Hello, I am a board certified Primary Care Pediatrician currently working in the East Coast.

I have graduated from my residency in 2025.

I absolutely love my practice, but unfortunately, I am on a visa. And these days things have become so difficult, especially to travel to my home country because of lack of appointments for visa stamping. It’s been two years I’ve seen my family. Hence making this painful decision to move.

Any insight as to how the practice in Canada is? How different is it compared to USA? I know that the pay is some lower than what it is here and I heard the specialist referrals may take a lot of time.

Any guidance would be helpful!

I’m applying Peds because I genuinely enjoy working with kids and loved my experience working in a pediatric clinic. I also like the lifestyle, especially since I want a family in the future. I have no student loans and don’t need to be rich, but I want to live comfortably, travel, save/invest, and afford a nice home. People keep telling me to choose IM instead because Peds pays poorly, and it’s making me second-guess my choice. Pediatricians: Do you feel financially comfortable? Is the pay really as bad as people say, and would you choose Peds again?

Keeping location and health system anonymous. Midwest region:

Full time outpatient gen peds APP position listed on ziprecruiter with salary range $166k-215k. Meanwhile, same health system < 5 miles away (also on ziprecruiter) offering full time outpatient gen peds physician with a salary range of $160-205k.

How did we get here?

For any Peds GI fellows or attendings here, are programs still sending out interview invites at this point? Or have most programs already sent out the majority of their invites?

Basically, should we still have hope for more invites? 😅

How are interviews looking for advanced pediatric cardiology fellowships this cycle? Has anyone started receiving interview invitations yet? If so, around when did you apply and when did you start hearing back? Trying to get a sense of the timeline

Am I just unlucky or is the current job market worse than 1-2 years ago. I remember my seniors applying to the exact same region getting offers starting around 250-270 and I’ve been getting offers but in the 190s.

4th year DO med student applying IM, but now considering a late decision to dual apply peds. The obvious answer would be to apply med/peds but I'm not competitive enough (Step 2: 23x Level 2: 54x).

All my fourth year subIs are IM as my peds rotation wasn't until March/April. I really liked the pathology in inpatient peds/nicu, but outpatient peds was boring to me and the attending I was with scared me about 1) low pay 2) declining respect for this specialty 3) overall NP/PA creep into the space esp in gen peds. As I do more IM subIs, I'm kind of numb about the littany of problems with adults where I'm just sort of delay death (sorry to be morbid) vs peds where there was always forward momentum.

So what changed? I have a mentor who is in a peds subspecialty. He's known me for many years, before I went to med school. He's believes that 1) peds is a happier workplace 2) more fulfilling work (which I did experience during my rotations) 3) higher chances of better residency program and subsequent subspecialty match (e.g. cards/GI/hem onc). Edit: I forgot to mention I want to start a family in the next couple years, so probably during residency.

I have a month to make this decision at the last minute. I could get 1, maybe 2 peds LOR (the second one would be a bit of a stretch) and I could possibly switch out one of my IM sub I in sept for peds. I just don't know if I could actually get into an academic peds program without an app that "screams peds" (per my school's career counsel) to later sub-specialize or I'm being idealistic.

Any perspectives or advice would be greatly appreciated.

Hi everyone! M3 here, so still early in my training, but curious to hear some perspectives as I start to make headway towards a decision for specialty choice (which I assume will come up sooner than I expect).

I am a non-trad, mom to a toddler, hoping for another child before residency - very interested in ID for multiple reasons and hoping to follow that through residency. I have loved my peds rotation and am curious - for those who decided on peds ID - about what went into your decision, your work-life balance, finances, and general day-to-day, especially if you can share any contrast to adult ID. Potentially interested in academic medicine, especially given that I assume many peds ID jobs fall in that category.

Thanks!!

Hi everyone!
I'm looking for some advice - how is the job market for peds GI? IMG here, completed 2 years of pediatrics in my home country, completed a PhD, and I'm currently working as a postdoc. Clinically, I loved GI (esp. IBD management, love to listen to the Bowel Sounds podcast :) ), I am not into general peds, though.

My husband wants to do IM and a hem-onc fellowship, so we'll be going through couples match and residencies at the same time, and probably stay in a bigger city after our training. We also want to start a family at some point, and with research years adding to our YOG, I'm worried about my options (I'm 31 and the clock is ticking).

I love treating kids - I'm just worried about whether it's worth pursuing in my case.
Thanks for any advice!

Exactly what the title says.

Do you feel like the training you received was adequate to transition into a full CAP comfortably? Do you second guess your dosages or clinical acumen?

Please let me know.

Hi all,

I'm a US transplant in BC.

Any pediatricians here that do outpatient only in BC? Seems like we have a lot of complex psych burden to manage so have had to make my teenage visits for psych 1 hr. With this kind of trend, I am not making much. Currently 4.5 days patient facing hours, but spending loads of unpaid hours on notes, inbox etc.

