1. Why Choose A Career in Pediatrics?
Kishore Vellody, M.D.
Associate Professor of Pediatrics
Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh

2. 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)

3. 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 (2822% 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

4. What are the options? General Pediatrics Clinic Based Hospital Based
Community
Academic
Hospital Based

5. 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)

6. 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).

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

8. Job Opportunities
96% of pediatric residents secure a job before the conclusion of training.
84% of pediatric residents who completed training in the years received an offer for their most desired general practice position.
AAP Survey

9. 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

10. 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

11. 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

12. 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

13. 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)

14. 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

15. 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

16. 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

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

18. Questions?