Is anyone willing to share their Pediatrics rotation experience?

[pradas]

Before I start I want to thank you for taking the time to read this thread. Any feedback is very much appreciated!

Hi everyone! I am currently a high school student working on a project about pediatricians, which is a career I am currently interested in. I wanted to gather some information in regards to what their typical day is like, the pros/cons of this career, personal experiences, etc. but the few local pediatricians I reached out to were understandably unavailable to answer my questions. However, I still want to have some insight on the career coming from those who have personal experience in pediatrics, so here I am! If any of you are currently in or have already completed your rotation in pediatrics, I would love to ask you a few questions.

1. What are some of the things you liked and disliked while working in this rotation?
2. What was a typical day like?
3. How would you describe the work environment? (Fast-paced, slow, uplifting, etc.)
4. Would you say you had a positive, negative, or neutral overall experience?
5. Would you consider a career in pediatrics? Why or why not?

Feel free to answer a few of the questions or all of them. Sharing any stories is appreciated as well. I am also aware that completing a rotation in pediatrics is not equivalent to being an actual pediatrician, but thank you all so much in advance. I hope you have a wonderful day and I wish you the best of luck on your careers!

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[Crayola227]

the first time I heard it someone tell a mother about my patient, a 13 year old kid, "She's probably not going to survive this hospitalization, we need to talk about goals of care if we can't get her off the vent," and she locked her tear-filled eyes with mine, I did everything I could not to lose it right then and there.

The second I was out of the room, I burst into tears. I went into a stairwell and cried like I have only cried a very few times in my life. Weeping. The kind of weeping I have only done when I lost something very great, like when my dad died in front of me. I was hyperventilating and couldn't breathe.

I went back to the work room, and the senior peds resident saw how I looked. Asked me what happened. To which he very calmly, with a detached sort of compassion, said, "Yeah, it's not fair, is it, when they're so young?" That was it.

She did survive that hospitalization. It stayed with me for months. I couldn't help it, I had to look in the chart to see what happened (which you can technically justify as educational follow up but you better have a good song and dance explanation prepared if it were a problem. That was how I justified it anyway.)

I read the Social worker's note about his family meeting with the mother. "I told the mother, to be prepared, as this is likely to be Tammy's last Christmas."
I read that line, and again, burst into tears, sobbing. That was just one of the saddest things I had ever read in a note.

There was at least one other patient that made me feel about as terrible. A 3 year old (they are quite the little people at that age) with Spinal Muscular Atrophy, that made his body misshapen (so restrictive lung disease) and he was stuck on a vent, in the hospital for pneumonia. These kids never get better they just weaken, get on vents, and then slowly die from some infection or another. Mom couldn't let go and was increasing the vent settings at home to maintain saturation, despite the fact the pressures were getting to the point this kid could pop a lung at any minute.

I watched this tiny child, laying there on their side in a hospital bed, with a vent tube, but hands free, looking so weak, so sad, like he had cried out all his tears. He had a few toy figurines just out of reach. I'll never forget the sound of his pained little voice saying, "I want my puppy," meaning a tiny plastic puppy figurine, while weakly reaching for it. Seriously, that voice will haunt me the rest of my life.

And then just watching him take two little such toys and just sort of moved them about on the bed, still a normal 3 year old on the inside, still with a drive to have what normal fun he could. But I'll never forget the sound of that kids voice and the suffering in his eyes even as he "played." And just the fact that this was what this child's life had boiled down to as the days passed until his slow and inevitable death: suffering while moving a few plastic toys around on a sheet.

In fact, tears are streaming down my face right now as I type this.

I also did mother baby unit which was a joy. I love newborns. However, it couldn't make up for these experiences.

I've seen people die and dealt with terminal illness a-plenty. I just don't have the heart for kids. Nevermind the parents and all the rest of the downsides.
My very best friend is a pediatrician so I'm well aware of a lot of the things that drive them to do it, and they sound like great reasons. But their reasons can't make it OK for me. God bless the pediatricians that someone has the heart for it. I don't.