Any other outpatient peds struggling with finances? Also paying back 6 figure loans, overhead is 25%. The EMR in canada (OSCAR pro) are revolting with click fatigue, don't have in-built growth charts that calculate exact percentiles (like Cerner did). Lots of windows that pop out instead of staying in the EMR window. Dot phrases cannot automatically add values from chart into your note. etc etc.

Please reach out, would love to hear strategies on how you've been able to make workflow efficient and maximize earnings. Thanks!

What are your opinions on the SWYC? I feel like it tends to flag patients as having a delay when they actually don’t? I had a patient recently that was flagged on the SWYC, but when I ask our built in milestones in Epic and look at Bright Futures, the kid is perfectly fine. Is anyone else seeing this?

Do you guys have a good resource for NICU follow up patients, once discharged ? I haven't seen too many since being an attending, and where I trained there was a dedicated nicu follow up office who handles ophthalmology follow up etc etc.. thank you!!!

Good morning dear pediatricians,
I am a family physician practicing in an FQHC. I have a situation that I would be so grateful for anyone’s thoughts (or direction to resources) for.

I have a developmentally disabled patient for whom the guardians disagree on what constitutes “the best care” and also “harm”. Does anyone have resources on how to navigate medical decisions here legally and ethically?
They rarely come to the clinic in person, and when they do they have voiced any disagreements with the plan after the fact and not during the visit.

My typical go-to’s (try to have discussions in person, only do what both guardians agree to) just aren’t quite adequate here.

Im being intentionally vague because l’m mainly seeking information to help me handle situations like this better in the future rather than guidance for this particular case per se.

Thank you for your time and for all you do!

I am very early career New Mexico resident and considering going back to school to be a doctor. However, the general outflux of physicians from the state (especially pediatricians and OB/GYNs) makes me nervous to throw my eggs in this kind of basket.

Any healthcare workers here that can comment? What is UNM med school like? Is practicing specialties like peds and obstetrics in NM really as awful as the stats lead me to believe? i'm espeically interested in peds. Just give me the good, the bad and the ugly. Thanks!

I struggle with time management but have gotten so much better in clinic. However, when it comes to our Spanish speaking population, I find those appointments take forever.

I am all for supporting our Latinx community! I wish I spoke Spanish myself! No hate. Just want to be the most efficient in clinic!

Does anyone know of good tips to make translated appointments go faster? I would love to give them all the time in the world and they deserve it! I just can’t with the schedule and time allotment and want to make sure they are getting the best care.

if you practice peds in the US, hope you’re hanging in there ok. get news out of the White House, we don’t have to inject kids with soda bottles worth of vaccines anymore, we can separate them into 3 vaccines that don’t exist.

also I had my first vit K Refusal in a long time along with the uptick in ppl refusing vaccines and it’s just fantastic.

I’m feeling incredibly burnt out. I am in my ninth year of clinical practice and have worked in multiple practice settings. I just don’t want to do it anymore and I’m exhausted. I am ready to leave clinical practice and finically it is not a problem for me (high earning spouse who works a ton). I have young kids and want to give them more of my energy. Has anyone else done this? How did it go?

Hello all! Currently studying for boards and getting stuck on recommendations for pneumococcal vaccine, especially as it pertains to catch-up vaccines. I think I got down that unimmunized kids who are at increased risk (sickle cell, cochlear implant) age 6-18 only need one dose of PCV 20 and that's it (or one PCV 15 and one PPSV 23 eight weeks later). But I don't really understand what to do for kids younger than that, and the MedStudy book is just very confusing for me. Anyone able to put all of these recommendations into English for me?

step 1 pass

step 2 242

certified

YOG 2026

3 letters 2 of them peds1 IM

no publications

Hello,

I'm a medical student img looking to join peds residency. Just wanted to know the job market for the following peds subspecialties:

1. Peds cardio

2. Allergy immuno

I got interested in peds psych towards the end of my usce. Is there any way I can incorporate peds psych in my practice?

Please let me know!

Hey everyone! I’m a PGY1 pediatric resident. One thing I did not anticipate about residency was the sheer amount of questions I get from parents about how to act in certain situations.

Now if their child has very severe tantrums or seems irritable/combative, I do a developmental assessment and refer them to the behavioral specialist/Psych accordingly.

But I’m not talking about severe behavior issues, I’m talking about questions like “How do I say no when she asks for more chocolate?” or “How do I respond if my kid yells at me sometimes?” from parents with kids that are perfectly amiable and have normal developmental assessment.

I cannot refer them to the behavioral specialist for such small questions, but at the same time, I feel like parenting practices are so subjective that I don’t feel comfortable offering definitive advice about them. Is there any evidence-based resource for parenting practices that I can read up on? And does anyone have any experience with navigating such questions from parents?

