Hi Rob, basically in terms of a career in pediatrics you could definitely gain clinical exposure during years 1 and 2, I would highly recommend volunteering in a pediatric clinic maybe once a week AND getting exposure of working with a pediatrician, and become involved in any medical student pediatric interest groups your school may have. I did volunteer work which was fun, but alot of it was not medically related and looking back more time with physicians is probably a good thing as it will give some more clinical exposure. As a medical student you have a special opportunity to get involved in more in-deepth projects and work/shadow physicians on the side, something I wish I knew earlier.
During the third year, you may want to be strategic about when to schedule your pediatrics rotation, which you may or may not have control over. You won't have alot/any control of what is ambulatory and what is inpatient during third year. I would recommend doing pediatrics after you had a couple of rotations like Family Medicine or Medicine, then you would have the skills to do very well in the pediatrics clerkship and get a good letter of recommendation. I would also try to schedule in fourth year as early as possible a Pediatric Sub-Internship. Some electives well suited to pediatrics include dermatology, GI, cardiology, neurology, but use fourth year also to gain exposure to things that you won't see during a Pediatric residency. Right now as a MS1 to be, I would focus on getting things setup for a good year 1 and 2, and also start thinking about plans about what to do in the summer between year 1 and 2, you could do an international health project for three months in Ecuador, or perhaps a pediatrics related research project. Also, make sure that you get some good texts outside of medical school provides, which is often poor quality in terms of studying for boards and main points of what is important, such as High Yield for each course in year 1 and 2, and also First Aid for Step 1 and Kaplan Notes, sooo when it comes time to do step 1 you already have looked at the material (or equivalent for DO school and COMPLEX exam). Electives can be ambulatory in inpatient in fourth year, but the vast majority are inpatient as this is where acute and chronic problems are managed and you really learn the history of a disease process. Good Luck!