TLDR
some people just don't have the heart for this, just 2 tragic cases alone turned me away
YMMV
I wanted to share with you this, not to scare you, but to let you know if don't seem to stomach it as well as others that it's OK, you're not alone

 

[Taddy Mason]

1. What are some of the things you liked and disliked while working in this rotation?

Liked - could show-up incapacitated everyday and probably function at the level of my attendings.

Disliked - could show-up incapacitated everyday and probably function at the level of my attendings.

2. What was a typical day like ?

Listened to "All I Want for Christmas" by Mariah Carey blaring from the Muzak every 20min (no exaggeration - inpatient was slow and boring enough that I actually had the time to figure out the song rotation) and read through Case Files 3 times. Busy service let me tell you!

3. How would you describe the work environment? (Fast-paced, slow, uplifting, etc.)

Monotonous.

4. Would you say you had a positive, negative, or neutral overall experience?

See above.

5. Would you consider a career in pediatrics? Why or why not?

Again - see above.

 

[Crayola227]

typical day

depends on what type of pediatrician you are
general pediatricians are like primary care doctors, but only see kids, but they can do all the general stuff like checkups, vaccines, order tests, and they can send kids to pediatric specialists if needed, for example if the kid has seizures they could be sent to a pediatric neurologist specialist

pediatricians of all types that practice only outpatient (outside the hospital) usually see patients in their office anywhere from 7 am - 7 pm depending on clinic hours, say 9-5 or 8-4

visit lengths are anywhere from 15 min to 1 hour, depending on the problem the kid is being seen for

even after seeing patients, doctors usually have lots of paperwork to do, like notes documenting what happened during the visit, medication refill requests, insurance forms, etc

most full time docs work 60-80 hours per week, but some can work less, but they will also make less
how much they make depends on a lot of factors

doctors also have to spend a lot of time every week reading medical journals and other things to stay up to date on the latest medical advances and to learn, learning and studying and tests never end in a the career of a doctor

some doctors that work outpatient, if one of their patients gets so sick they have to get admitted to the hospital, will still care for that patient if they have "privileges" at the hospital to do this, in this case the doctor has to go in a few hours earlier in the morning to see their hospital patients before going to their regular clinic patients

other times there would be a special inpatient (works only in the hospital) pediatrician that would see those patients

sometimes a group of pediatricians work together in a clinic and they share these responsibilities so one day one of them might spend the whole day in the hospital caring for all the group's admitted patients

inpatient doctors usually work long hours, get in from 6-7 am until they have seen all patients, written all notes, all orders, done all discharge paperwork for patients well enough to leave, and have talked to all the specialist doctors they might need to consult for a patient in the hospital, like say a pulmonologist, so it can vary, some can go home as soon as 2 pm and others might have to stay until 7 pm.

outpatient general pediatrics have the shortest visits, see ALL kinds of kids, and most kids are pretty healthy, so they usually have the shortest visits with the kids, and it can be fast paced, inpatient there are no "appts" but it is also usually very fast-paced to try to do all the work to admit or "tuck in" a patient (get their whole history, full exam, write all the orders to make them better) and also discharge patients (give them instructions, any new medications) while taking care of everyone who is already there.

pediatric specialists, like pediatric neurologists, usually have longer visits with kids, as they are usually being seen for a more complex problem than what the general pediatrician could help with, usually these clinics are slower paced as more time is spent talking to parents and figuring things out

things pediatricians tell me they like:
their patients, being young, often are healthier and heal faster than adults
they don't have all the problems adults cause for themselves with bad lifestyle, like alcoholism, so some peds feel less frustrated at many conditions they treat compared to some adult people doctors, as many conditions in kids were not preventable
parents can be great allies for helping their patients get well, whereas adults usually are responsible for themselves, and it can be harder to get them to follow therapy (it can be easier for a parent not to give their kids a cookie than to not give themselves one, if that makes sense)
most of their patients will get well or stay well, this isn't true in all fields, still, kids are very resilient
pediatricians tell me that they like dealing with the personalities of children better, children are less likely to lie to them, for example
pediatricians often can cure many things in children, and even if they can't and they just help them, they find it rewarding to feel like they are setting their patients on a better path to a better future, whereas many adults are stuck in their ways or with diseases and you cannot make them better, just keep them going along until they die
a lot of them just like helping kids more than helping adults
pediatricians really have to work with a whole family, and sort of be part of the family, to care for a kid, and many find this very fulfilling