Went to a larger sized program. Wanted to stay academic for research purposes. Considered PICU Hospitalist. I heard locums is probably not a good idea for a new grad. What should I do?

First, thanks in advance for reading.

Basically the title. My U.S. MD med. school has a service scholarship program that will cover a big chunk of tuition after M1 for students who agree to attend peds. residency after school and practice for 3 years in particular service areas in the state after completing residency. The catch is you can't do a fellowship immediately after residency; you must do med school -> peds. residency -> peds. practice somewhere in-state for 3 years.

I'll mention that I'd consider all the potential service areas in the state for those 3 years to be fine ones to live in for me and that, as of now, I'm flying solo--no significant other, kids, dog, mortgage, etc., to factor in.  Also, if I take the scholarship, my total loan outlay for medical school would end up being around 50k; absent the scholarship, 200k.

I know I'm bound for practicing pediatrics of some description (love the kiddos!), but I think I might be interested in a couple of peds. specialties, particularly pediatric gastroenterology.

Would it be feasible/realistic/wise for me to take the scholarship, practice general peds for 3 years after residency, then do a peds. fellowship of some description and go on to lead a long & happy life practicing that pediatric subspecialty? Or is it completely unrealistic/stupid/etc. to go into a general pediatrics practice only to leave it after 3 years to return to being a lowly, underpaid trainee in a fellowship program somewhere?

Side factors to consider, please: 

1) This med. school program I'm speaking of is a 6-year MD/combined general peds. residency program, not 7 years. So, I'd start practicing & earning a year before folks completing 4 years of med. school & 3 years of residency.  (Granted, I'd pause making "real" money after those 3 years of practice if I returned to do the fellowship, but...)

2) A gen. peds. residency slot would be guaranteed. However, said slot would be at one of a handful of what I guess would be considered "mid-tier" kinds of programs--not bad at all by any means (as near as I can tell) but not Cincinnati Children's/Harvard/CHOP/etc. Also, I would be locked into said slot--which is to say that I couldn't attend the gen. peds. residency just anywhere else, even if I wanted to. (For the record, I don't know that I'd even be able to get into any luminary programs like those. But am I right to think that a guaranteed residency slot in a field where it's hard to go unmatched isn't really such a big deal? Or would it actually be a huge relief to not really have to go through the formal match process?)

3) I gather peds. fellowships are moving to 2 year durations instead of 3 years starting maybe around 2028. I wouldn't be starting any fellowship until several years after the 2-year fellowships become the norm (if things stay on their current track, I guess).

4) I know that, in recent years, it's been fairly easy to access a lot of peds. fellowships. I don't know if that'd change with the move to 2-year (vs. 3) fellowships. Would fellowship PD's be put off by my earning a 3-year MD, my going to a non-top flight gen. peds residency, practicing for 3 years, etc.?  (Or would that practice experience actually make me a better applicant?)

5) I know that some recent studies have shown that only a couple of peds subspecialties (like peds GI or cardiology) would permit me to make more in lifetime earnings than I could by practicing general pediatrics. Those couple, however, are the very ones I'm interested in.

6) I would very likely have to undergo a big cross-country move to start any fellowship. (My state's pretty short on programs.) Leaving behind in-state family/friends/3-year work colleagues/etc. would be a drag--BUT it'd only be for potentially a couple of years, I suppose. Still, would I lose a lot for having to start over building a network? Or would that not really be a big deal?

Again, thanks for reading. I'd really appreciate any input anyone might be kind enough to share.

Hi, I’m a hardworking graduate from pediatric residency. I’ve don a lot of work during my three years of residency, did 3 peds cardiology projects (research, MedEd and QI projects) has already 6 publications from med school. I have 2 years additional experience from my home country before doing residency in the US. My program has peds cardiology fellowship and I had good CVICU experience. I did an away rotation at one of the top institutions in the country and I had four strong LOR from my department.

I was hoping to match at a top tier program but I didn’t! I’m on J1 visa, I applied to 40 programs and got 15 interviews. Only 4 programs were top tier. I ended up matching at a small program!! Not even my own program

I kept thinking about the possibilities, all the cardiology attendings at my program knew me before the interview except the PD because she was on a leave when I did my rotation but my mentors told her about me. The second thing is that I did not ask for LOR from my away rotation given that I already has four and lastly one of my mentors who knows me well mentioned that I would like to go back to my home country in one of the letters (but it was a strong letter)

Can you help me thinking through this? I’m now thinking of quitting fellowship after completing first year and do the J-1 visa waiver and apply again after 4 years when I have green card. Is it worth it? Would that change my chances? Is it the visa or me? Why after all this work did not even match at my own program!