Regional Fellowship gaining board certification in the near future?

[RussianJoo]

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I am just starting my CA-1 year I know that I want to do a fellowship, but I am not sure which one just yet, because well I haven't had a lot of exposure to the world of anesthesia. However, I feel like I should try to pick a fellowship fairly soon so that I can start doing research in the field and prepare to be the best candidate I possibly can be.

The fellowships I am considering are Regional, Pain and Cards in no particular order.

My program gives us pretty good exposure to regional anesthesia through an orthopedic hospital we rotate in, and in fact some people from the current graduating class go their jobs simply because of their regional skills. We have a few busy cardiac surgeons, and although we're not the Cleavland clinic I was told we get okay exposure to hearts. We have a pain fellowship so we get pretty good pain exposure as well.


I have heard from some people that because some fellowships don't offer further board certification they're not really required, and don't really greatly improve your chances of being hired by desirable groups later on. That's why before I was mostly considering Cards of Pain, because they do offer further certification. However, considering the fact that Cards just recently started requiring a cardiothoracic fellowship to become TEE certified, and the peds fellowship just started to go through the match, made me think, could it be that in the near future other fellowships will follow and pretty soon further board certification will be created for those completing these currently un-boarded fellowship.

With that theory in mind I have now added regional fellowship to my list.

What do you guys think? will other fellowships soon have their own boards?

 

[IlDestriero]

The Peds board almost didn't make it. The last ASA president was firmly against it, as far as I recall, maybe 2 presidents ago. It was going to be called "advanced pediatric anesthesia". I'm not sure if it still is or not. That way the old guard didn't have to fear needing fellowships and peds certification to do the routine peds cases they've been doing forever.
It would be much harder to make a case for "advanced regional" board certification. Anyone can learn to be proficient in regional, in training or on the job. That being said, a regional fellowship will make you a regional superstar, and that could very well get you a very competitive job where strong regional skills are required.
Or you could do peds.😉

 

[countingdays]

I can't answer your question, but I can give you some unsolicited advice:
don't just decided you want to do a fellowship.
Only do a fellowship if, after trying many areas of anesthesia, you find that there's one that is just so much better than all the others that you would pay someone $200,000-$300,000 and let them treat you like a servant for a year just to let you do it rather than general anesthesia.
If you like one area that much, do a fellowship whether there's a certification for it or not.

 

[RussianJoo]

The Peds board almost didn't make it. The last ASA president was firmly against it, as far as I recall, maybe 2 presidents ago. It was going to be called "advanced pediatric anesthesia". I'm not sure if it still is or not. That way the old guard didn't have to fear needing fellowships and peds certification to do the routine peds cases they've been doing forever.
It would be much harder to make a case for "advanced regional" board certification. Anyone can learn to be proficient in regional, in training or on the job. That being said, a regional fellowship will make you a regional superstar, and that could very well get you a very competitive job where strong regional skills are required.
Or you could do peds.😉

Peds isn't my cup of tea, the rooms are too hot for me... And the kids yell and cry too much.

 

[RussianJoo]

I can't answer your question, but I can give you some unsolicited advice:
don't just decided you want to do a fellowship.
Only do a fellowship if, after trying many areas of anesthesia, you find that there's one that is just so much better than all the others that you would pay someone $200,000-$300,000 and let them treat you like a servant for a year just to let you do it rather than general anesthesia.
If you like one area that much, do a fellowship whether there's a certification for it or not.

I don't know I think this kind of mentality is changing, I am starting to hear that a lot of times desirable jobs require some kind of special skill. No better way to learn a special skill than do a fellowship.

As for me i just want to do a fellowship because I spent all my life studying and in school to become a doctor what's one more year just to say you've reached the highest possible education level in your profession.

 

[imfrankie]

Peds isn't my cup of tea, the rooms are too hot for me... And the kids yell and cry too much.

When you get better at it the kids won't yell and cry so much. The cardiac surgeons on the other hand, will continue to do so.

Don't worry about the research. Enjoy your residency and cases and you'll naturally shine in what you enjoy most.

Peds is good stuff in part because you can do it all in little ones. You even get OB with the EXITS (Eeeek)

 

[countingdays]

I don't know I think this kind of mentality is changing, I am starting to hear that a lot of times desirable jobs require some kind of special skill. No better way to learn a special skill than do a fellowship.

As for me i just want to do a fellowship because I spent all my life studying and in school to become a doctor what's one more year just to say you've reached the highest possible education level in your profession.

Well one better way to learn a special skill is to get a job that lets you learn that skill on the job while paying you as an anesthesiologist rather than learning the same skill in fellowship while making less per hour than a waiter, cab driver, etc. Fellowship is less about gaining a skill than it is about getting a piece of paper that says you have the skill. People did just fine doing cardiac and pediatrics and regional and OB before fellowships became so common.