dislikes:
parents that neglect/abuse kids
parents that don't want to follow a doctor's advice, and it hurts a kid
when kids are hurt by things that were preventable
kids are usually pretty healthy, but the ones that get really sick, are often very sick
you can't reason with kids so they often don't understand what you are trying to do, that you are trying to help them
(try looking in a 2 year old ear for a well child exam! they squirm and squirm, then are held down and cry), most of the time this isn't a big deal with little things but it can be harder with bigger things
many people find the serious death or disability of a child to be one of the saddest things

 

[VisionaryTics]

1. What are some of the things you liked and disliked while working in this rotation?

Liked: Nothing
Disliked: Residents, attendings, workflow, screaming children, parents

2. What was a typical day like?

Inpatient: Get there at 6am to begin two hour signout. Spend all ****ing day rounding. Signout from 4pm to 6pm. (Honestly, 4 hours of signout per day).
Outpatient: Deal with low-grade tinnitus from constant screams from 8am to 5pm

3. How would you describe the work environment? (Fast-paced, slow, uplifting, etc.)

Glacial

4. Would you say you had a positive, negative, or neutral overall experience?

Worst rotation of med school

5. Would you consider a career in pediatrics? Why or why not?

Never and I would never consider pediatric ENT. I dislike working with children. I hate torturing people who have no idea why I'm doing it to them. I like a quiet environment. I don't like feeling like I have to reinvent the wheel every time I do a physical exam to just distract the kid. I hate papoosing kids to remove earwax while they scream like I'm sawing a limb off.

 

[cbrons]

Shadowed on inpatient or sat around doing nothing. Shadowed on outpatient. It was terrible.

 

[Crayola227]

hey everyone remember this is a high school student doing a school project, so maybe keep that in mind with terminology, etc

 

[mvenus929]

I saw your post in the Peds forum. What sort of project are you doing, exactly?

Peds is definitely not for everyone, as evidenced by the above stories. But those who do choose it do it for the mother or father who clasps our hands thanking us profusely for making their child better, or the kid that goes from on deaths door to bouncing around sharing her toys with everyone on the unit. We tolerate the occasional bad outcomes because we see so many success stories. One of my FM interns tells us stories about how when she is on her own service, she could attend multiple codes per night, pronounce multiple people dead, and manage the dying for the duration of her shift. Outside of our ICUs, we have maybe 5-10 'codes' per year, and the vast majority of them are seizures or airway management, rather than actual resuscitation codes.

 

[FrkyBgStok]

Wow. Bunch of bad experiences and that is unfortunate. As a current peds resident, my peds rotation was by far the best I had in medical school. Few reasons i chose peds.

1) Kids just want to get better and parents generally want to do right by their kid. Sure you get the parents who refuse to stop smoking when their kid is on their 3rd asthma related hospitalization, but those cases are rare.
2) Kids generally don't lie to you (except teens). They don't smell like smoke and say "nope never smoked in my life." They don't say things like "my pain is debilitating and I am allergic to everything but oxycontin." I've never heard a kid say "I will never go back to that orthopedic surgeon because he was so rude. He thinks my knee pain is entirely related to my weight. Oh the audacity."
3) I don't really follow politics or sports (except hockey) but I am engaged in my kids' lives, therefore I know about minecraft, lego cartoons, and Doc McStuffins than I do about football or what's going on in government. I can connect with kids more.

I feel that kids are rewarding and when they are sick and transition to feeling better, they appreciate you, parents appreciate you, and they light up a room. My sign outs are less than 30 minutes and rounding is a generally 2-3 hours a day. We also have a busy service without a lot of downtime. I love it and couldn't do anything else.

 

[WinslowPringle]

1. What are some of the things you liked and disliked while working in this rotation?
2. What was a typical day like?
3. How would you describe the work environment? (Fast-paced, slow, uplifting, etc.)
4. Would you say you had a positive, negative, or neutral overall experience?
5. Would you consider a career in pediatrics? Why or why not?

