General Peds job market | SDN
Currently a first year Peds resident wanting to know what kind of offers third years residents are receiving (ie pay, responsibilities, etc). Considered specializing but I really enjoy gen Peds and not sure if I want to sacrifice even more time away from my children. But I do have massive loans to repay so I just wanted to get a feel of what is out there. Thanks!
There's a huge variation in salaries and lifestyles; it all depends on where you want to live (rural, urban, suburban) and what type of practice you join. Private practice, academic, etc. How many medicaid patients are accepted? What's the structure? Are you production based or salary based and how much 'buy in' do you need to make partner? How do mid levels fit in and do they make you money personally or do they make money for the practice? Some groups are expected to attend deliveries. Some don't. Some round in the hospital while others rely on hospitalists. Pediatricians can do quite well with the right practice model, but you may give up other things. So first, figure out what your priorities are and where you'd like to live. That will narrow things down. There are plenty of jobs out there in general.
I am a third year Peds resident and I have been interviewing for jobs. The offers I have received range from $130,000 starting for 100% outpatient pediatrics in a large, metropolitan city to $175,000 for peds hospitalist in a smaller city to $255,000 starting (with many in the practice earning more than this) in a traditional peds (1:5 call including newborns, deliveries, and inpatient) in a rural Midwest area. I have to say that the rural Midwest areas I have interviewed in are strikingly beautiful---lakes and forests where people come to vacation.
Reimbursement rates for hospital are higher than those for outpatient, therefore 100% outpatient jobs do pay less than hospitalist or traditional. It has been my experience that traditional pays the most. They do round on newborns and do deliveries but the volume is not too bad. There are very few inpatient hospitalizations as well.
Also I have noticed that salaries increase for smaller cities and even more so for rural areas. The large cities pay the least and have the highest cost of living.
Regarding peds specialties, I believe that many of them pay approximately the same as gen peds, except NICU, PICU, Peds GI, and Peds Cards pay more because of many procedures.
engdoc2
To the poster above, thanks for the info. Does 100% outpatient mean no call either? In your experience, how tough are 100% outpatient jobs to find?
Most outpatient jobs are going to have at least mommy call even if you are covering no nursery or inpatient or ed at all. (Unless you go academic and have residents taking mommy call)
engdoc2 said:
yes, you will have at least mommy call. Always ask if there is a nurse triage system which answers the calls first.
Some round on newborns, some don't. In my experience as a PGY-3 interviewing for positions, 100% outpatient is harder to find. These positions go the fastest. Two of my co-residents are having a rough time finding a 100% outpatient position.
Location, location, location. That's going to determine all of this, and what type of jobs are available.
Keep in mind that you may make sacrifices in order to find your ideal clinical scenario - often that means a decrease in compensation. Everything comes at a price, and the fact of the matter is that seeing patients = $.
As far as specializing, the most recent analysis available suggests that only NICU/PICU/Cards result in net positive salary gains over the course of a career when considering the years of fellowship and depressed wages compared to going into gen peds and earning an attending salary right away. That was several years ago and you'd have to look at the methods to figure out what they considered routine gen peds salary for comparison.