"Lifestyle" Pediatric Programs

[peepadoo]

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I am wondering if any pediatric residencies allow their residents a decent lifestyle or have a significant amount of elective time. So far I have not heard of any.

Do they exist?

Where?

 

[TexasRose]

I'm sure that more informed people than myself will reply to your question. In the meantime, my understanding is that all accredited programs have to fulfill the same requirements in terms of months of training in specific specialties, etc. That probably leaves relatively little room for more or less elective time.

That being said, if you look at the FREIDA listings, you will see that some programs appear to have more call, etc.

Overall, though, I don't think there is such a thing as a "lifestyle" residency in peds.

 

[Echinoidea]

I don't know about lifestyle, but from my own informal research, it seems that some programs are more call heavy than others, and of course some programs use a night float system as well.

This brings up an interesting point...I kind of envisioned Peds programs being a little more gentle and less malignant than most medicine or surgical residencies (i.e., without a 100% divorce rate) Is life generally better as a Peds resident than as a medicine or surgery resident? Anyone have any thoughts to share?

 

[ChildNeuro]

I think that most pediatrics programs have similar requirements in terms of hours on call and time in the hospital. More important, I would think, is to determine which programs you would be most happy at, and which programs don't have a reputation for being malignant i.e. poor treatment of residents, don't handle feedback from residents, etc . . . It would be very beneficial to know the personalities of the attendings which you would have to spend a large amount of your time during residency, but for this information you have to talk to the residents. For the same amount of work, a difficult attending can produce alot more stress and decrease your productivity, the opposite for a good attending.

 

[KidDr]

I am wondering if any pediatric residencies allow their residents a decent lifestyle or have a significant amount of elective time. So far I have not heard of any.

Do they exist?

Where?

Mayo in MN...tons of elective time and not much call (after intern year)

 

[TexasRose]

I don't know about lifestyle, but from my own informal research, it seems that some programs are more call heavy than others, and of course some programs use a night float system as well.

This brings up an interesting point...I kind of envisioned Peds programs being a little more gentle and less malignant than most medicine or surgical residencies (i.e., without a 100% divorce rate) Is life generally better as a Peds resident than as a medicine or surgery resident? Anyone have any thoughts to share?

I only know that medicine residents are some of the more miserable residents I have worked with. Working with them for 3 months made me want to run away from Medicine as fast as possible! Surgery residents are generally happier than Medicine, but that's because they like to brag about their 100+ hour work weeks that they just don't report because of work hour limits.

Mayo in MN...tons of elective time and not much call (after intern year)

But, it's MN! *shivers*

 

[14022]

University of Chicago

Intern year- 4 months Q4 call + 2 months Q4 home call/Q12 in-house call

My second year- 4-5 months Q4 call + 2-3 months Q4 home call/Q12 in-house call

My third year- 2 months Q4 call + 2-3 months Q4 home call/Q12 in-house call


Plus, resident extenders, great teaching, free breakfast and lunch daily and dinner on call, new hospital, and outstanding PD. Great place where residents are very happy.

 

[ChildNeuro]

Interesting, but still I would rather do q3 call first year, and q3-4 for all months in second and third year if it was in a more habitable environment for me, i.e. good hot summers and mild winters and no snow! and it was close to family then all the better too! If you get alot of time off, but you are stuck in MN where they have real minnesotian winters and nothing to do if you are not from there then what's the point? As long as I have *quality* time off, then how much I get per year doesn't matter much to me.

 

[peepadoo]

Thanks for the suggestions. I don't want a nanny to raise my kids.

Any other specific programs would be great help.

 

[eviorr]

INOVA Fairfax in Fairfax, VA (just outside of Washington, DC) has a reputation as being very family friendly, with lots of call-free months in the intern year. It's a large (900+ bed) community hospital (largest in Northern VA) with an affiliation with VCU's medical school in Richmond, so it has more teaching than the average community hospital, with the opportunity to teach medical students from VCU, UVA, and Georgetown (if that is important to you). They ended up being rather high on my rank list, I was really impressed with the interview and the rotations I did there (I just graduated from GW, and did a month of medicine and a month of OB there). Downside: cost of living is high (although cheaper than in DC itself).

- Erick

 

[eviorr]

(Oh, and Fairfax also has employee childcare available).

 

[mytirf]

I don't know about lifestyle, but from my own informal research, it seems that some programs are more call heavy than others, and of course some programs use a night float system as well.

This brings up an interesting point...I kind of envisioned Peds programs being a little more gentle and less malignant than most medicine or surgical residencies (i.e., without a 100% divorce rate) Is life generally better as a Peds resident than as a medicine or surgery resident? Anyone have any thoughts to share?

As far as being more gentle, it really depends on the program. Some programs have a lower volume or more residents to patients and therefore it will be somewhat easier. In comparison to medicine it is important to keep in mind that while many medicine programs have caps for numbers of admissions in one night, most pediatric programs do not. This means that on medicine you might get 5 patients a night, (3 of which will probably be pretty sick), but in peds in the winter you might get in upwards of 8-10 admissions (sometimes 15). This can add to the stress and might it more difficult during the winter months, but then better during the summer. Also the call schedules for most programs are generally q4 with occasional q3s thrown in and given the 80 hour work week, this appears to be consistent in the med/surg/ped programs in my area. So the long and short of it, is that peds can be sometimes a little more chill, but can other times be pretty intense, but always interesting!

-V

 

[ChildHealth]

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