Switching from Internal medicine to Pediatrics? - Good idea?

[simvastatin]

Hello friends,

I am a second year internal medicine resident --- Unfortunately, I have never made good choices -- Went along the flow --- Joined IM residency when I was interested in Pediatrics -- In the last 2 years, I never hated IM-- however, didn't love it that much -- I always have the feeling in the back of my mind that I should have gone to Pediatrics --- I brushed this feeling aside and was preparing for fellowship interviews in IM --..Since I decided I must do a fellowship, I applied and worked hard and got many abstracts with good research profile..... Now, when I think about, I am pretty sure that I will not be that happy even if I get my fellowship

I am attending interviews now....I am giving a second thought to Pediatrics again -- Everybody would call me ' stupid' as I was ted 2 years in IM -- I have an option of going to Med-Peds program ---- Do you guys think is it really worth a try? I have pondered over it and was not sure whether it is worth the transfer...Just because I love being with kids, I am worried that it doesn't mean that I love Pediatrics...However, in case of IM, though I am doing my work good, I am not sure whether I really like it or not!!

I amr eally confused!!! Any kind of input will be really appreciated!

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[oldbearprofessor]

Hello friends,

I am a second year internal medicine resident --- Unfortunately, I have never made good choices -- Went along the flow --- Joined IM residency when I was interested in Pediatrics -- In the last 2 years, I never hated IM-- however, didn't love it that much -- I always have the feeling in the back of my mind that I should have gone to Pediatrics --- I brushed this feeling aside and was preparing for fellowship interviews in IM --..Since I decided I must do a fellowship, I applied and worked hard and got many abstracts with good research profile..... Now, when I think about, I am pretty sure that I will not be that happy even if I get my fellowship

I am attending interviews now....I am giving a second thought to Pediatrics again -- Everybody would call me ' stupid' as I was ted 2 years in IM -- I have an option of going to Med-Peds program ---- Do you guys think is it really worth a try? I have pondered over it and was not sure whether it is worth the transfer...Just because I love being with kids, I am worried that it doesn't mean that I love Pediatrics...However, in case of IM, though I am doing my work good, I am not sure whether I really like it or not!!

I am really confused!!! Any kind of input will be really appreciated!

This is an interesting situation and not one I've seen on SDN before (or in real life for that matter). I would definitely suggest that you consider going med-peds if you can be allowed to do that with 2 (or more likely 3) more years. I suspect if you complete IM, you'd be asked to do the full three more years (i.e. 6 total) if you switched to pedi. If you can shorten that by one or two years by switching now, that might be a good offer.

Perhaps the bigger question is what you see as your future career and what type of patients you want to see. If you do an IM fellowship, you might still see a number of teens with some fields (GI, rheum, endo come to mind in this regard - there might be others). However, if you think you want to see small children, or, even babies love as a part of your practice, it'll be hard to do that without doing peds.

Once you've finished a pediatric residency (med-peds in this case), I suspect you'll want to do a fellowship. You'll face the options of a pedi one, an adult one or a combined one (in some fields a combined isn't possible, as I doubt the long needed neonatology-geriatrics fellowship will have been approved by then ). Think about whether as a specialist, you want to see the very small child or the older one/adult more.

Life is short. Spending decades taking care of a group of patients you don't like (such as adults) isn't worth it. Now sounds like the time to make the decision and make the switch.

 

[ks9340]

Simvastatin - decided to write as I read your email and your situation sounds much like mine except for the decision to apply for fellowship this year. I too have regretted not including pediatrics in my training (I am IM2)- All of my research prior to residency was pediatrics based and I still maintain an interest in the area (probably more so than in IM) and have missed having children as part of my training - recently I worked outside the country, was required to see both adults and children and found I still really enjoyed the pediatrics patients. I briefly looked into switching to med/peds last year but found it difficult to obtain information re potential open spots in these programs - it seems there are less than in IM or Peds alone although I imagine sometimes they must exist. If anyone is reading this post and knows of anyone who has done something like this in the past (ie obtain pediatrics training after IM) I would love to hear your thoughts.

 

[322351]

http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=715504

Hello,

I posted in the above tread. But I didn't match in med peds and scrambled into a solid medicine program. I thought I might be content with that and I would like to be academic and the program is a strong one with strenths in fields I am interested, but now I am really sad that I won't be able to work with children.

Obviously if I could find a med/peds program that would be ideal but since it was competitive this year there may be less spots to open.

Do you think the posters in the above thread were incorrect in saying that if I compete a medicine residency it might take less than 3 years to complete peds?

 

[changer]

I switched from IM to Peds. I did it after my IM1 year by re-entering the match. Its possible (and more common than you think). PM me if you want to discuss it further.

Children are WAAAAY more fun/interesting than adults...plus you can do a little tweaking and make REAL differences rather than just titrating that levo until they inevitably die.

 

[Complications]

I know a guy who started IM (I think he finished) and got special permission from the ABP to do an additional 2 years, I believe. I say ... go with your gut/heart. Do you need a med peds program? You could ask someone from ABP and who ever accredits training for IM. Just my thoughts.

 

[322351]

I talked to my peds clerkship director who talked to a member of the abp. Apparently you can get up to a year of credit for peds residency after completing IM. You have to find a peds program to let you and have to talk to the board before starting. Good luck!

 

[C Chance]

Hello friends,

I am a second year internal medicine resident --- Unfortunately, I have never made good choices -- Went along the flow --- Joined IM residency when I was interested in Pediatrics -- In the last 2 years, I never hated IM-- however, didn't love it that much -- I always have the feeling in the back of my mind that I should have gone to Pediatrics --- I brushed this feeling aside and was preparing for fellowship interviews in IM --..Since I decided I must do a fellowship, I applied and worked hard and got many abstracts with good research profile..... Now, when I think about, I am pretty sure that I will not be that happy even if I get my fellowship

I am attending interviews now....I am giving a second thought to Pediatrics again -- Everybody would call me ' stupid' as I was ted 2 years in IM -- I have an option of going to Med-Peds program ---- Do you guys think is it really worth a try? I have pondered over it and was not sure whether it is worth the transfer...Just because I love being with kids, I am worried that it doesn't mean that I love Pediatrics...However, in case of IM, though I am doing my work good, I am not sure whether I really like it or not!!

I amr eally confused!!! Any kind of input will be really appreciated!

WOW - you and I are very smiliar in that regard, I basically went with the flow and choose IM, moslty by default. I have yet to start PGY-1 but starting to regret approaching my choice so lazily. Anyway I loved Pediatrics but only did the core and no electives in med school, would it still be possible for me to switch to Peds or IM-Peds or is this a long shot? How should I proceed? Only other problem - I could never actually see anything with an otoscope.