Rotations: FM or IM before Peds? (hoping to Honor, but I know it doesn't matter much)

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smh343

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I found IM super helpful before my peds rotation
 
Clerkship grades are completely random. You can do it in whatever season you wish, and then get a bad grader or a bad rotation site. Just take things in stride and have a good attitude. All I can really say.
 
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Every pediatrician I've met, except one, has been extremely friendly and loved med students. I would guess that at most places you don't have to worry too much about your day-to-day performance on the wards during your peds rotation other than showing up on time and working hard.

However, most people find the peds shelf quite difficult. So if you have a chance to study for and take the FM one (the one that has peds on it; there were two options for the shelf when I did primary care), you will probably get a nice head start.
 
Just don’t do Peds in January...I went about 4 days before I got sick, and then I didn’t stop being sick until a week into my next rotation. Something that I think my preceptor liked was me getting creative about trying to get information out of kids (funny voices, bribing with candy, etc). I think it gets them thinking that you really understand that children aren’t just little adults and always require a flexible non-robotic approach (as opposed to the one that we’re taught to use), which impresses them.
 
OB/GYN was also useful before peds. There’s a lot of maternal/fetal medicine that comes up again if you do a rotation in the NICU or nursery. You’ll also learn some anticipatory guidance for taking care of a little baby. The reproductive medicine part of GYN also comes in handy for peds questions about amenorrhea work-up, tanner staging, and adolescent medicine in general.

IM is good for learning work flow of how to be a med student. Family med shelf has peds on it, but it’s not too much, and my rotation still mostly focused on outpatient adult preventative care
 
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