and it takes three adults to hold the kid down! There's so much clinic that it drives me nuts sometimes! I think if I do Peds, I would have to do a fellowship because I have a feeling I will get tired of general peds (I can only handle so many ear infections and runny noses )

I need advice! Can someone just look into a crystal ball and forsee my future and let me know what I will be?

~Kiki, soon to be MSIV in 1 day!

 

[jdog]

Good question,

you are thinking very appropriately and seem well informed.

The truth:

OBGYN and general peds are very different. OBGYN will be longer hours, a crappier residency, more stressful, more liability.
It will also be more procedure based, more hospital work, worse call, worse lifestyle.

BUT

You will get paid more.

Both general OB and general peds are both a lot of routine healthy stuff.

It seems to me that you might want to look into Neonatology if you are serious about peds.

I am a little concerned when people say they want to do pediatrics but hate general peds.

If you honestly hate it, if it were me I would do OB.

BUT, keep in mind, that I am doing peds with no intention of doing general peds, BUT, if I was forced to do general, I could suck it up and do it because I love pediatrics as a field.

Peds specialties are cool but many are acadecmic based primarily and freaking 3 extra years of bush league pay.

 

[Kiki2004]

Funny thing you mentioned neonatology because I am actually considering it. While doing my core peds rotation I got to spend two weeks in the NICU and found it intriguing. So now I have st up a fourth year elective doing NICU. Maybe that'll be my niche!

As far as general peds, I didn't mean to say that I hate general peds (I do not want to offend anyone ) it's just that I don't see myself doing general peds. I actually like academic medicine which is why I want to do a fellowship. I love inpatient peds so this is what I see myself doing. Everyone is different, I guess. For example, my fiance wants to do general peds because he loves outpatient and wants to stay away from academia.

But then I see myself doing OB/GYN...ugghh!!!

Thanks for your input, it was very helpful. Hope I didn't offend you with my post.

~Kiki, MSIV

 

[Meeko1452]

I struggled between OBG and Peds as well. For me, the decision came down to the fact that I simply don't enjoy the operating room. (Okay, I HATE the OR) and I knew that even if after residency I tailored my practice to minimize OR time, in order to be a good OBG resident and OBG attending, I would need to be a good surgeon.

So, my advice is: if you like OR, do OB. You can always do a MFM fellowship if you want. You will ultimately get more money and will probably love your job. If, like me, you don't want to spend another moment in the OR as long as you live, stick to peds.

Just my two cents.

 

[sarahlee515]

It seems like lots of us had this dilemma. I did subI's in both because I could decide between peds and OB. I ended up weighing family time as most important and choosing peds. I loved OB, but I wasn't willing to give up time with my family to be on call for the rest of my life. Good luck with your choice.

 

[tls]

Many residency officers from a major children's hospital associated with our school have said that the field is overwhelmed by the number of neonatologists.