Peds vs FP?

[bluebirdie]

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Hello all,
I'm finishing up my 3rd year of medical school and I am deciding on Peds or FP. I really enjoy outpatient medicine and will most likely be donig primary care at the end of residency. Did any of you have troubles deciding between the two, and what made you finally decide on your specialty? Thanks

 

[edmadison]

Hello all,
I'm finishing up my 3rd year of medical school and I am deciding on Peds or FP. I really enjoy outpatient medicine and will most likely be donig primary care at the end of residency. Did any of you have troubles deciding between the two, and what made you finally decide on your specialty? Thanks

I think it really depends on whether or not you like old people and OB.

If you like treating old people and kids and not doing OB, then you should consider med-peds. On the other hand if you like everything, FM may be great for you. Personally, I rather be a toll booth collector than do IM. I like kids. Kids get better. Most of kids problems are not their fault (or at least their responsibility).

Ed

 

[mr.annoying]

I hate old people. Done.

 

[pedidoc]

I actually did a year of FP and switched to peds. I got really burned out with FP. Maybe I was a little too naive when I started. I was really idealistic and I had these ideas of developing really close relationships with my patients and making a big difference. Instead, my patients were ungrateful and manipulative and seemed to really be using me for secondary gain instead of actual medical help.
I did a month of inpatient peds and it was a totally different experience-its nothing-repeat-nothing like clinic in FP with pediatric patients. They are really ill-nothing made up-and you are sort of a specialist for kids. They are not manipulative, they are just innocent and totally not to blame for their illness. And unlike FP, they don't have chronic fibromyalgia pain complaints. You treat a concrete illness and they get better and go home. And their parents love you for taking care of their child.

And they're way cuter than adult patients.

 

[ruthmd]

The other question to ask yourself is how good of a pediatrician you want to be, and how many kids you want to see. As an FP, peds will be maybe 20-30% of your patient load (depending on where you are), and peds time only makes up about that percentage of most fp residencies. So if you want to be a great pediatrician, it's a lot easier to do it when you're spending 100% of your time working with kids for three years, rather than doing 20% of your time for 3 years.

And if you don't want to do OB, let me highly recommend med-peds...
I never thought of fp (because i didn't want to do ob), but i did apply to both peds and med-peds. I couldn't imaging myself as anything other than a pediatrician, so peds was non-negotiable. However, I found myself liking the challenge of adult medicine- both the challenge of figuring out how to get pts to be compliant, and the challenge of dealing with multiple issues concurrently. And, I love working with adolescents (kids, adult body, such an interesting developmental stage!). I want to be a great pediatrician though, so i'm not willing to only do 20% of my time for 3 years in peds. Med-peds is the right balance for me. But you have to find your own- good luck!

And, kids are WAAAAY cuter- and more fun, too!

 

[gwydion04]

Hello all,
I'm finishing up my 3rd year of medical school and I am deciding on Peds or FP. I really enjoy outpatient medicine and will most likely be donig primary care at the end of residency. Did any of you have troubles deciding between the two, and what made you finally decide on your specialty? Thanks

... but in the end I ranked Peds higher. I enjoyed my outpatient experience in family med greatly - especially the one I had in a rural area - I just hate OB with a passion 'cause it's so stressful.

Likewise, med-peds wasn't an option for me because 1) there were no med-peds programs near where I needed to go for personal reasons and 2) I really *hated* my internal medicine rotation at my med school (it was sort of a constant intellectual who-can-pee-the-farthest contest). I actually enjoyed surgery more.

I like peds 'cause everybody is friendly, the patients aren't (usually) train wrecks, and people always smile when you tell them that you're going to be a pediatrician. 😀 Of course, if you're talking to a MD, that's usually before they mock your low future salary 😉