Peds Ortho

[Buckeye(OH)]

Any of you guys in here older than me (im a PGY3) ever considered (I mean seriously considered) peds ortho? I liked it on my four month rotation but just chalked that up to it being different than adult. That interest however has lingered....the other subspecialty Im interested in is hand. Lifestyle wise I think they are similar...but man this is a tough decision. If you look at the JBJS paper about fellowships, peds will never make the investment back yet Im still interested in it. Supracondylars and BBFAs make my day.


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[non trad dad]

http://www.beckersorthopedicandspin...tistics-on-pediatric-orthopedist-compensation

not sure if this is legit, but has some interesting stats on peds ortho...says its based on mgma data, but could be bogus.

 

[ddmo]

Peds is a good field for people who like variety, but the downsides are lots of call usually, pediatric spine and deformity, neuromuscular patients, and dealing with overanxious parents... "My child started walking last week and he looks like he is limping, what's wrong with him."

If those things don't bother you, than it may be a good choice.

 

[Buckeye(OH)]

Peds is a good field for people who like variety, but the downsides are lots of call usually, pediatric spine and deformity, neuromuscular patients, and dealing with overanxious parents... "My child started walking last week and he looks like he is limping, what's wrong with him."

If those things don't bother you, than it may be a good choice.

The thing that bothers me the most is the 230 kids for 1 case. Ugh.

Yes the limping, along with the in-toeing will most certainly get annoying.

 

[coastal]

Love paeds and am applying for fellowships this year. The variety is incredible and the techinical complexity of the challenging cases is unsurpassed within ortho. I used to want to be a trauma surgeon, but figured the patient population and lifestyle would lead to burn out (for my personality).

How much of the in-toeing, worried parent/well child you see is dependent on where you practice. I've heard you get alot of that in some parts of the States, but in Canada you need a referral from your family doc to see a surgeon of any kind - weeds out alot of the crap. Some places refuse to see things like in-toeing altogether. As a parent myself, dealing with over-anxious parents isn't that bad because you get where they're coming from... I actually find sports patients worse cause they're so incredibly high needs. Don't even get me started on your average poly-trauma patient.

I think the personality required to be a pediatric orthopaedic surgeon rules out a huge chunk of orthopods right off the bat, which is why it often gets a bad rap. If you enjoy taking care of kids and want to maintain a broad surgical skill set, paeds is ideal. Pediatric orthopaedic surgeons are among the happiest surgeons in any field I've met.

 

[Buckeye(OH)]

Unfortunately, the malpractice climate in the United States does not lend itself well to pediatricians being good gate keepers for things like in-toeing. It has been my experience that these patients make it into the ortho office with a referral with the attitude "I wouldn't want to miss something big" for fear of being sued. People that actually should be referred, like those with torticollis for the evaluation of DDH are not...which sucks.

I think I need to do some more out rotations to see how things stack up.