Pediatrics vs Internal Medicine - which did you choose and why?

[hst19]

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Hi fellow docs. I'm on the fence between these two as a field of specialization in the future. I'm about to start an internship where I can do 2 rotations, and I thought it might be a good idea for one of them to be the field that I want to specialize in. Please share what you like/dislike most about both of these fields, and why you chose the one you did. Thanks a lot!

 

[smq123]

The general residency forum is really more for residents and med students in the process of applying (who have already picked a specialty). Moving to the clinical rotations forum.

 

[DrMetal]

I didn't like pediatrics. I don't like treating parents.

 

[FrkyBgStok]

and I didn't like internal medicine. I don't like treating liars and people who don't want to get better.

 

[FutureInternist]

Whatever one likes about one field will be something that another dislikes.

Do one rotation in each (although that seems sparse), and ask yourself if you can do this for the next 30 years.

Both have specialisation options so could consider doing a rotation in one of those just so you don’t get put off off something, due to a narrower view of available options.

p.s If I had to do Peds, I would shoot myself in the brain

 

[WheezyBaby]

Med-peds is a thing, if you haven't heard of it (not being snarky, and not to make your residency selection potentially even more difficult). Briefly, I enjoyed the cerebral nature of medicine, making treatment decisions balanced on numerous comorbidities, and the autonomy offered by the training pathway. I fundamentally find the care of pediatrics patients more rewarding, I find interacting with parents generally enjoyable, and it's a patient population that hasn't just by virtue of age excluded a huge range of pathology.

 

[Matthew9Thirtyfive]

Med-peds is a thing, if you haven't heard of it (not being snarky, and not to make your residency selection potentially even more difficult). Briefly, I enjoyed the cerebral nature of medicine, making treatment decisions balanced on numerous comorbidities, and the autonomy offered by the training pathway. I fundamentally find the care of pediatrics patients more rewarding, I find interacting with parents generally enjoyable, and it's a patient population that hasn't just by virtue of age excluded a huge range of pathology.

Also generally they don’t have multiple comorbidities that are the result of decades of poor choices.

 

[FrkyBgStok]

And to counter WheezyBaby, I chose pediatrics because it is pure medicine. While he loves the comorbidities, kids typically don't have a bunch of confounding factors. Cardiology is malformations and pathophysiology related to that, not years of terrible lifestyle. Cystic fibrosis and all the organ systems make sense when you understand the foundational changes in physiology. to me, that is way more interesting. but I get how people could dislike it.

 

[You shall know the Truth]

Pediatric surgery!