Are you thinking about a career in general pediatrics?  Even within this primary care field, there is considerable variability in what your career could look like. 

The most popular general pediatric practice style is that of a community general pediatrician in a small or large community.  Within this setting, you could choose to have partners in your practice (work in an office with other pediatricians) or have a solo practice (work in your own office where you are the only pediatrician).  These individuals do not routinely have learners in their practice, but many of them have medical students or residents that spend time with them on occasion.  To learn more about community pediatrics, please visit the Council on Community Pediatrics website or the Community Access to Child Health (CATCH) website.

If you have a stronger interest in teaching, you could work as an academic general pediatrician.  These individuals work in practices that are affiliated with a medical school, a pediatric residency program, or both of these types of training programs.  As an academic general pediatrician, you would have residents, medical students, or both working with you in many of your clinics.  You would also have the opportunity to become involved in the administrative aspects of your institution’s medical school or residency program if you were interested.

The most increasingly popular general pediatric practice style is that of a pediatric hospitalist.  Traditionally, general pediatricians have taken care of their patients in both the outpatient setting (in clinic) as well as the inpatient setting (when they are admitted to the hospital).  As a pediatric hospitalist, you would only care for the children that are admitted to the hospital.  This practice structure allows you the time to focus on these children, while also affording their personal general pediatricians more time to focus on the children needing to be seen in their clinics (rather than managing the care of children in the clinic and in the hospital simultaneously).  Pediatric hospitalists work in both community and academic settings.  To learn more about pediatric hospitalists, please click here.  Visit the website of AAP’s Section on Hospital Medicine.