Matching to peds EM

[pedsres]

Hey! I'm an incoming peds R1 interested in applying to peds EM in the PSM match through CaRMS and was just wondering how competitive it is? My school doesn't have any peds EM spots and I'm not sure how that affects things. What can I do to be more competitive? Is research really important? Can I do things with people at other schools?

Thank you! 

[bearded frog]

I did not apply to PEM so cannot comment from experience. PEM is the most compeditive pediatric subspeciality, with 27 first-choice applicants for 19 spots in the 2021 match, which works out to around 1.4 applicants for every spot. The only other subspecialty with more applicants than spots was allergy with 6 first-choice applicants for 5 spots. Not having a local program is a disadvantage, but people certainly do match from programs without fellowships, and there is an advantage in residency not having to compete with fellows for staff time and procedures etc. You certainly can and should do electives at other schools, and can do research or other projects at your own school or other schools if they agree.

[pedsres]

Thanks for the reply! I appreciate it  I'm not sure exactly how to go about making myself a good candidate for this, I guess I'll just have to keep my eyes open for now and focus when I start residency?

[bearded frog]

4 hours ago, pedsres said:

Thanks for the reply! I appreciate it  I'm not sure exactly how to go about making myself a good candidate for this, I guess I'll just have to keep my eyes open for now and focus when I start residency?

If you're 100% sold on PEM then talk to your PD and reach out to your peds emerg staff saying you're interested and look for mentors. If you're not 100% sold do the same thing and say you're interested and not sure and you'd like the opportunity to find out early.

[pedsres]

On 5/15/2021 at 2:00 AM, bearded frog said:

If you're 100% sold on PEM then talk to your PD and reach out to your peds emerg staff saying you're interested and look for mentors. If you're not 100% sold do the same thing and say you're interested and not sure and you'd like the opportunity to find out early.

Thank you, I'll definitely do this! Also, do you know if people ever apply to 2 subspecialties or if that's even a good idea?

[bearded frog]

4 hours ago, pedsres said:

Thank you, I'll definitely do this! Also, do you know if people ever apply to 2 subspecialties or if that's even a good idea?

I'm sure people do, the CaRMS data unfortunately does not give an impression of how many. Usually people are into something and devote all their effort to it, but I imagine their might be some people who are interested in both PEM and PICU for example. The downside is that you'd have to split potential electives/research etc between the two so you may have two mediocre applications instead of one good one.