Question: What residency does one apply for if the goal is to work at a Pediatric Hospital/Pediatric ICU?
If one wants to do pediatric nephrology or pediatric cardiology, which residency comes first after med school?
Does one have to complete a fellowship in palliative medicine?
Any subspecialities required to work at a pediatric hospital?
Thanks to all those that are knowledgable in this area and may provide an answer. 🙂
If you are interested in working exclusively in a Pediatric Intensive Care Unit, completing a Pediatrics residency and then a fellowship in Pediatric Critical Care is your best route. There are peds subspecialties who frequently have patients in intensive care units, but those physicians aren't usually exclusively working in those units (that can vary, however). For virtually all Peds subspecialties , you would start with a Peds residency, followed by a fellowship in that area. (For other subspecialties that specialize in the pediatric age group, you would start with that residency, such as surgery, plastic surgery, radiology, etc. and then do a fellowship related to the pediatric aspects of that specialty).
Pediatric Palliative Care (as a formal training route) is relatively new but the number of programs is increasing. It is not a requirement to work in a PICU, but some exposure to that aspect of care is helpful.
A variety of physicians can work in children's hospitals, including pediatric "generalists" and specialists, as well as specialists in other fields who take care of pediatric patients. If you are located close to a children's hospital, it might be helpful to talk with one of the physicians there (or one of the chief residents, if there is a training program) for more information. And you might consider volunteering there to get more of a feel for the variety of activities that take place. If you do choose to pursue a career in Pediatrics, I think that it is important to keep an open mind about various career possibilities; those decisions don't usually need to be made before the second year of your pediatric residency, and some can be made later than that.
