Pediatric Subspecialists

[runningpenguin]

I was wondering: Are pediatric specialists still focused on overall wellness of their patients? Are pediatric specialists also focused on health promotion as well or is this the domain of primary care pediatricians? For example, are they still often involved in community events that focus on overall nutrition/health such as getting kids active or eating healthy?

Also, what sort of public health initiatives can pediatric specialists be involved in?

I apologize in advance if the questions above are completely off/inaccurate (I'm a premedical student just curious about pediatrics). I didn't think putting this in the premedical section would address my question, so I posted it here. Please feel free to move where this is appropriate. Thanks!

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[Bean_Bunny]

I was wondering: Are pediatric specialists still focused on overall wellness of their patients? Are pediatric specialists also focused on health promotion as well or is this the domain of primary care pediatricians? For example, are they still often involved in community events that focus on overall nutrition/health such as getting kids active or eating healthy?

Also, what sort of public health initiatives can pediatric specialists be involved in?

I apologize in advance if the questions above are completely off/inaccurate (I'm a premedical student just curious about pediatrics). I didn't think putting this in the premedical section would address my question, so I posted it here. Please feel free to move where this is appropriate. Thanks!

Subspecialists are involved in many community/advocacy projects. Some relate to their field such as a peds endo focusing on obesity. Others do general wellness/healthy policy in kids. Sky's the limit!

 

[runningpenguin]

Subspecialists are involved in many community/advocacy projects. Some relate to their field such as a peds endo focusing on obesity. Others do general wellness/healthy policy in kids. Sky's the limit!

Thanks for the reply!

 

[BigRedBeta]

There's a lot of options. and advocacy is something that likely permeates every subspecialty field. Not a requirement but certainly can have a place:

Obesity can fan across Peds Endo, Peds GI, Peds Nephrology (because of the hypertension aspect) and Peds Cardiology
Concussions can involve Adolescent Med, Peds Emergency Med, and Peds Neuro
Injury prevention things like seat belts, gun safety and bike helmets can involve Peds EM, Peds Critical Care and also Child Abuse Pediatrics
Everyone can be active in advocating for access to healthcare/insurance/medicaid for children

 

[Sweet Tea]

There are so many options depending on which field you go into. Only rarely do subspecialists treat just one thing; they're physicians not technicians. Fields like Peds EM and PICU are not going to be doing a lot of well child checks, and are likely to be focused on a specific problem, but it depends on a the problem.

I'm child abuse peds which is a subspecialty with a heavy reliance on general pediatrics. My appointment times in clinic are 2 hours per patient; that is much longer than the typical outpatient physician gets for a well child check so I cover all aspects of my patient's health and history because it is all important in my final determination. We also have lots of opportunity for advocacy and prevention strategies (safe sleep, gun safety, injury prevention, trafficking, sex education...). I am no one's PCP and I don't want to be anyone's PCP-- that's why I did a fellowship. But I do not feel like I have a narrow scope by any means.