Pediatricians
Pediatricians
Career Overview
Pediatricians are doctors who care for babies, children, and teenagers. They diagnose and treat illnesses and injuries, provide preventive care and vaccinations, monitor growth and development, and help families manage ongoing health conditions. Modern pediatricians also use electronic health records, telehealth, and increasingly sophisticated diagnostic and digital health tools.
Education
Becoming a pediatrician requires university-level study followed by medical school and specialized residency training in pediatrics. Pediatric residency generally takes 3–4 years, depending on the training system. Additional fellowship training is required for pediatric subspecialties, such as pediatric cardiology or pediatric neurology.
Work Environment
Pediatricians work mainly in hospitals, medical clinics, physician offices, and other healthcare settings. They spend much of their time examining and talking with young patients and their families. Some work long or irregular hours and may be on call, particularly when working in hospitals.
Future Outlook
Pediatricians should continue to have important opportunities as children need preventive care, treatment, and specialized medical services. Current projections show steady employment overall, while shortages, retirements, and healthcare needs are creating particularly strong opportunities in some regions. Technology such as telehealth, electronic records, digital monitoring, and AI-supported medical tools will continue to change how pediatric care is delivered.
Recommended High School Courses
- Chemistry
- Biology
- Psychology
- Math
- Physics
- Communication
- Computer Studies
- Active Learning - Understanding the implications of new information for both current and future problem-solving and decision-making.
- Active Listening - Giving full attention to what other people are saying, taking time to understand the points being made, asking questions as appropriate, and not interrupting at inappropriate times.
- Complex Problem Solving - Identifying complex problems and reviewing related information to develop and evaluate options and implement solutions.
- Coordination - Adjusting actions in relation to others' actions.
- Critical Thinking - Using logic and reasoning to identify the strengths and weaknesses of alternative solutions, conclusions or approaches to problems.
- Instructing - Teaching others how to do something.
- Judgment and Decision Making - Considering the relative costs and benefits of potential actions to choose the most appropriate one.
- Learning Strategies - Selecting and using training/instructional methods and procedures appropriate for the situation when learning or teaching new things.
- Monitoring - Monitoring/Assessing performance of yourself, other individuals, or organizations to make improvements or take corrective action.
- Negotiation - Bringing others together and trying to reconcile differences.
- Persuasion - Persuading others to change their minds or behavior.
- Reading Comprehension - Understanding written sentences and paragraphs in work related documents.
- Science - Using scientific rules and methods to solve problems.
- Service Orientation - Actively looking for ways to help people.
- Social Perceptiveness - Being aware of others' reactions and understanding why they react as they do.
- Speaking - Talking to others to convey information effectively.
- Systems Evaluation - Identifying measures or indicators of system performance and the actions needed to improve or correct performance, relative to the goals of the system.
- Time Management - Managing one's own time and the time of others.
- Writing - Communicating effectively in writing as appropriate for the needs of the audience.
- Biology - Knowledge of plant and animal organisms, their tissues, cells, functions, interdependencies, and interactions with each other and the environment.
- Computers and Electronics - Knowledge of circuit boards, processors, chips, electronic equipment, and computer hardware and software, including applications and programming.
- Customer and Personal Service - Knowledge of principles and processes for providing customer and personal services. This includes customer needs assessment, meeting quality standards for services, and evaluation of customer satisfaction.
- Education and Training - Knowledge of principles and methods for curriculum and training design, teaching and instruction for individuals and groups, and the measurement of training effects.
- English Language - Knowledge of the structure and content of the English language including the meaning and spelling of words, rules of composition, and grammar.
- Mathematics - Knowledge of arithmetic, algebra, geometry, calculus, statistics, and their applications.
- Medicine and Dentistry - Knowledge of the information and techniques needed to diagnose and treat human injuries, diseases, and deformities. This includes symptoms, treatment alternatives, drug properties and interactions, and preventive health-care measures.
- Personnel and Human Resources - Knowledge of principles and procedures for personnel recruitment, selection, training, compensation and benefits, labor relations and negotiation, and personnel information systems.
- Psychology - Knowledge of human behavior and performance; individual differences in ability, personality, and interests; learning and motivation; psychological research methods; and the assessment and treatment of behavioral and affective disorders.
- Sociology and Anthropology - Knowledge of group behavior and dynamics, societal trends and influences, human migrations, ethnicity, cultures and their history and origins.
