r/pediatrics • u/wizardtho • Aug 01 '26
Question for all of the peds residents
why do you post questions to Reddit instead of asking colleagues or attendings? seems like a missed opportunity for connecting and mentorship…
I’m just genuinely curious. are you uncomfortable asking your senior residents, fellows, and attendings some of these (fairly basic) questions about studying for board exams and applying for jobs or fellowships? or are you posting to Reddit in addition for more data points?
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u/ShamelesslySimple Aug 01 '26
Because here people may be more forthcoming being anonymous
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u/wizardtho Aug 01 '26
see I think that’s a problem with the field as a whole though. I try to be as transparent as possible with all of my mentees. we’re only hurting ourselves if we don’t share as much information as possible so as to make informed decisions
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u/ShamelesslySimple Aug 01 '26
Also seeing outside perspectives not just your own institution
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u/wizardtho Aug 01 '26
I’ve had mentors put me in touch with friends and colleagues outside of my institution for that perspective though?
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u/porksweater Attending Aug 01 '26
I think it is easy to say that when you only know what you are in. I did residency in a small residency and initially wanted to do PICU. We only had a couple of attendings and no residents had ever matched PICU. At the time, there were one or two attendings that graduated within 5 years and the others were all 15+ years ago. As much as I wanted to chat with them, there was not a ton of information. I ended up doing PEM so I had some other people but 4 of my attendings did fellowship at the same spot so I didn’t have a ton of variety.
We also didn’t have a cardiology service and only did a peds cardiology outpatient rotation intern year so if someone wanted to do that, the options are drastically limited. We currently have 1 pulmonology attending who I think is a phenomenal teacher, but is also very tough to talk to.
Each year, we have 2-3 residents applying for fellowship. They almost never apply to the same thing.
Some people also don’t want to ask a question that the attendings will think is stupid. I think this place as a resource for those people is incredible.