General Peds

[Cranjis McBasketball]

.

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[SurfingDoctor]

I am a current 4th year who has been interested in family medicine for a while. However now that I am on my outpatient pediatric rotation I am having second thoughts. This has been my favorite rotation by far and has me second guessing everything! My only questions are in regards to general peds pay and lifestyle. I love the idea of owning a practice (most likely in a partnership/group since that seems to be the trend). Is this still semi-common in general peds? I was also curious about starting salary and how thats changed. Browsing the forum it seems like most are between 160k-180k. Is that still accurate or has that changed? (For reference I hope to practice in the mountain west/midwest). Is it common for employers to offer loan repayment in these first job offers like you normally see with family medicine?

Sorry for all the questions! Ive just spent the last couple years gearing for family medicine so peds is sort of new to me, but Ive loved this rotation enough to dig deeper. I have spent a good while browsing this forum and trying to find accurate answers via google, but I figured this would get me the most accurate ones!

Yes, there are still many private practices in pediatrics. That starting salary is probably in the ballpark for general pediatrics (I would say closer to 180K), though the salary is highly dependent on location and how many patients to see and clinic days you operate (it is probably quite comparable to FP), realizing that the average salary for general pediatricians includes quite a bit of part-time practitioners.

Here’s How Much Money Pediatricians Earn In Every State

Find out how much the average pediatrician earns a year in every U.S. state.

www.forbes.com

If you are in a private practice, your hope is to become partner to share in a percent of the returns. They typically aren't going to offer you loan repayment, but there are state and federal loan repayment program you may be eligible for, again depending on location.

Loan Repayment | NHSC

We offer programs that repay part or all of your school loan debt.

nhsc.hrsa.gov

 

[mvenus929]

In general terms of job prospects, if you want to live in a city, you can probably find a job as a general pediatrician pretty easily. Family medicine might be a little harder and if you really like pediatrics, you may not get a ton of pediatric exposure in the city. If you want to work in a rural setting, pediatrics is going to be hard because you need a large enough practice to sustain you (so you do need a reasonable area--my friend works in a city of about 95,000 as a general pediatrician). Family medicine will be a much better option there because you can treat everyone.

Many pediatricians work 4 days per week with an admin day. There are variable set-ups so you can round on newborns or just accept them into your care. Loan repayment will depend on the type of practice you join--private practice doesn't offer loan repayment, but some employed practices do. It's probably not quite as prevalent as loan repayment for FM given the different settings FM can work in, though.