- Therapy and Counseling - Knowledge of principles, methods, and procedures for diagnosis, treatment, and rehabilitation of physical and mental dysfunctions, and for career counseling and guidance.
- Category Flexibility - The ability to generate or use different sets of rules for combining or grouping things in different ways.
- Deductive Reasoning - The ability to apply general rules to specific problems to produce answers that make sense.
- Flexibility of Closure - The ability to identify or detect a known pattern (a figure, object, word, or sound) that is hidden in other distracting material.
- Fluency of Ideas - The ability to come up with a number of ideas about a topic (the number of ideas is important, not their quality, correctness, or creativity).
- Inductive Reasoning - The ability to combine pieces of information to form general rules or conclusions (includes finding a relationship among seemingly unrelated events).
- Information Ordering - The ability to arrange things or actions in a certain order or pattern according to a specific rule or set of rules (e.g., patterns of numbers, letters, words, pictures, mathematical operations).
- Near Vision - The ability to see details at close range (within a few feet of the observer).
- Oral Comprehension - The ability to listen to and understand information and ideas presented through spoken words and sentences.
- Oral Expression - The ability to communicate information and ideas in speaking so others will understand.
- Originality - The ability to come up with unusual or clever ideas about a given topic or situation, or to develop creative ways to solve a problem.
- Perceptual Speed - The ability to quickly and accurately compare similarities and differences among sets of letters, numbers, objects, pictures, or patterns. The things to be compared may be presented at the same time or one after the other. This ability also includes comparing a presented object with a remembered object.
- Problem Sensitivity - The ability to tell when something is wrong or is likely to go wrong. It does not involve solving the problem, only recognizing there is a problem.
- Selective Attention - The ability to concentrate on a task over a period of time without being distracted.
- Speech Clarity - The ability to speak clearly so others can understand you.
- Speech Recognition - The ability to identify and understand the speech of another person.
- Time Sharing - The ability to shift back and forth between two or more activities or sources of information (such as speech, sounds, touch, or other sources).
- Written Comprehension - The ability to read and understand information and ideas presented in writing.
- Written Expression - The ability to communicate information and ideas in writing so others will understand.
- Examine patients to assess general physical condition.
- Administer non-intravenous medications.
- Prescribe medications.
- Prescribe treatments or therapies.
- Treat acute illnesses, infections, or injuries.
- Treat chronic diseases or disorders.
- Order medical diagnostic or clinical tests.
- Advise communities or institutions regarding health or safety issues.
- Provide health and wellness advice to patients, program participants, or caregivers.
- Explain medical procedures or test results to patients or family members.
- Collect medical information from patients, family members, or other medical professionals.
- Record patient medical histories.
- Monitor patient progress or responses to treatments.
- Supervise patient care personnel.
- Design public or employee health programs.
- Direct healthcare delivery programs.
- Refer patients to other healthcare practitioners or health resources.
- Teach classes in area of specialization.
- Teach medical procedures to healthcare personnel.
- Advise medical personnel regarding healthcare issues.
- Operate on patients to treat conditions.
- Conduct research to increase knowledge about medical issues.
- Prepare official health documents or records.
Schools
Emory University
Indiana University-purdue...
Johns Hopkins University
New York University
Stanford University
University Of Pennsylvani...
University Of Pittsburgh-...
Washington University- St...
Dalhousie University
Mcgill University
Queen's University- Ki...
Potential Scholarships
Canadian Nurses Foundatio...
Rbc Future Launch Scholar...
Canadian Hemophilia Socie...
Indspire Building Brighte...
Terry Fox Humanitarian Aw...
Approx Salary Expectation
Low End:
$101,000.00 /yr
Avg/Med:
$210,000.00 /yr
High End:
$349,000.00 /yr
Related Careers
References
Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor, Occupational Outlook Handbook, https://www.bls.gov/ooh/.
Trend Analysis - Explorer the Market, Labour Market Information, Government of Canada https://www.jobbank.gc.ca/trend-analysis.
Salary.com, https://www.salary.com/.
O*NET OnLine, National Center for O*NET Development, https://www.onetonline.org/.
Trend Analysis - Explorer the Market, Labour Market Information, Government of Canada https://www.jobbank.gc.ca/trend-analysis.
Salary.com, https://www.salary.com/.
O*NET OnLine, National Center for O*NET Development, https://www.onetonline.org/.