NICU and PICU

[drwatson]

Hi!

I have been going through a debate of Peds and then doing fellowships in NICU or PICU. Or doing Emergency Medicine and then PICU, Peds Emerge or ICU. 

I really do like younger patients but have kind of have my electives all set up for EM and not sure if I can do Peds electives. 

I don't really like wards and some times like clinics. 

Really focused on a good life style and want to be able to travel lots in the future. 

Haven't been able to find much info about what it like to work in NICU and PICU. 

[bearded frog]

NICU/PICU are not classical life style specialties. They are also quite different, even though you're intubating patients, working ventilators etc. The ER -> PICU avenue is obsolete in Canada at this point. ER -> Peds ED is also uncommon now at children's hospitals, at least. The job market is garbage enough that multiple fellowships are needed for jobs. (Canada only has a limited number of PICUs!)

Can you do some shadowing shifts in the PICU/ NICU? PICU is pretty different from adult ICU and NICU is very different from all other aspect of peds so it's really worth having a first hand assessment.