What does your typical day as a child neurologist look like?
On average, how many patients do you see a day?
This is going to vary based on whether you do inpatient (which can be primary and/or consults), outpatient, or both. It also depends if you're doing general child neurology or a subspecialty.
Because there is so much demand in the field, do you typically end up being the only child neurologist on call at the hospital or on call 24-7?
As a resident, we would alternate who would be on-call overnight, with an attending on and reachable as backup. Usually maybe like 7 call nights a month, I think? I'm starting my first attending position next month (recently finished fellowship), and the hospital I'm joining has no child neuro residents (only pediatrics residents), so attendings share the call pool and generally take 1-2 nights of call per month.
What does your work-life balance look like? (in residency and now)
As I imagine is the case in most residencies, there's little to no work life balance during those years, though it was better in the child neuro years compared to the peds years at my program. Fellowship was much more chill (all weekends and most holidays off!!), and my future attending schedule is also much more chill, with only 2-3 weekends and 1 holiday coverage per year or so + an admin day during the week.
How much of child neurology is pediatrics vs. neurology?
I don't understand this question at all. It's all child neurology - neurologic cases in a pediatric population.
How difficult is it to match into a child neurology program if I pursued a pediatric residency first?
You'd definitely be limiting your options significantly, as you'd need to see if there are any open Reserved positions - just for the 3 years of neurology training - rather than the typical 5-year categorical slots. Plus, you'd be doing an additional year of pediatrics that you wouldn't need, so it would be a longer path. It's probably best to decide now versus later, but you aren't shutting the door entirely.
ETA: I also know of someone who did the alternate path - came in as a child neuro resident and dropped out to finish a categorical peds residency, so depending on the program, that can be an option as well. You technically are eligible to take the peds boards in addition to the child neuro boards after completing a child neuro residency, though I don't know of anyone who has done so.
What kinds of conditions do you see most often?
Again, this is going to vary depending on whether you do general child neuro or a subspecialty. Gen child neuro is going to see predominantly headaches (migraines & tension headaches) and epilepsy +/- autism and/or ADHD depending on the given practice/program. Epilepsy-trained individuals are more likely to see the treatment-resistant epilepsies and the surgical cases, neuromuscular folks will see more DMD/SMA/CMT, neuroimmuno will see more MS/NMO, movement disorders get the spasticity cases that need Botox/baclofen pumps/DBS, headache will get more of the refractory cases needing Botox/CGRPs/IV infusions, etc.
And lastly would you recommend pursuing this field?
I personally think neurology - of which I consider child neurology to be a subset - is the most interesting field in medicine, and wouldn't be anywhere near as happy pursuing a different field. I can say that as a fact, as I was downright miserable during my pediatrics years. But I had a longstanding interest in the brain/neuroscience, so that's what worked best for me. You have to find what interests and motivates you.
I would strongly recommend doing a child neuro rotation sooner rather than later, as some of your questions make me wonder if you've had any exposure to the field or just think it sounds interesting, and if you're an MS4 applications should be going in very soon (so do you even have letters for a child neuro app?).
