Why Choose A Career in Pediatrics?

Kishore Vellody, M.D.

Associate Professor of Pediatrics

Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh

General Pediatrics - background

Focus on the physical, mental, social health of children from birth to 21 years. Prevention, detection, and management of

these issues Major advocates for children (i.e.

health/safety policies, education)

Why do we need Pediatricians?

In other countries, pediatricians are specialists with general practitioners seeing most kids

FP’s in U.S. are seeing less kids (2822% of FP visits)

Care of children is becoming increasingly complex as we learn to diagnose and treat their illnesses more effectively

26.6% of kids have a chronic health condition AAP data, August 2013

What are the options?

General Pediatrics Clinic Based

Community Academic

Hospital Based Community Academic

General Pediatrics - Scope

Health supervision Anticipatory guidance Monitoring physical and

psychosocial growth and development

Diagnosis and treatment of acute and chronic disorders

Management of serious and life-threatening illnesses

Referral of complex conditions

Consultative partnerships

Community based activities (i.e. sports, schools, etc)

Job Satisfaction

94% of graduating pediatric residents state that they would choose pediatrics again if they had to do it all over. 2008 AAP Survey Data

Job satisfaction survey of 6,600 physicians in 42 specialties. Four of the “top 10” were pediatric specialties: pediatric emergency medicine (#1), general pediatrics (#4), med-peds (#5),“other” pediatric subspecialties (#6), and neonatal-perinatal medicine (#7).

Job Satisfaction

Pediatricians rated higher satisfaction than internists in job, career, and specialty satisfaction

General pediatricians more satisfied than all other physicians regarding their relationship with patients and personal time

More likely to recommend their specialty to students seeking advice Shugerman, et. al. 2001, Leigh et. al. 2002

Job Opportunities

96% of pediatric residents secure a job before the conclusion of training.

84% of pediatric residents who completed training in the years 2006-2010 received an offer for their most desired general practice position.

AAP Survey

Job Opportunities

Workforce shortages general pediatrics and subspecialties mean more job opportunities for graduates

In 2010, 33% of general pediatric residency graduates planned on subspecializing Neonatal medicine Pediatric hematology-oncology Pediatric emergency medicine Pediatric cardiology Pediatric critical care.6

Job Flexibility

38% of graduating residents apply for a part time position and 23% eventually accept one

29% of pediatricians (as opposed to 14% of all other specialties) have worked part time at some point in their career 8% of part time positions are males

AAP August 2013

Multiple types of jobs offered ranging from part-time to more demanding hours Majority work in group practices

Serving the Underserved

Estimated that 52% of health care markets do not have a pediatrician Another 20% do not have a family practitioner

~ 650,000 children live in markets without a pediatrician or family practitioner

51 million people (1/5th) in the US lives in a rural area and only 10% of all U.S. physicians live there. 93% of those physicians say they plan to

continue working in their practices long term

Pediatrics Training

3 year training (201 programs avail.) Inpatient Outpatient clinic General and subspecialty exposure NICU, PICU ER

8123 Pediatric Residents nationwide >90% of first year pediatric residency positions

fill each year AAP August 2013

Combined Peds/Adult Residency Training Pediatrics/Internal Medicine (4 yrs) Pediatrics/Derm (5 yrs) Pediatrics/ER (5 yrs) Pediatrics/Genetics (5 yrs) Pediatrics/PM&R (5 yrs) Pediatrics/Adult Psych/Peds Psych (5 yrs)

Subspecialty Pediatrics

Most require 2-3 years of post-residency fellowships

Some require training in another discipline before becoming more focused on pediatrics such as: surgery, pathology, radiology

Pediatric neurology, rheumatology, and psychiatry can be done with 2 years of general pediatric training followed by 2-3 years of fellowship

Subspecialty Pediatrics

Adolescent Medicine Allergy/Immunology Cardiology Clinical Genetics Critical Care Medicine Dermatology Developmental Emergency Medicine Endocrinology

Gastroenterology Hematology/Oncology Infectious Disease Medical Toxicology Neonatology Nephrology Pulmonology Rheumatology Sports Medicine

Research

Those in subspecialties or in academic environments can choose between more research intensive goals or patient care/clinical goals or a combination of the two

SOURCES

http://www.aap.org/profed/career.htm

http://www.aap.org/profed/Peds101book.pdf

http://www.aap.org/profed/PEDS101charts.PDF

Questions?