Pediatrics Residencies?

[wabota]

I am halfway through my first rotation - pediatrics - and I absolutely love it. I had expected to want to practice in pediatrics, and this rotation has definitely confirmed it. I'm working in an outpatient office within a hospital, so once a week my doc is on call and we round on his admitted patients. I love the variety that seeing both types of patients brings, especially in the newborn nursery. My preceptor and I get along really well, and we briefly discussed the possibility of me working with him when I graduate. However, he said he would prefer me to do a pediatrics residency before I started, so that I would be better prepared to handle inpatient duties in addition to outpatient. It was then that we both realized that pediatric residencies for PAs simply don't exist.

 

So... can someone explain to me why they don't exist? Do you think my preceptor is right in believing it would be important before admitting and seeing kids in a hospital setting, or is his opinion just biased based on his training as an MD? Is there another way to gain more experience in a PICU or something similar, to make myself a more competitive applicant to jobs in peds that have both in and outpatient components?

 

My elective rotation is already set in tropical med/international, so I can't spend it getting this experience. I'm aware of the neonatology residency at UK, but I don't think the NICU is the place for me.

 

Any other input on the idea of peds residencies? Thanks!

[True Anomaly]

Like any PA residency, the lack of one in an area may simply be because no one's done it yet- it's not as if there's a great movement afoot to prevent a pediatric PA residency from existing. It's tough to be the first one of a certain specialty because there's not an easy blueprint to do it. The easiest way to start one is where a physician pediatric residency already exists and tailor that to a shortened length for PA's, but in addition you need someone dedicated enough to do one who will have to navigate hospital politics to get it approved- not an easy task. Then there's the all-important question- how is it paid for? PA residencies are not funded by the government like physician residencies are, so a hospital has to find other ways to pay for it.

 

Not exactly a straightforward answer, but there's no real straightforward reason why certain specialty residencies don't exist.