Starting Peds residency 5 years after med school???

[Trajan]

---

Members do not see this ad.

A hypothetical question...

If someone does an internship in the Navy, serves for four years as a ship board general medical officer, flight surgeon, or Marine general medical officer, and then wants to do peds, would that person -- with a transitional internship and all of this experience -- be desireable to a peds program, or would the five years out business be a liability?

Not interested in premier programs, but I would like to settle in northern New England. So if anyone knows anything about UVM, Dartmouth, or Maine Medical, please share!

Trajan

 

[notstudying]

There are others on this board who know more about the military piece than I (paging Ed), but in general I think the experience would be valued, especially at a smaller program where practical experience and the ability to work under pressure and independently are very important. I think it'll depend on how you spin it. If you come in saying "well, I really haven't treated kids in 5 years and I'm not sure how comfortable I am" you might have trouble, but if you say "I have great experience working with the issues facing adolescents and young adults and I can't wait to work with younger kids again as well, and not only that, but I have proven that I can work independently for long hours"-PDs will take notice.

 

[Homunculus]

you may try posting this in the military forum as well. i'll let the "can't double post" rule slide for you since i moderate both forums . . mwahahaha

anyway, i don't think it would be a problem for most programs-- as notstudying said, it depends on how well you spin it.

you could also try doing navy peds-- most of them get sent out on gmo's after their internship for a few years anyway before theycome back to finish their last 2 years of residency. so if that's someting you *want* to do (the flight surgeon thing) navy peds is the way to go. i'd be a little careful though, because right now the numbers don't jive between how many slots are available and how many GMO's they've sent out. for example, if one class had 5 gmo's sent out, and while they're away the program get's cut to 3 slots, no everyone is coming back on time. just a heads up to something i've seen first hand.

--your friendly neighborhood military peds caveman

 

[edmadison]

One important question -- are you looking for a military residency or one in the civilian world. For a military residency you would be highly sought after with that experience. For a civilian residency, I think your maturity would be valued. Another question, are you looking for a PGY-1 or a PGY-2 position? If you do a transitional year, you may not be able to meet the requirements in two years. I KNOW that military programs will allow you to alter your rotations for in a transitional year in order to get enough peds stuff out of the way; civilian programs may not be that flexible.

Ed

 

[randomdude]

I'm just curious, how many applicants for peds were there this year for the three services? And is it true the Navy doing away with it's peds program?