I am a current surgery resident. Rotation was at a big academic place. Did like 2 weeks inpatient (we had options on what we rotated on, and I chose NICU), 2 weeks on consult (endocrine!) and 2 weeks outpatient.

Liked: Kiddos. Man, they're tons of fun. Really enjoyed working with them on the outpatient rotation. And even the moms weren't too bad ;-) The NICU was also really cool.
Disliked: Not enough OR time. I wasn't a good personality fit with the pediatric subculture at my institution. I had one outpatient attending that was the worst attending I've ever had (pretty certain she got the job just because her husband was a big-shot in another department). Too much bread and butter cases and daily grind for my taste.

Typical day: Inpatient - arrive around 0530, pre-round, work out TPN and feeding formulas/calorie goals, etc. Round with attendings, NPs, residents, and pharmacists from 0800-1400. Have lunch some time in there, go to conference. Outpatient - arrive at clinic by 0730, look at daily schedule. See kiddos. Lots of well-patient exams. Not enough babies to my liking, though, at this particular outpatient clinic. Lots of URIs. A sprained ankle or two. Some vaccines. On consult, saw mainly clinic patients - lots of diabetes but some really neat thyroid stuff, pituitary stuff, and cystic fibrosis, too. Clinic ended sometime between 4 and 6pm.

Work environment: Slow paced. But those really sick kids in NICU - the intubations and some of the new arrivals got interesting (and by interesting I mean sick and dangerously so.)

Experience: Inpatient was positive. Outpatient was neutral. Consult was positive.

Career in peds: Well, I'm a surgery resident, so....no. (Would consider pediatric surgery, but it's impossibly competitive and I am *not* doing two years of research for maybe a chance at it...) I was actually considering peds vs. surgery before hand, but the slow pace of the outpatient side of things and the no OR time just showed me it wasn't right for me.

 

[MrChance2]

Before I start I want to thank you for taking the time to read this thread. Any feedback is very much appreciated!

Hi everyone! I am currently a high school student working on a project about pediatricians, which is a career I am currently interested in. I wanted to gather some information in regards to what their typical day is like, the pros/cons of this career, personal experiences, etc. but the few local pediatricians I reached out to were understandably unavailable to answer my questions. However, I still want to have some insight on the career coming from those who have personal experience in pediatrics, so here I am! If any of you are currently in or have already completed your rotation in pediatrics, I would love to ask you a few questions.

1. What are some of the things you liked and disliked while working in this rotation?

Kids! , being sick constantly from the kids
2. What was a typical day like?
9-4. Pretty chill. Seeing outpatient kids. Peds ER was 7-7. Usually busy. 90% of what came in could have been handed outpatient primary care.
3. How would you describe the work environment? (Fast-paced, slow, uplifting, etc.)
Uplifting overall. I never had a negative outcome and only a few truly urgent patients.
4. Would you say you had a positive, negative, or neutral overall experience?
Positive
5. Would you consider a career in pediatrics? Why or why not?
Yes. kids are hilarious. Generally not all that sick except for certain units where they are really really sick. I felt appreiciatd in general. I'm doing psych and considering child psych. I thought about applying to a few peds programs at some point but ended up liking psych more. I think with either one you can make a huge difference in people's lives. Pediatritians also generally don't get paid well at all as the vast majority of kids are Medicaid.

Feel free to answer a few of the questions or all of them. Sharing any stories is appreciated as well. I am also aware that completing a rotation in pediatrics is not equivalent to being an actual pediatrician, but thank you all so much in advance. I hope you have a wonderful day and I wish you the best of luck on your careers!

 

[arewethereyet...]

Before I start I want to thank you for taking the time to read this thread. Any feedback is very much appreciated!

Hi everyone! I am currently a high school student working on a project about pediatricians, which is a career I am currently interested in. I wanted to gather some information in regards to what their typical day is like, the pros/cons of this career, personal experiences, etc. but the few local pediatricians I reached out to were understandably unavailable to answer my questions. However, I still want to have some insight on the career coming from those who have personal experience in pediatrics, so here I am! If any of you are currently in or have already completed your rotation in pediatrics, I would love to ask you a few questions.

