Kania
What are some job options for a Pediatrician
im asking because when I graduate from high school I wanted to go to school to become a pediatrician. #pediatrics #pediatrician #healthcare #hospital-and-health-care #medicine
3 answers
Hassan Chaudhry, MD
Hassan’s Answer
Hello Kania! Congratulations on deciding on such an ambitious and respectable field as your future pursuit. Pediatrics is a great and flexible field that allows you to either work in a hospital setting, or have your own practice pretty easily. I spent time at an outpatient Pediatrics clinic and the work seemed very rewarding (dealing with cute babies and new and excited mothers) These are the main two routes people usually take, although another would be corporate medicine in which you can decide to work for a Pharmaceutical company or such in their department responsible for developing medications, supplies, and other things of the sort for a pediatric population. As for sub-specialties, a Pediatrician can go into many things, amongst the following:
-Pediatric Allergy, Immunology,
Rheumatology (immunity + muscles)
-Pediatric Cardiology (heart)
-Pediatric Emergency Medicine
-Pediatric Gastroenterology (stomach)
-Pediatric Endocrinology (metabolism; primarily deals with child diabetes)
-Pediatric Hepatology (liver issues)
-Pediatric Genetics (inherited diseases)
-Pediatric Hematology (cancer/blood diseases)
-Pediatric Infectious Disease (immune deficiencies, recurrent infections)
-Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine (care for critically ill newborns/premature babies, etc)
-Pediatric Nephrologry (kidney disorders)
-Pediatric Pulmonology (lung disorders)
Source:
https://www.med.unc.edu/pediatrics/specialties
As you can see, there are almost a dozen focused areas within Pediatrics you can zone in on if one interest you more than others. The human population will always continue to grow as mothers continue to have children, and Pediatricians will always be in demand to manage the health of both ill and healthy infants, children, and adolescents as they mature into adulthood. Good luck with your endeavors :)
Sincerely,
-Dr. Chaudhry
Hassan recommends the following next steps:
Dr. Chaudhry: Your advice is insightful and thank you for sharing the detailed list of Pediatric options.
Sheila Jordan
Sunil Patel
Sunil’s Answer
Your interest in Becoming a Pediatrician is exciting. Once you finish your medical school and Pediatric residency, you have an option
-to be a General Pediatrician and either have your own practice in the community of your choice
Or
-be employed by a Medical group, outpatient clinic of a hospital, University, County clinic, military, Indian Health clinics etc.
Or
- be a Pediatric Hospitalist and work exclusively in hospital base medicine
- join an academic institution and devide your time in educating Medical students/residents, and seeing pediatric patients in clinic/ Hospital.
- Subspecialize in different pediatric subspecialty such as Neonatology, Cardiology, Gastroenterology, Neurology etc. and work at Children’s Medical center in seeing patients needing care in your specialty
- do research at Research or University center.
As you see you have multiple options and in my experience all options are very rewarding, personally and professionally.
Good luck.
Richard A.
Richard’s Answer
Inpatient medicine including pediatric intensivist
Academic medicine performing research and teaching future pediatricians.