A pediatrician is basically a doctor who focuses on treating young children and teenagers, specializing in the field of childhood illnesses and diseases. Apart from those, a pediatrician will be spending most of time attending to more common sickness and small injuries among children, as well as performing immunizations for the young ones. Like any health practitioner, there will be nurses assisting a pediatrician in his tasks.

Pediatrician Salary Information:

The starting pediatrician salary is at least $135,000 per year, and has the prospect of rising to around $270,000 with years of practice. Depending on specialization, the upper end of annual allowance can go as high as $600,000. If you adore the prestige and princely salary of becoming a pediatrician, the guardian angel of children, you will need to put in a lot of hard work to get there.

Pediatrician Education Requirements:

To become a fully certified pediatrician, you need to finish a 4-year Bachelor’s Degree course, preferably related to health and medicine such as biology and chemistry. Armed with extensive knowledge in the required subjects, you need to apply for the Medical College Admission Test and pass it so that you can gain admission to a medical school. Competition is extremely steep, so you need to be the cream of the crop to even be qualified.

The medical course will cover on specialized topics such as psychology and pathology, and you will obtain a Doctor of Medicine degree upon completion after 4 years. After that, you will be stationed in a medical facility or hospital for internship and practicing as an understudy to a full-fledged pediatrician. This is the final phase of your education, in which you will get to apply the knowledge you gained over the years and pick up tons of hands-on experience.

After 3 years of residency training, you will be eligible to sign up for a license under the American Board of Pediatrics. Once you obtain the certification, you are formally allowed to handle and prescribe medication to sick children. However, if you choose to further specialize in a particular field, it may require an additional 3 years of full time training.

Pediatrician Work Environment:

If you are a fresh pediatrician, you will usually be working in hospitals which are fully air-conditioned and well-lit. Once you are recognized to be able to practice independently, you can open a private clinic and offer your service to the residents in the neighborhood. Working hours vary greatly, depending on random emergency cases and can amount to 60 hours per week with irregular periods.