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Whether you’re a medical or nursing school student considering future specialization or a new physician, physician assistant, nurse practitioner, or registered nurse contemplating your next healthcare role, the myriad opportunities in pediatrics definitely deserve a second look. In fact, according to the medical professionals we spoke with, positions within pediatrics are often among the most rewarding. Just consider these eight reasons pediatrics jobs make fulfilling careers.
1. You can solve a wide array of challenges.
One of the reasons Deborah Malkoff-Cohen, MS, RD, CDN, CDE, and expert in pediatric nutrition, finds her pediatrics job rewarding is because of the wide array of challenges she encounters while working with the patients of cranial facial plastic surgeons, in early intervention, and in private practice as a registered dietician.
"Every patient is so different," Malkoff-Cohen says. "There are so many different dynamics at work. I have to look at everything, and there’s no one-size-fits-all or single approach."
2. Your work can have a major impact on families.
"I love working with families," says Malkoff-Cohen. "So much growth happens from birth to three years of age, and nutrition is so important. But when a child is a picky eater, it really affects the family. Nothing makes me happier than when I can make a difference in their life by helping them come up with strategies that work."
Mona M. Delahooke, PhD, pediatric psychologist, and author of Beyond Behaviors: Using Brain Science and Compassion to Understand and Solve Children’s Behavioral Challenges, agrees. "The most rewarding aspect of my profession is to offer a lens shift on how we view behavior challenges, from blame and shame to compassion and understanding," she says. "Children and families come to experience relational joy after so many mixed messages from teachers and others who judge them."
[ Read: The Best Cities and States for Pediatricians ]
3. You get to set kids up for success.
Joel Warsh, MD, MSc, and founder of Integrative Pediatrics and Medicine, knew he wanted to be a pediatrician before he even entered medical school because he wanted to make a difference in the lives of children. "If you get to a kid early on, you can make sure that they are healthy and ready to make the right choices," he explains. "This can make a huge difference over their lifetime."
4. You’re usually surrounded by a supportive team.
Though Christina Johns, MD, MEd, FAAP, vice president of communications, and senior medical advisor for PM Pediatrics, has always loved children, she found the biggest draw of pediatric emergency medicine was the other healthcare professionals she encountered there.
"I felt like I found my tribe," Johns explains. "There are a bunch of very academically motivated, driven, passionate people who are in pediatrics because it’s worthwhile and meaningful work for them. It’s also an incredibly supportive professional community. Supportive of women, and supportive of work-life balance to the degree that medicine will allow. I’ve found a group of people who really enjoy themselves even when work is intense, and that was a hook for me."
5. You get to have fun at work.
Taylor Inman, MD, a pediatric pulmonologist at a California naval hospital, says one of the most rewarding things about her pediatrics job is the opportunity to have fun every single day. "You can’t see kids without having fun," she continues. "I get to goof off and it doesn’t feel like I’m at work. I’m using all of my knowledge and working hard, but a lot of times it doesn’t feel like it."
6. Your patients—very often—get better.
"Most kids get better," Inman says. "Their ability to heal is amazing, and they get better a lot faster than adults do. That part of pediatrics is really nice. There are some things that are terminal, of course, but most kids really bounce back from illness."
Johns agrees. "They usually have problems that can be fixed," she adds. "And that is hugely professionally rewarding and satisfying."
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7. You can peek at the world through a child’s eyes.
"One of the most rewarding things about pediatrics to me is having a front row seat to the nearly always positive, and certainly always innocent and altruistic, viewpoint of a child," Johns says. "Even on your worst day, when you’re stressed and things aren’t going your way, a kid will make a funny joke and you’ll know you’ve made them feel better."
"Kids view things very differently," Inman adds. "They don’t feel sorry for themselves when they’re sick or in the hospital. They really take things in stride."
8. You may get to build a lifelong relationship with your patients.
"For me, the most rewarding thing about pediatrics is just working with the kids and seeing them grow up," Warsh says. "You can see them grow up healthy and foster a relationship over the years. If you start seeing that patient as a newborn, you can be there from day one and become an appendage of the family. That’s very gratifying."
Delahooke agrees. "Working in pediatrics is more than a job," she says. "These connections are so rewarding for both the provider and the patients."
