<p>Hey everyone! I had a few questions about the life of a pediatrician...</p>
<p>I know they usually have clinic hours that range from 8-5 and weekends, but are they on call at night? </p>
<p>Is pediatrics a hard residency to get into? Like derm is really hard to get into, is pediatrics one of the more difficult ones? </p>
<p>Are the malpractice insurance costs on the lower side compared to other doctors?</p>
<p>Also, is it a family-friendly career? I know that doctors don't have a family friendly career in general, but compared to the other specialties, is it easier to have a personal life?</p>
<p>Thanks!</p>
<p>1.) Yes.</p>
<p>2.) Nope.</p>
<p>3.) <em>doesn't know</em></p>
<p>4.) By comparison, better than average.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Yes, they're on call on occasion. But this can simply just mean carrying around a beeper at home and being prepared to go to the hospital if necessary.</p></li>
<li><p>Peds might be the easiest residency to get into.</p></li>
<li><p>Unless you do a subspecialty within peds, your malpractice costs should be pretty low. The malpractice insurance of the pediatrician I shadowed as only around 7000/yr.</p></li>
<li><p>It better be since the pay is much lower than other specialties.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Parents of popular pediatricians call a lot. That's what most of your private practice "call" will be; giving advice and support (not antibiotics, hopefully) over the phone. "Hospitalists " often do the inpatient stuff which I understand is more interesting and rewarding (and sometimes sad).</p>
<p><a href="http://www.aamc.org/programs/cim/chartingoutcomes.pdf%5B/url%5D">http://www.aamc.org/programs/cim/chartingoutcomes.pdf</a></p>
<p>Peds is, at least in the 2005 data, the third easiest to get into after Family and Internal Med, but as you can see on page 7, a great many of the residency programs have 1st choice specialty match rates >90%. (by that they mean, 90% of people got into the specialty - though not necessarily the exact program - they wanted as evidenced by their #1 choice on their Rank Order List).</p>
<p>Of course you could also look at the USMLE scores in 2005 (page 11) and argue that peds is only the fifth easiest based on what average applicants have for Step 1 scores.</p>
<p>Thanks for all your help. Are jobs as pediatricians in hospitals difficult to get? I know that they must be pretty selective because they probably do not need too many pediatricians since they have so many residents, but is it nearly impossible to get a permanent job as a pediatrician at a hospital?</p>
<p>Well, the most obvious way to do that is to become an attending physician at an academic medical center with a children's hospital. An academic job, of course, comes with research expectations and such, and would be slightly harder to land. Still shouldn't be too bad, though.</p>
<p>Jobs for pediatricians are widely available. Many peds practices have more patients than they can care for and may not accept new patients.</p>
<p>Virtually all pediatricians (and physicians in general) work AT hospitals, but few are actually employed BY hospitals. Very few pediatricians have clinic based practices without maintaining hospital privileges. Pediatricians most often practice in group practice -- that is, they are in private practice with other pediatricians.</p>
<p>Pediatricians get called into the hospital at night to attend cesarean sections and to admit sick children. Most hospitalists take care of adults, not kids.</p>
<p>In my community most physicians don't spend much time in hospitals. Hospital work is covered by "hospitalists", who generally handle serious and acute illness. This is true for our Pediatric Services as well. It's my impression that Pediatricians in the nursery happens more in communities with academic hosptials. Again, certainly not in my community. (N. Cal suburb). Also, there are many communities where nurse practitioners are serious competition for a pediatrician looking for outpatient salaried work.</p>
<p>^^ That's interesting. I know that pediatricians in our city have to make rounds and such, but it is not AS hospital based as some cities...similar to your town. Here, nurse practitioners only work side by side with the doctor. They are usually not any kind of serious competition for the pediatricians. I think its interesting how different the same job can be in so many areas. Thanks.</p>
<p>From what I've heard Pediatrics is one of the easiest specialties to get into.</p>
<p>^^Is derm the hardest? (Based on what most people say)</p>
<p>Post #5 above makes USMLE scores available. The highest few, in order, are:</p>
<p>Plastics, derm, ortho, rad/onc, radiology, pathology.</p>