1. What are some of the things you liked and disliked while working in this rotation?
2. What was a typical day like?
3. How would you describe the work environment? (Fast-paced, slow, uplifting, etc.)
4. Would you say you had a positive, negative, or neutral overall experience?
5. Would you consider a career in pediatrics? Why or why not?

Feel free to answer a few of the questions or all of them. Sharing any stories is appreciated as well. I am also aware that completing a rotation in pediatrics is not equivalent to being an actual pediatrician, but thank you all so much in advance. I hope you have a wonderful day and I wish you the best of luck on your careers!

I'm a 4th year med student, just applied for peds residency.

1.Things I like about peds:
- it's very much a team sport, especially when they are young. you've got to work with the parents and maybe siblings too when there are problems to come up with solutions that will work for everyone. on the other hand you've got parents who hopefully are willing to do just about anything for their kid, which is a much different dynamic than adult medicine when you are asking some one to do something for themself (ie quit smoking, exercise, take medicine, etc.)
- in theory you have a huge opportunity to help shape these kids futures if you get them hooked up with the right resources (I might still be pretty naive about this one)
- kids have a different perspective on things than adults and it's fun to hear what they have to say
- everyone in peds is nice, have yet to meet a mean pediatrician
- lots of opportunities for public heath

Things I disliked about peds rotation:
- I actually found my first peds rotation (outpatient) a bit frustrating because it was mostly well child checks and really very little pathology
- really hard to memorize all of the developmental milestones and keep them all straight!
- get sick a lot

2. Typical day depends on inpatient vs outpatient
inpatient- signout at 6, preround until around 8:30, then rounds usually went until about noon, spend the afternoon writing notes and following up on plans from the morning, then signout at 5
outpatient- start seeing patients at 8 or 8:30, acute visits got 15 minutes, well child checks got 30 minutes, lunch from 12-1, then go until 5ish

3. Pace depends on how busy it is, often busier in the winter with more coughs. Overall very uplifting, families are so grateful when their kid gets better

4. definitely positive

5. Yes! I they sold me on it! I just found kids to be so much more fun to work with than adults. In adult medicine I found myself frustrated with patients for not taking care of themselves, where as in peds you in theory have an opportunity to teach them to take care of themselves before they are obese with heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure, etc. And everyone is so nice!

I'm on an easy rotation right now so feel free to PM me if you have more questions, I'd be happy to go into more detail, and good luck with your project!

 

[SurfingDoctor]

1. I don't remember my pediatric rotations so much as I remember the adult rotations and the lasting impression they left on me. The bottom line is, it is easier to sympathize with kids, because what ills befall them, it is never really their fault. The same can not be said for adults.

2. Depends on what type of pediatrician your are, the time of year, the type of acuity, etc.

3. Same as 2.

4. Again, I don't specifically remember a feeling about one particular pediatric rotation, but I must have liked it.

5. Yes, I have a career in pediatrics.

 

[Chillbo Baggins]

Before I start I want to thank you for taking the time to read this thread. Any feedback is very much appreciated!

Hi everyone! I am currently a high school student working on a project about pediatricians, which is a career I am currently interested in. I wanted to gather some information in regards to what their typical day is like, the pros/cons of this career, personal experiences, etc. but the few local pediatricians I reached out to were understandably unavailable to answer my questions. However, I still want to have some insight on the career coming from those who have personal experience in pediatrics, so here I am! If any of you are currently in or have already completed your rotation in pediatrics, I would love to ask you a few questions.

1. What are some of the things you liked and disliked while working in this rotation?
2. What was a typical day like?
3. How would you describe the work environment? (Fast-paced, slow, uplifting, etc.)
4. Would you say you had a positive, negative, or neutral overall experience?
5. Would you consider a career in pediatrics? Why or why not?

Feel free to answer a few of the questions or all of them. Sharing any stories is appreciated as well. I am also aware that completing a rotation in pediatrics is not equivalent to being an actual pediatrician, but thank you all so much in advance. I hope you have a wonderful day and I wish you the best of luck on your careers!

