Neonatology

[2006MD]

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What's the fellowship like? What is your day/lifestyle like once you are in practice? Is it research heavy?

 

[oldbearprofessor]

What's the fellowship like? What is your day/lifestyle like once you are in practice? Is it research heavy?

Hi - there are several threads in the last year or so addressing these issues. I would say that fellowship months in which one is on the clinical service (usually 12-15 of the 36 months of fellowship) can be expected to be difficult and run the whole 80 hr work-week. Research months will usually be less time-demanding but this depends on how your program arranges night-call.

After fellowship, lifestyle depends greatly on whether you are academic or private and whether you have externally-funded research. Regardless of that, when one is working on the clinical service, expect fairly long work-weeks, but in both private and academic neonatology there are often considerable spells with fewer hours.

All fellows must complete a research project. Whether their career includes or is primarily research depends on the individual. It is possible to be in an academic center as a medical school faculty and primarily do clinical patient care as well.

I personally spend a substantial amount of my time in education, both at my medical school and elsewhere. There are tremendous opportunities to train doctors throughout the world in neonatal care.

As such, I am away from home a bit more than even most full-time clinical neos. However, I think I have a good lifestyle. I am doing what I want to be doing and what I think I should be doing and that counts for a lot in terms of family happiness. Bringing home interesting gifts from foreign countries to the family doesn't hurt either....

In summary, one can have a career in neonatology that has large components of any of the basic pillars of clinical care, research or teaching/administration. When doing clinical care, however, that will always be time-consuming.

Regards

OBP

 

[14022]

What do you do when you are "not on service?" I understand you can do research but are there any other clinical or educational responsibilities? 10 months seems like a lot of time not to be on service and only doing research.

And is there ever any follow-up with your patients? I doubt that a neo would have clinic or anything like that.

 

[oldbearprofessor]

What do you do when you are "not on service?" I understand you can do research but are there any other clinical or educational responsibilities? 10 months seems like a lot of time not to be on service and only doing research.

And is there ever any follow-up with your patients? I doubt that a neo would have clinic or anything like that.

Greetings:

Many neonatology services run follow-up clinics. I think that nationally, it is less common now than it used to be for neonatologists to see patients at these clinics. Nowadays I think more of this care is provided by developmentalists and general pediatricians. Still, many neonatologists definitely have follow-up clinics.

With regard to spending time, this is very dependent on where you are. For academic faculty with a significant amount of federal research funding, usually 2-3 months is all the clinical service they can do. Running a full-time laboratory, etc is very time-consuming! In my case, I also do occaisional night and weekend call during the 10 months I am not on service, and hold weekly meetings associated with various other hospital and medical school responsibilities I have.

The busy months are those, like this month, when I am on the clinical service and am trying to finish a couple of papers, prepare for upcoming scientific meetings, run the laboratory, and plan for a major grant renewal. In these cases, I may exceed the 80-hr work week, but who am I to complain to? 😕

Regards

OBP

 

[sjkpark]

Could you please describe your teaching committments? I mean, whether you teach residents or medical students, in clinical or basic sciences?

Thanks

Greetings:

Many neonatology services run follow-up clinics. I think that nationally, it is less common now than it used to be for neonatologists to see patients at these clinics. Nowadays I think more of this care is provided by developmentalists and general pediatricians. Still, many neonatologists definitely have follow-up clinics.

With regard to spending time, this is very dependent on where you are. For academic faculty with a significant amount of federal research funding, usually 2-3 months is all the clinical service they can do. Running a full-time laboratory, etc is very time-consuming! In my case, I also do occaisional night and weekend call during the 10 months I am not on service, and hold weekly meetings associated with various other hospital and medical school responsibilities I have.

The busy months are those, like this month, when I am on the clinical service and am trying to finish a couple of papers, prepare for upcoming scientific meetings, run the laboratory, and plan for a major grant renewal. In these cases, I may exceed the 80-hr work week, but who am I to complain to? 😕

Regards

OBP

 

[oldbearprofessor]

Could you please describe your teaching committments? I mean, whether you teach residents or medical students, in clinical or basic sciences?

Thanks

Yes to all of it. I teach residents, medical students, fellows, and even sometimes premeds who shadow me including some SDNers 😎 in the past!

I teach in both the clinical sciences and basic sciences (nutrition lectures and problem-based learning facilitation) including both core rotations in pedi/neonatology and also electives doing research with me. Since I spend most of my time in the level 3 NICU (the sicker kids) it is more residents there than medical students.

regards

OBP