*~*~*Official ask a question of current Med-peds residents thread 2016-2017*~*~*

[tantacles]

Paging @togaedere @URHere and others!

Med-peds applicants,

Please feel free to ask questions of Med-peds residents! The ones tagged in this thread are recently matched, but there are myriad others available to help you figure out your life!


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[ArsèneLupin]

I'm here as well .

 

[MDsh!ne17]

Hey all Med-Peds residents! I am still struggling to decide between Med-Peds, Peds, and Family Medicine. Yet I can't help but gravitate toward Med-Peds, as it seems to offer the best options and in the end I could end up practicing just primary care, just peds, or specializing in peds/med/both. I don't see one more year of training as a huge compromise, and it appears you get better training than FM, and if you pursue primary care, you see more peds than FM does.

My career goals are not clearly defined at this point, as I like both inpatient and outpatient, want to work with peds and adults, and may want to do primary care but don't want to rule out specializing further. I did like OB/GYN, however I don't know how much GYN Med-Peds physicians do? And I'm not sure I would want to give up the extra training and opportunity to do fellowships to hold onto OB through FM (especially when it seems that it is so hard these days for FM doctors to really have a "full-scope" practice!).

Can I ask what made you choose Med-Peds? Especially to those who struggled with coming to a final decision (rather than those who have a very specific plan, such as treating diseases that continue from childhood to adulthood -- just because that is more clear cut -- I'm looking for those who were more in my place as an upcoming fourth year who has to apply for residency in 3 months!

Thank you for all of your help in advance!

 

[URHere]

I struggled with Peds vs. Med-Peds (Family was never really an option for me as someone who isn't a fan of clinic or OB/Gyn).

In the end, I chose Med-Peds for a few reasons:
-I loved the complexity of medicine and the patient population of peds - best of both worlds
-I hated the idea of not being comfortable caring for 50% of the population
-I have a strong interest in global health and I don't think I could realistically expect to see only adults or only children if I worked internationally
-I want to pursue fellowship. Although I'm 75% sure I'll do a peds fellowship, everything I am interested in is closer to acute/complex care and I thought the IM training would really help with that.
-As a research type, I've been told that being board certified in IM carries a bit more weight than Peds alone.

And...although I didn't really know it until I ended up on the interview trail, Med-Peds was a much better personality fit for me than either IM or Peds alone. I've heard the same thing from many people I met on the interview trail.

Also, for what it's worth, some programs do maintain gyn training. In my program, residents are expected to handle paps and reproductive healthcare and many programs had gyn electives on the list of potential resident rotations.

 

[tantacles]

Hey all Med-Peds residents! I am still struggling to decide between Med-Peds, Peds, and Family Medicine. Yet I can't help but gravitate toward Med-Peds, as it seems to offer the best options and in the end I could end up practicing just primary care, just peds, or specializing in peds/med/both. I don't see one more year of training as a huge compromise, and it appears you get better training than FM, and if you pursue primary care, you see more peds than FM does.

My career goals are not clearly defined at this point, as I like both inpatient and outpatient, want to work with peds and adults, and may want to do primary care but don't want to rule out specializing further. I did like OB/GYN, however I don't know how much GYN Med-Peds physicians do? And I'm not sure I would want to give up the extra training and opportunity to do fellowships to hold onto OB through FM (especially when it seems that it is so hard these days for FM doctors to really have a "full-scope" practice!).

Can I ask what made you choose Med-Peds? Especially to those who struggled with coming to a final decision (rather than those who have a very specific plan, such as treating diseases that continue from childhood to adulthood -- just because that is more clear cut -- I'm looking for those who were more in my place as an upcoming fourth year who has to apply for residency in 3 months!

Thank you for all of your help in advance!

I was ultimately choosing between and IM and family. What really did it for me was realizing how much I love inpatient medicine, and realizing that while I could easily do a clinic-heavy sub specialty or primary care through Med-peds, family removes a ton of options and makes inpatient medicine difficult. It also doesn't prepare you as well to deal with the same kind of complex patients as does Med-peds.

From a less exclusionary standpoint, I love the fact that Med-peds prepares you well to handle chronic disease, something that is a struggle for on or the other. I love working with adolescents, especially when they're honest enough with you to openly hate you (it amuses me), and that population of kids with chronic diseases needs docs who want to transition them into adulthood care earlier rather than later so that they can build autonomy sooner. Med-peds addresses that challenge very well.

 

[studentdoctaa222]

Hello! I'm nearing the end of my M2 year and am really set on doing Med-Peds. I was wondering if anyone has any thoughts on attending an NMPRA conference? I could likely make it work to attend one of them this year (I think the West Coast one, but possibly one of the others instead) but before I book plane tickets I was curious to know if anyone had thoughts on whether or not they are a valuable experience. Would love any insight!

 

[togaedere]

Sorry for the late reply!

For the future, take the plunge and go to conferences. It gives you great insight into the field, allows you to network with folks, and looks great on a cv (people won't doubt that you're really interested.)

That said, I've never been to a NMPRA conference. It's never worked out for me schedule wise. Though I'm in residency with the current president, and he would have lots of great things to say.

You probably made travel plans, though there's still tons of time in med school. I say do it!

Hello! I'm nearing the end of my M2 year and am really set on doing Med-Peds. I was wondering if anyone has any thoughts on attending an NMPRA conference? I could likely make it work to attend one of them this year (I think the West Coast one, but possibly one of the others instead) but before I book plane tickets I was curious to know if anyone had thoughts on whether or not they are a valuable experience. Would love any insight!