Child Neurology

[Postictal Raiden]

Curious- do pediatric neurologist see adult patients at all? Are they board certified in adult neurology?

No.
Many people think that child neurology is Neurology for younger patients. It’s much more complicated than that. Pathologies in child neuro are very different from that of adult neuro.

besides, there’s more than enough work in child neuro to keep you busy. The shortage is worse than any field in medicine

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[Appellatelove]

No.
Many people think that child neurology is Neurology for younger patients. It’s much more complicated than that. Pathologies in child neuro are very different from that of adult neuro.

besides, there’s more than enough work in child neuro to keep you busy. The shortage is worse than any field in medicine

Thank you so much for this response.. would you say the shortage is worse than on adult side? What do you think is driving this shortage? Is starting a practice still an option for child neurology?

 

[Postictal Raiden]

Much worse shortage.

It took my institution years to recruit a child neurologist. That’s in a very desirable city in the SW.

Why shortage? Not sure. Challenging and depressing line of work, maybe. Pay is on the lower end of the spectrum (although this is changing very fast).

due to the severe shortage, you could basically choose any work setting you want. Starting your own practice is very very doable, more so than adult neurology. remember, child neurologists are also pediatricians so that also increases your scope of practice.

 

[Telamir]

The pay isn't the best, the training is longer, and there are fewer residency programs. I have seen a few peds neurologists who will see the occasional adult but it's mostly following their panel to adulthood. They can, but the overwhelming majority of them choose not to.

 

[Thama]

The shortage is due to several things, IMO.

One is the reduced salary for peds neuro compared to adult neuro, though that's a problem for all peds specialties.

Another is what I think is a much higher psychological burden of peds neuro - you have to deal with abusive/neglectful parents (or OTOH helicopter parents who think every hiccup is a seizure and merits hospitalization and million dollar workup), grim prognoses in small children with trauma, anoxic, or congenital/metabolic diseases, and many layers of social work that don't really exist in the adult world. The closest I came to not choosing neurology as a specialty was after spending 2 weeks rotating in peds neuro as a 3rd year med student.

A third is the convoluted training pathway - I think this is improving with more programs going categorical, but historically some applicants have had to essentially apply to pediatrics, lie to their program directors for 2 years about their interest in peds neuro, then suddenly drop out of peds and join the peds neuro training pathway. I even know people that started out as peds neuro, but then were only a year away from finishing gen peds training and decided to not do an extra 2 years of training to make the same income in the end.