pediatrics to anesthesiology

[jeesapeesa]

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hey everybody

i'm a current peds intern and was wondering if there is anybody who completed a peds residency and afterwards completed an anesthesia residency? i'm a caribbean grad who did not match into anesthesiology this year and instead of doing a fellowship in pediatrics, i am strongly considering doing anesthesiology. also...

- is it harder/easier to be accepted to an anesthesia program after completing a peds residency? and what additional factors should i consider, if any?

any other pointers would be great. thanks.

 

[HalO'Thane]

hey everybody

i'm a current peds intern and was wondering if there is anybody who completed a peds residency and afterwards completed an anesthesia residency? i'm a caribbean grad who did not match into anesthesiology this year and instead of doing a fellowship in pediatrics, i am strongly considering doing anesthesiology. also...

- is it harder/easier to be accepted to an anesthesia program after completing a peds residency? and what additional factors should i consider, if any?

any other pointers would be great. thanks.

I am a pediatric anesthesiologist currently in practice at a children's hospital. A few of my current colleagues and one of my co-fellows started out as pediatricians before switching over to anesthesiology. However, that was a long time ago when it was much easier to get into anesthesiology and I believe it was only two additional years of training after intern year. I believe that matching into anesthesiology is much more difficult now that it has been in years so I'm not sure if that transition is still as easy. Being board certified in pediatrics will make you stand out during the application process and you could always use that to your advantage by saying that you would like to establish a career in peds anesthesia and that your extra training gives you a leg up. To some PD's it may also raise some red flags as to why you didn't go into anesthesiology in the first place. You need to have the other prerequisites too: GPA, Board Scores, good LOR's, etc. There may be other anesthesiologist at your hospital (usually the peds anesthesia specialists) who have gone your route who may be able to offer you insight as well. Who knows, you may also find out that there is a lot of overlap between anesthesia and the PICU and that you would be interested in that route as well. Good luck.

 

[MD Dreams]

The three problems that I believe you'll face include the fact that you've already done a residency and whichever program chooses you won't get acgme funding for the anesthesia program (i believe you can only be funded for one specialty), the fact that you are a caribbean grad and there are still a lot of people who look down upon Carib grads in the world of anesthesia (I too am a Carib grad and I know the road if a difficult one to travel) and finally the fact that anesthesia is fairly more competitive as a specialty now. Can it be done? Possibly. Will it be difficult? Without a doubt. You would have to be very motivated and be willing to make a lot if sacrifices to make it happen. You also need to consider what it was that prevented you from matching in the first place. Good luck.

 

[michigangirl]

The issue is not going from pediatrics to anesthesia-- I finished a pediatric residency and then went on to anesthesia residency-- except I was accepted into anesthesia with the expectation that I would do a PICU and a peds anesthesia fellowship. Much fewer people are going this route because of the extra time to get peds anesthesia boarded now (can't combine a PICU and peds anesthesia fellowship)-- also, all the folks I know who have done this are US grads-- MD and DO, have not seen a caribbean grad or IMG but I do not have full perspective of all programs. There are actually two people in our peds program who finished their residency this year and matched into anesthesia to start tomorrow. So clearly the ACGME funding issue wasn't a problem for our program director, because they were outstanding candidates. But they were also internal.

The newest and most accepted way to do peds and anesthesia now is the combined peds-anesthesia residency-- not an option for you at this point.

I do worry about your caribbean grad status as an obstacle-- folks are right that programs are taking a little leap of faith with peds grads who want to do anesthesia. They will most likely bring a lot to the table, but you also have to wonder about direction. So being a US grad definitely helps.