I have a question. When did you know that you wanted to do pediatrics? Did you have an experience that inspired you?
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- Thread starter AbMni
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I'm not one of those "I always knew I wanted to be a pediatrician" people. No one specific experience either. I enjoyed a few other rotations during third year, but never really connected with adult patients. My IM rotation was awful, really. I also had trouble finding much sympathy for a lot of adult patients. When I thought about the kinds of patients I wanted to interact with for the rest of my career, it was clear that peds was the way to go. There was also the influence and mentorship of the pediatricians I met during medical school. My personality just seemed to 'fit' better with that group, along with the way I thought about problems. Unlike the IM guys, they didn't take themselves too seriously but were just as smart. They were people I wanted to learn from and interact with.
Just my experience.
Just my experience.
Wow. Thank you for your story!
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I AM one of those people who always wanted to be a pediatrician. 🙂 The reasons why have changed though. Initially, I had the usual "I enjoy working with kids," and I still do. As I went through medical school though, there were other aspects of peds that were interesting and challenging for me. I liked having to focus on more than just the patient in each encounter (there's almost always a mom or dad or grandma or grandpa or all of the above in the room with the patient). Watching pediatricians with 30 years experience bounce around among all those people was pretty amazing and I've found it rewarding and challenging to try to emulate their success. I also like that kids are hardly ever at fault for their diseases which is obviously different from a lot of adult disease processes. To me, that makes it feel more rewarding to help them (I know that's probably not fair, but when I took time to think about how I felt, that's where I came down). Finally, I liked the atmosphere of pediatrics clinics, wards, and hospitals more than the adult atmosphere. Peds felt more laid back and more collegial than some of the adult places I worked. May have just been a selection bias, but it was important to me.
Like Stitch, just my experience.
Like Stitch, just my experience.
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My original goal was Family Medicine, but on my Family Med rotation I discovered I really liked working with the peds patients (and their parents). Adults were fine and all, but the kids just brightened up my whole day.
It was kind of a shock, really, and rather unexpected. But I guess that's what third year is all about.
It was kind of a shock, really, and rather unexpected. But I guess that's what third year is all about.
Peds was the only thing that almost pulled me away from EM. However, although there is nothing in life better than a smiling infant, or a laughing 3 year old, doing 100 (exaggeration) well-child checks a day didn't, in the end, appeal to me. With deference to my colleague above, I was told, and came to find out, that the worst thing about peds are the parents.
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