All doctors around the world are important and all of them do very hard work in their field of expertise, but there is one that is probably a bit more important and a bit more difficult – paediatrician.
These types of doctors are there for our little ones from the day they are born to the day they are considered legal age and when they can transfer to the regular doctor. Kids are the most sensitive and they do require special attention and a special personality, especially when we are talking about treatments and hospital care.
Another thing that any paediatrician will tell you is that this is probably the best job in the world and there is no way that someone might not enjoy it. This is a very demanding job and one that requires you to understand that children are very different from adults in physiology, but they are also much more resilient than adults.
Another thing to understand, if you didn’t already know, is that just like internal medicine, paediatrics is a massive field with a variety of subspecialties which makes generalizing the field very difficult.
Today we will bring paediatrics a bit closer to you and tell you about 10 facts you need to know about them while the experts at Offspring Health are all there to serve and treat your child.
Fact 1.
This has already been mentioned but we need to mention it again since people think that paediatrics is just one thing and it is simple and easy. As we already mentioned paediatrics are a complicated thing with very sensitive patients, and it has as many subspecialties as internal medicine.
Some of those are Haematology, Gastroenterology, Nephrology, Allergy and Immunology and much, much more. It is a complicated and highly precise field, more so that it revolves around babies, children and young adolescents.
Fact 2.
Whether it is familiar to you or not, the number of visits to the paediatrician is reduced as the child grows and develops. There are regular check-ups and regular immunisations all children have to go through in certain periods in life.
As they grow older those regular check-ups and visits reduce to a minimum until they are old enough to get a regular physician that will take care of them from then on. Depending on the kid’s general health and status they can visit more or less, besides those regular check-ups, but that is highly subjective.
Fact 3.
Most do not understand this but the bulk of paediatricians’ work revolves around preventative care. Their treatments are and should be less about treatment and more about prevention of certain things in a certain period in life.
Although unfortunately some things can’t be prevented and have to be treated, you have a paediatrician specialist for a particular issue you might have, and you can continue receiving proper attention and care.
Fact 4.
Besides just treating the kids these doctors are also tracking your kid’s development in different forms and ways. From bone development and rigidity to the way your babies crawl, then walk, hold their own, talk and much more. There is a lot more to paediatricians than what most of us presumed and these facts are proving it.
Fact 5.
Depending on your country, the healthcare system and the system in general you should be given the right and a way to choose your paediatrician but in some places, the choices are so little and everyone get what the hospital or their primary healthcare provider gives them. All in all, everyone will have and will get the proper care they need and deserve.
Fact 6.
Most think that this line of job is solely made for female doctors, and while the fact is that more than 70% of paediatricians are women, this isn’t just a male or female job and there is no answer where one is a lot better or worse than other.
You get rather good paediatricians in male doctors while some females can be not so warm and understanding as you would expect from a mother figure. It is all subjective and it is not up for debate on grounds of sexuality.
Fact 7.
After medical school, every future paediatrician has to spend 3 years as a paediatric resident, at least in the US that is. While on residency the focus is on inpatient care while you also will have a continuity clinic where you will act as a primary paediatrician for your panel of patients.
All residents will also get babies assigned to them that they will watch and take care of for the duration of the residency forming a beautiful bond that many enjoy.
Fact 8.
You can make an impact in someone’s life early on and this is one big fact and advantage of this profession. Besides treatment and prevention, you do spend some time with these kids and you can make a difference in their life by talking, being or simply by being someone they admire.
Becoming a doctor isn’t something someone just wakes up desiring. You need a stable figure in your life that did something you admired so much that you decided – “I want to be like that one day!”
Fact 9.
There are sub-specialisations of this job you really won’t like, like paediatric oncology, but it is a branch that someone has to do. We do live in a world that has no scale for right or wrong and sometimes that scale tips in ways we will never understand.
There are small children with huge problems all around the world, but you also have to know that they are more resilient and tend to get better than adults, so there is a silver lining even there.
Fact 10.
This isn’t the best-paid job you can go for, among other practices. Compensation for paediatricians is at bottom of the list averaging $232,000.00 per year. Part of that pay is the payers’ mix since many children are on Medicaid, which has lower reimbursement than commercial insurance. If you are choosing this for the sake of money you are probably better of in some other practice for sure.
