WHAT THE BLEEP?
Paediatrics is one of the most diverse jobs in medicine; one moment you may be inserting a chest drain in a premature baby and the next counselling parents on how to give paediatric life support to their baby or resuscitating a teenager with meningitis. You get to work with the best group of patients in a specialty that embraces flexible training and working. Overall this is a speciality that gives doctors job variety with a great work/life balance.
PERSONALITY
-
A sense of humour is essential
-
Excellent communication skills
-
Approachable
-
Emotionally resilient
AVERAGE WEEK
Work as a paediatrician will change from week to week. Your day will usually start with departmental meeting and handover of patients between teams with updates from the on-call night team to the day teams in neonatal and paediatrics, which will either lead into a ward round, clerking and reviewing patients, or general and specialist outpatient clinics; with further responsibilities include teaching, giving advice to social services, and other agencies.
BEST BITS
-
You get to work with the best patients in the hospital and get to have fun and act like a child at work.
-
Huge variety of work.
-
It's so rewarding being an advocate for children who can't fight their own corner.
CHALLENGES
​
-
Dealing with disability or critical illness in children can be emotionally draining.
-
Managing demanding stressed parents and families can be very challenging.
-
On-call work and night shifts can be busy and stressful.
WHAT THE FACT?
-
The first person to be treated by the NHS was Sylvia Diggery, a 13 year old girl, who was admitted to a Manchester hospital with a liver condition in 1948.
-
Great Ormond Street Hospital was the first paediatric hospital in England and is known internationally for receiving from J. M. Barrie the copyright to Peter Pan in 1929, which has provided huge funding for the institution, although the exact figure is unknown as Barrie asked the hospital never to reveal the actual income received.