1. Things I liked:
-kids are fun
-everyone is really nice
-you don't have to deal with lots of chronic conditions (heart disease, diabetes, etc.) and the corresponding medications

Things I disliked
-outpatient is 90% well child checks, which are incredibly boring after your first one of each age group

2. Typical day:
-inpatient: show up around 6:30, check on your couple patients and start notes until around 8:00-8:30, then round with the team until about 11-12, maybe earlier if there's not too many patients. Grab some lunch, finish any little work then get dismissed around 2ish, unless you were scheduled to see any new patients, then til 4-5. Lots of asthma kids and bronchiolitis.
-outpatient: 8:30-4/5. If you're lucky they might only have a morning clinic some days. Lots of well child checks, the rest usually colds and diarrhea.
-newborn nursery: 7-2ish. Really fun, you get to examine fresh out the womb babies, write easy quick notes. Didn't have to see families and do counseling and stuff.

3. Work environment: clinic can be fast, inpatient is typically slower, but both very manageable. Everyone is super nice and supportive.

4. Overall, definitely a positive experience.

5. Would I consider a career in peds? (I'm gunning for ortho) Peds wouldn't be the worst. I do know that if I ended up doing it, I would go to the hospitalist or PICU route, since well checks were the death of me and I would be able to do some procedural things.

 

[Tenk]

Non sick kids are fun.

Sick kids are fun academically but you will feel bad.

Dead kids will make you question the universe, humanity, and shake the very foundation of your soul.

Parents are mostly awful but some are ok.

That has been my experience.

 

[mvenus929]

Peds is also a very seasonal specialty. People who do their rotation in the summer are going to see a lot of well visits for outpatient, and relatively less volume inpatient. Those who do their rotation during the winter will see a lot of URIs, pneumonias, and asthma. How much you see subspecialty will depend largely on the structure of your rotation.

 

[W19]

I am going thru my peds rotation now (4 weeks in)

1. What are some of the things you liked and disliked while working in this rotation?
Disliked my 2wks outpatient which consisted of mostly well child checks. It becomes monotonous after the 1st couple of days and it was mostly shadowing

I am doing in-patient now and I really like it since they let me pretty much function as an intern.

2. What was a typical day like?
outpatient: in at 8:30 am and out by 3pm

inpatient: In at 7:30 am. Take care of new admission (usually 1)... write my H&P and progress note. And round on my patients (3 or 4). Myself and 2 other interns are in charge of the floor and we split the patient. They do have more patients than me since I am a lowly med student... We are in constant communication with the attendings by phone thru text messaging. Round with my attending from 2-4pm, and out by 4-5pm

I have 1 week NICU and 1 week peds emergency room left. Will see what happens!

3. How would you describe the work environment? (Fast-paced, slow, uplifting, etc.)
Great! The staff do not see me as a lowly med student who is slowing things down. They see me as a staff member who is helping to get the job done. For instance, yesterday as I signed in, the first thing the unit secretary told me was that we have a new admission that should be going into the OR and we need an H&P and progress note ASAP. I even follow that case to the OR and it was really 'weird' (in a good way) to see the gas doc and surgeon were using my H&P and progress note to do their job. Obviously an intern co-sign my notes.

4. Would you say you had a positive, negative, or neutral overall experience?
Positive based on my inpatient experience; accessible attending and constant feedback (positive and negative) from my attending and interns.


5. Would you consider a career in pediatrics? Why or why not?
I can see right now why some attending here always tell MS1 to go into medicine with an open mind. You might discover that you like a different field than the one you previously had in mind when you just got into med school. I am really liking my inpatient peds rotation and I don't really want to (if that makes sense). Probably would not consider it since my outpatient experience was not that 'good' and I probably don't want to deal that patient population for 25+ years. Well, we will see!

 

[aalamruad]

Career in peds: Well, I'm a surgery resident, so....no. (Would consider pediatric surgery, but it's impossibly competitive and I am *not* doing two years of research for maybe a chance at it...)

How many applicants and available spots are there at the moment?

 

[WinslowPringle]

How many applicants and available spots are there at the moment?

http://www.nrmp.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/2016-Pediatric-Surgery-Match-Results-Statistics.pdf

Looks like 96 ranked, and 44 matched.