Pediatrician: Job Description, Opportunities, Skills and Abilities, and Earnings
Submitted by: paula
JOB OVERVIEW A pediatrician is a kind of physician. He/She specializes in children ages 0-18 years of age. A pediatrician is also called a child's physician who provides several levels of care such as the ff: preventive health maintenance for healthy children and promotive health care as well as curative or the so called medical care for children who are already in the state of acute or chronic illness. Pediatricians are the ones who manage children's health in several aspects to include: physical, mental, and emotional well-being in every stage of development, and in any state or stage of health and illness.
EDUCATION, TRAININGS AND CERTIFICATION REQUIREMENTS
Since a pediatrician is a kind of a doctor. A premed course has to be taken first. After a premedical course, which is usually any kind of a basic science and human related science course, an entrance examination to gauge one's suitablility to enter a medical school will follow. Then a medical schooling should be taken immediately after, which will already include the trainings for basic knowledge and skills in medicine as well as elective subject on a desired specialty. Following graduation, a licensure examination has to be passed consisting of a series of tests to evaluate the knowledge acquired from the years of study in Medicine. After passing the licensure examination, residency will follow, and the area of choice ill be Pediatrics. To become a pediatrician, one must complete three years of education in any accredited pediatric residency program in the spcific state. After three years of training, the physician is now eligible to apply for a certification from the American Board of Pediatrics. This includes a successful passing of a written exam in Pediatrics, to cover topics on the following:care of the infant, child, adolescent, and the young adult. There is a recertificaton requirement however, which should be facilitated every seven years of practice.There are several subspecialties that can be taken under the umbrella of Pediatrics. Examples are the following: adolescent medicine; pediatric cardiology; pediatric critical care medicine; pediatric emergency medicine; pediatric endocrinology, gastroenterology, hematology and of course oncology; pediatric infectious diseases; newborn or neonatal/perinatal medicine; pediatric nephrology; pediatric pulmonology and pediatric rheumatology.
ABILITIES AND SKILLS
A pediatrician's abilities and skills are more or less similar to that of a general practitioner.
He/She needs to gain adequate expertise in children's medicine initially. Also, compassion and patience is needed more specially that in this specialty , the clients are ages 18 years old and below and may not be reasonable when it comes to reacting with different treatments. Communication skills and adaptability is very imporrtant since handling children necessitates different comunication styles so as to encourage cooperation of the child/pediatric patient which will greaty aid in the success of the treatment outcome.
DUTIES
Generally, pediatricians focus on these types of clientele ages 0- 18 years of age: neonates/ infant or babies, toddlers, school children, pre adolescents, adolescents, and lastly young adults. In some classifications, thepediatric client ranges from birth to the age 21 years old. The goals of a pediatrician whether in a community or in a hospital based practice include the reduction of infant and child mortality. Equally important is the control of the contagious or infectious diseases, promotion of healthy lifestyles , and even creation of designs/ programs in managing chronic illnesses of children. In terms of the procedures that they do, they assess, diagnose and afterwards treat several medical conditions e.g. infections of all sorts, injuries, inborn or genetic anomalies or defects, neoplasms andmalignancies as well as organic diseases and organ/system dysfunctions. Pediatricians also collaborate with the other health care professionals to achieve a holistic treatment of the client.
EARNINGS AND JOB OUTLOOK
A pediatrician, just like any other physicians initially, won’t start earning a very high salary or professional fee. The beginning of his/her career is more of building client base and connections. It will definitely take quite some time to earn a name in the industry through earning a corresponding years of experience so as to qualify for a considerable income range. Should he/she become a highly reputed doctor in this field, he/she can get the rate he/she wants for the service rendered. The mean income in the first few years for a starting pediatrician will range somewhere around $130,000 – 135,000. The yearly income would increase up to $155,000-170,000 on an annual basis. Other pediatricians can even earn a total of 300,000 U.S. dollars annually.
Paula Hiz is a researcher and a human resource specialist who helps newly graduates, job applicants and post graduate professionals be aware of the opportunities and trainings for skills and practice upgrading.
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