Developmental Pediatrics

[Premed2295]

Recently learned about this niche field and extremely interested. Anyone have first hand experience shadowing, rotating or researching in the field who has a little bit of insight into the speciality?

I have a passion for working with children and teens with developmental disabilities. On the academic medicine side I love neuro, and psych. My favorite body systems to study and I enjoyEd interacting with the patients on the few opportunities I’ve had to do so. I’m dead set on Pediatrics, most likely with neuro/ psych subspecialty, hence this question.

I’m interested in how you all found your experience. Work life balance, patient population (and parent population), access to resources etc.

I have some idea about these things from reading but would prefer to just hear the good the bad and the ugly from someone with personal experience.

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[DO2015CA]

Had to do it in residency. It’s a chill gig. Too slow for me but it’s definitely a field in need. They spent pretty much 45mins-1hr with each patient to work as an anchor to coordinate every service the patient had and if they need anything else. I also noticed there was a lot of complicated adhd management involved with the autism kids. Idk about job field but I feel like the vast majority jobs will prob be academic

 

[Premed2295]

Thanks
Definitely NOT interested in the academic route in the least.
45min to an hour being the point person for each patient and getting to know them sounds like the rewarding part I’m looking for. I’ll have to see if my school can possibly get me an opening in one of these rotations.

Had to do it in residency. It’s a chill gig. Too slow for me but it’s definitely a field in need. They spent pretty much 45mins-1hr with each patient to work as an anchor to coordinate every service the patient had and if they need anything else. I also noticed there was a lot of complicated adhd management involved with the autism kids. Idk about job field but I feel like the vast majority jobs will prob be academic

 

[girlofgrace7]

I'm in the last year of my DBP fellowship if you'd like to PM me with questions.

It's definitely a great lifestyle... usually 9 to 5 outpatient settings with no working weekends or hospital holidays. Very few DBP programs take call or inpatient consults (when they do, they're few and far between). Stress tends to come more from tough/heavy cases or families than actual time spent in the office (a lot of families are just overwhelmed and happy someone is taking time to listen to them; so, a lot of first visits can be tear filled for parents). DBPs can be employed through a hospital/academic center, private practice, or through other health systems (like Kaiser).

DBP looks very different depending on the program. Patient population may include autism, ADHD, intellectual disability, learning disabilities, anxiety, high-risk newborns, cerebral palsy, spina bifida, trisomy 21, Rett syndrome, and trauma affected kids. Parent population varies depending on the settings you see the kids in just like all specialties. At my program now, we have one clinic that is all medicare patients and one clinic that is all private insurance patients... the strengths and challenges are very different for each population. Length of visit depends on the setup of the clinic, but new patients usually get 60-90 minutes (though if the patient is being seen for an evaluation, it may be one or two visits of 3 or 4 hours each where the child rotates between different team members) and follow up patients usually get 30-45 minutes. We tend to do a lot of our work in interdisciplinary teams with psychologists, OTs, STs, and social workers. Visits are usually for team evaluations (like diagnosing autism), brief testing, connecting families with appropriate services, behavioral recommendations (a lot of sleep hygiene, enuresis/encopresis, discipline, etc.), or medication management (usually ADHD, anxiety, poor sleep, or aggression/self-injury).

Hope this helps! Feel free to reach out with questions!

 

[Premed2295]

I'm in the last year of my DBP fellowship if you'd like to PM me with questions.

It's definitely a great lifestyle... usually 9 to 5 outpatient settings with no working weekends or hospital holidays. Very few DBP programs take call or inpatient consults (when they do, they're few and far between). Stress tends to come more from tough/heavy cases or families than actual time spent in the office (a lot of families are just overwhelmed and happy someone is taking time to listen to them; so, a lot of first visits can be tear filled for parents). DBPs can be employed through a hospital/academic center, private practice, or through other health systems (like Kaiser).

DBP looks very different depending on the program. Patient population may include autism, ADHD, intellectual disability, learning disabilities, anxiety, high-risk newborns, cerebral palsy, spina bifida, trisomy 21, Rett syndrome, and trauma affected kids. Parent population varies depending on the settings you see the kids in just like all specialties. At my program now, we have one clinic that is all medicare patients and one clinic that is all private insurance patients... the strengths and challenges are very different for each population. Length of visit depends on the setup of the clinic, but new patients usually get 60-90 minutes (though if the patient is being seen for an evaluation, it may be one or two visits of 3 or 4 hours each where the child rotates between different team members) and follow up patients usually get 30-45 minutes. We tend to do a lot of our work in interdisciplinary teams with psychologists, OTs, STs, and social workers. Visits are usually for team evaluations (like diagnosing autism), brief testing, connecting families with appropriate services, behavioral recommendations (a lot of sleep hygiene, enuresis/encopresis, discipline, etc.), or medication management (usually ADHD, anxiety, poor sleep, or aggression/self-injury).

Hope this helps! Feel free to reach out with questions!

I have a super busy week with school but will likely PM you end of the week, thanks so much.

Longer visits per patient with a more laid back approach and life style sounds ideal to me, especially since I want my own family. Every word of what you said so far deeply reflects the sort of life I see for myself.