Pros and cons of Peds Ortho

[Irish Football]

MS2 here interested in Ortho. I've been lucky enough to have been exposed to quite a bit of Ortho so far, mostly total joints and trauma but not much pediatric ortho. I've recently taken an interest in possibly doing something involving Peds. Just curious what you guys thought are some pros and cons of pediatric Ortho in particular. Thanks.

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[JJMrK]

By "doing something," do you mean a research project? If so just go for it. It will teach you about the field. If you're worried about your future career prospects as a pediatric orthopod, you should first just figure out if you want to do ortho in general. It's tough to get in, and you really should like most of it if you're going to sign up for the residency.

 

[Irish Football]

so far I've loved everything I've seen in Ortho. I know that If I go the Ortho route I will definitely want to do a fellowship, and while I have loved all the subspecialties that I have seen thus far (joints, trauma, some spine), I just haven't seen much pediatric Ortho at this point and it sounds like something that could really interest me given my already found intrigue in Ortho. Obviously I will plan on getting some exposure to Peds Ortho and other subspecialties during MS3, but at this point I was just wondering any pros and cons since I really haven't seen much Peds in person.

Don't get me wrong tho, I absolutely love Ortho in general.

 

[Serous Demilune]

so far I've loved everything I've seen in Ortho. I know that If I go the Ortho route I will definitely want to do a fellowship, and while I have loved all the subspecialties that I have seen thus far (joints, trauma, some spine), I just haven't seen much pediatric Ortho at this point and it sounds like something that could really interest me given my already found intrigue in Ortho. Obviously I will plan on getting some exposure to Peds Ortho and other subspecialties during MS3, but at this point I was just wondering any pros and cons since I really haven't seen much Peds in person.

Don't get me wrong tho, I absolutely love Ortho in general.

Everything peds is generally less pay, because a) insurance tends to pay less for pediatric procedures and b) peds specialists tend to work in academia. I would imagine you'd see a lot of child abuse patients, which can't be fun. Otherwise, if you're passionate about it then go for it.

 

[KinasePro]

Rotated on a few ortho peds services as an M4, so take this with a grain of salt. I'm certainly not a practicing orthopaedist.

Pros:
-As one of the last bastions of "general orthopeadics," you can operate on upper extremity, spine, hip, knee, foot, ankle on the same day (that'd be a busy day though...)
-Huge case variety. Everything from 16 hr marathon operations to 45 minute ditzels.
-Research in the field is interesting and thriving.
-Operate on kids with only 6 yrs of training (compare this to the g surg pathway)
-Nice people, not many of the stereotypical "ortho" personalities in the field
-Kids do well, generally speaking
-Kids aren't at fault for their pathology, generally speaking
-Pediatric nurses, nomsayin?

Neutral:
-Compensation could go either way, depending on your practice.

Cons:
-A lot of congenital stuff, where the outcomes aren't as clearly awesome as they are in other areas of ortho
-Lots of CP kids, which can be less gratifying
-Lots of child abuse, also less gratifying
-You see a fair share of tragedy in peds trauma cases
-At the beginning of your career, you will work like a dog. Tons of clinic with low operative yield, and tons of ER work. This gets better with time though.
-Infections.
-Crazy parents.
-not many of the stereotypical "ortho" personalities in the field (I tend to like these people, so its a con for me....)

 

[Buckeye(OH)]

Rotated on a few ortho peds services as an M4, so take this with a grain of salt. I'm certainly not a practicing orthopaedist.

Pros:
-As one of the last bastions of "general orthopeadics," you can operate on upper extremity, spine, hip, knee, foot, ankle on the same day (that'd be a busy day though...)
-Huge case variety. Everything from 16 hr marathon operations to 45 minute ditzels.
-Research in the field is interesting and thriving.
-Operate on kids with only 6 yrs of training (compare this to the g surg pathway)
-Nice people, not many of the stereotypical "ortho" personalities in the field
-Kids do well, generally speaking
-Kids aren't at fault for their pathology, generally speaking
-Pediatric nurses, nomsayin?

Neutral:
-Compensation could go either way, depending on your practice.

Cons:
-A lot of congenital stuff, where the outcomes aren't as clearly awesome as they are in other areas of ortho
-Lots of CP kids, which can be less gratifying
-Lots of child abuse, also less gratifying
-You see a fair share of tragedy in peds trauma cases
-At the beginning of your career, you will work like a dog. Tons of clinic with low operative yield, and tons of ER work. This gets better with time though.
-Infections.
-Crazy parents.
-not many of the stereotypical "ortho" personalities in the field (I tend to like these people, so its a con for me....)

Basically nailed it. I would say the cons column depends on the practice setting you are going into. Ill be going into practice with two other people at a Level 2 peds place. We are within 1 hour of one major childrens hospital, 2 hours of 2 others, and within 3 hours of a third.....so anything that doesn't tickle my fancy is getting referred out.

As to working like a dog, I'm taking over one of the partner's practice, so both I and he, expect to be busy out of the gate.

 

[Irish Football]

Thanks for the info everyone. Guess I have to first concentrate on getting an ortho residency, and then it seems like peds will be something that I will still be interested in when the time comes.

 

[massmocha]

Rotated on a few ortho peds services as an M4, so take this with a grain of salt. I'm certainly not a practicing orthopaedist.

Pros:
-As one of the last bastions of "general orthopeadics," you can operate on upper extremity, spine, hip, knee, foot, ankle on the same day (that'd be a busy day though...)
-Huge case variety. Everything from 16 hr marathon operations to 45 minute ditzels.
-Research in the field is interesting and thriving.
-Operate on kids with only 6 yrs of training (compare this to the g surg pathway)
-Nice people, not many of the stereotypical "ortho" personalities in the field
-Kids do well, generally speaking
-Kids aren't at fault for their pathology, generally speaking
-Pediatric nurses, nomsayin?

Neutral:
-Compensation could go either way, depending on your practice.

Cons:
-A lot of congenital stuff, where the outcomes aren't as clearly awesome as they are in other areas of ortho
-Lots of CP kids, which can be less gratifying
-Lots of child abuse, also less gratifying
-You see a fair share of tragedy in peds trauma cases
-At the beginning of your career, you will work like a dog. Tons of clinic with low operative yield, and tons of ER work. This gets better with time though.
-Infections.
-Crazy parents.
-not many of the stereotypical "ortho" personalities in the field (I tend to like these people, so its a con for me....)

Great post. The residents usually complain most about how much clinic there is in peds, because so many of the trauma consults are treated non-operatively. But the bread and butter wrist and ankle fractures isn't usually what draws people to peds... it seems like treating congenital deformities is what excites the pedipods. At least that's what I saw in the academic setting.