2 answers
Erin
Student
Texarkana, Arkansas
1
Question
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What do you feel is the most rewarding part of your job as a pediatrician?
More specifically I want to be a pediatric cardiologist!
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2 answers
James Hanson
Pediatric Intensive Care Physician; Consultant
67
Answers
Oakland, California
Updated
James’s Answer
For me, I chose pediatrics because infants and children are never the reason for their own illnesses. They are blameless, so one can focus on pure diagnosis and treatment. Yes, you have to work with families to improve compliance, but that's usually OK. Watching even very ill patients playing, exploring, learning, and adapting is joyful and reminds one of why one cares for them - to give them as much healthy time to play and learn as possible. The breadth of medicine + the considerations of growth and development makes us have to (get to) constantly learn and adapt ourselves. The technological advancements come fast and furious, and I can try to take advantage of these advancements to improve the care I provide.
I am a pediatric intensivist, so have worked a lot with cardiology, thoracic surgery, and every other subspecialty. I love watching how basic medical topics of anatomy, physiology, biochemistry, etc. work together with the people skills to create a wonderful healing partnership between physician and patient/family.
One advantage of not being an intensivist is that you can follow a child through much of their life. Working on transitioning pediatric patients into adult practices gives one a sense of accomplishment much like when your child graduates from school and moves out on their own.
In pediatrics you are usually surrounded by teams of individuals who love children, who consider all aspects of wellness, and who are devoted to making patients lead healthy lives. Most agree we are "nicer" than those who choose adult specialties.
Best of luck!
I am a pediatric intensivist, so have worked a lot with cardiology, thoracic surgery, and every other subspecialty. I love watching how basic medical topics of anatomy, physiology, biochemistry, etc. work together with the people skills to create a wonderful healing partnership between physician and patient/family.
One advantage of not being an intensivist is that you can follow a child through much of their life. Working on transitioning pediatric patients into adult practices gives one a sense of accomplishment much like when your child graduates from school and moves out on their own.
In pediatrics you are usually surrounded by teams of individuals who love children, who consider all aspects of wellness, and who are devoted to making patients lead healthy lives. Most agree we are "nicer" than those who choose adult specialties.
Best of luck!
Loved reading this, thanks!
Erin
Keith Peevy
Physician—neonatologist
5
Answers
Mobile, Alabama
Updated
Keith’s Answer
Choosing pediatrics for me was based on my love for internal medicine combined with the optimistic outlook of the pediatric patient population. While pediatric patients are not just "little adults" in their scope of problems and care, there is a fair amount of overlap in the realm of critical thinking skills for the two specialites. Pediatrics has a larger "preventive" health care component built in than internal medicine, but both should be also focused on that aspect of medicine.
I considered pediatric cardiology up to the point of applying for and being accepted into a fellowship program, but was torn between cardiology and neonatology and chose the latter.
That said, cardiology is a great field, obviously more narrow in scope than neonatal intensive care, but still dealing with critical decision making, at times participating in intensive care management, but with the added bonus of getting to see patients in an outpatient setting over years as well.
There may be programs available to combine pediatric cardiology and neonatology ( there were when I was training long ago), and if so, the addtional training in neonatology or pediatric intensive care would give you a unique set of skills that would be very attractive to certain high volume teritary care centers.
I considered pediatric cardiology up to the point of applying for and being accepted into a fellowship program, but was torn between cardiology and neonatology and chose the latter.
That said, cardiology is a great field, obviously more narrow in scope than neonatal intensive care, but still dealing with critical decision making, at times participating in intensive care management, but with the added bonus of getting to see patients in an outpatient setting over years as well.
There may be programs available to combine pediatric cardiology and neonatology ( there were when I was training long ago), and if so, the addtional training in neonatology or pediatric intensive care would give you a unique set of skills that would be very attractive to certain high volume teritary care centers.
Thank you for your advice!
Erin