By: Kelly Mai

6th

What is a Pediatrician? 0 A pediatrician is a type of doctor in the medical

field that specializes and provide care for little children from the age of infancy to about 18-21. They provide physical and mental aid for their patients weather they’re in good health or sick. They spend their years in college to provide preventive health maintenance and medical care for children who are acutely or chronically ill.

Pediatrics is a branch in the medical field that specializes and focuses on medical care and well being of infants, children, adolescents, and people up to the age 18-21. The people who specialize in this field are called pediatricians.

What is Pediatrics ?

What do they cure? 0 Pediatricians focus on babies, children, adolescents, and young adults from birth to

age 21 years to:

• Reduce infant and child mortality.

• Control infectious disease.

• Promote healthy lifestyles.

So basically, ease the difficulties of children and adolescents with chronic conditions.

They diagnose and treat:

0 Infections

0 Injuries

0 Genetic defects

0 Malignancies

0 Organic diseases and dysfunctions

However, pediatricians are concerned with more than physical well-being. They also are involved with the prevention, early detection, and management of other problems that affect children and adolescents, including the following:

0 Behavioral difficulties

0 Developmental disorders

0 Functional problems

0 Social stresses

0 Depression or anxiety disorders

Required Education

To be able to qualify to be a pediatrician, you must achieve at least a Bachelor’s Degree, complete and graduate from medical school (another four years), primary care pediatricians then complete three years of education in an pediatric residency program. Then the pediatrician is eligible for board certification by the American Board of Pediatrics with successful completion of an examination. Recertification is required every seven years. It takes about eleven years to complete being prepared for being a pediatrician.

Skills for this career

For this career, you would have definitely have to build up good social people skills, being a pediatrician, you interact with hundreds of patients a week, meaning you would have to talk in a calm but understandable manner so the patient’s parent wouldn’t freak out if the patient might not make it. You would also need to be really responsible to be able to keep hundreds of health records of your patients. Because you supervise your staff, you would need good social and cooperating skills with them as well.

What do you do?

Being a pediatrician, you get to experience a lot, you’d have to treat children who have medical concerns, examine and keep records of the patient’s growth and development, perform necessary tests to find out about their health, refer the patient to specialists when needed, prescribe medicine or give vaccinations, supervise medical staff, research new ways to prevent diseases, prepare medical reports on birth, death, and disease statistics, and lastly, to attend conferences to stay current on medical happenings.

What might you face?

Part of this job, you might have to face a lot for emotional stress, it’s not just checkups and giving kids shots seeing them scream in terror of the needle. Every while, there will be kids that are terribly disordered or ill and seeing their parents beg and plea offering every dime they can grasp so that their child can be safe and can live a good healthy life, it’s just unfortunately, some kids won’t make it…leaving them broken hearted and leaving you broken will.

Typical Day

An average primary care pediatrician with a regular office starts off the day going to the hospital to make “rounds” checking up new babies and sick children that have been hospitalized. Then, office hours normally beings at 8:30/ 9:00 am to 4:00/5:00 pm, with one to one and a half hours for lunch, during office hours, the doctor see kids that are ill or that are healthy that need checkups and shots.

Salary Ranges

Another thing to consider for choosing out jobs is the income, being a pediatrician, you’d start out with $30,000-$40,000, then, after residency you’d move up to $100,00-$120,000, and progressively work your way up to being an average pediatrician that makes about $140,000-$170,000 annually. So it ranges out to $30,000 to $170,000.

Conclusion?

I came to realization when I did this project was that pay was just a small factor when you start narrowing down what you want to do and to choose your career, it’s a lot about passion, hobby, and how you would want to impact other people. Guiding children and teaching them about their health and well being physically and mentally to their adulthood is how I’d like to contribute to the community. Being a pediatrician is a great way to help the future generations and repay what the past have provided for us.