How to Become a Paediatrician

August 9, 2022

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A Paediatrician is a doctor or medical professional that works exclusively with babies, children and young people. In this role you will deal with children of a wide range of ages and medical conditions, no two days will ever be exactly the same when you work as a paediatrician. Paediatrics is a specialism that can be incredibly challenging, but it is also a valuable and rewarding career path.

Paediatrics is a specialism that you will focus on after you have completed medical school, meaning that paediatricians are highly qualified specialists in their field. You can expect to train for approximately 15 years in order to become a fully qualified paediatrician. Wondering whether life in paediatrics is the right career path for you? From a paediatrician’s salary to where to find paediatrician jobs, here’s everything you need to know about how to become a paediatrician:

What is a Paediatrician

A paediatrician is a specialist medical professional who cares for children with acute illnesses. Your role will involve making key clinical decisions to help those children return to health, and the life of a paediatrician often involves liaising with your patients’ families and carers, and managing sensitive and sometimes emotional discussions about treatment. You’ll also work as part of a larger multidisciplinary team in order to best manage the care of your patients. Some departments you’re likely to work closely with include social services, child and adolescent psychiatry and public health.

The role of the paediatrician is equal parts rewarding and challenging. You will deal with both the highs and the lows of child health care on a daily basis. You’ll work with a wide range of different patients, each with its own unique challenges and case history.

A paediatrician will typically work between 41 and 48 hours per week, and because you will work on a rota, you can expect to work unsociable hours, including evenings, weekends and holidays. You will work almost exclusively in a hospital or clinical setting. Occasionally paediatricians will work in health care settings or within the community.

Personal Qualities of a Paediatrician

The skills you’ll need to work as a paediatrician are very similar to the skills you will need to work as a doctor or other medical professional. The personal qualities of a paediatrician include:

Excellent verbal communication skills. The ability to clearly express yourself and explain complex medical situations to individuals of all ages in a way that they will understand. You will also need to communicate clearly with colleagues and other specialists within the sector.
The ability to work well in stressful situations. You should remain calm under pressure, not feel challenged by fast-paced and constantly changing working environments and have the ability to accept criticism from both your colleagues, your patients, and their families.
Knowledge of medicine, or the desire to learn more about medicine and the ability to understand complex medical issues and jargon.
Emotional resilience. Whilst the role of the paediatrician can be incredibly rewarding, it also poses emotional challenges. A high level of emotional resilience and the ability to support your patients without connecting to them too deeply will be essential.
Excellent active listening skills and a non-judgemental approach so that you can obtain the fullest case histories from your patients, helping you to treat and diagnose them in the fastest and most efficient way possible.
High levels of thinking and reasoning skills, allowing you to think outside the box to provide the best possible care for your patients.
First-class time and resource management skills, so that your patients will benefit from getting the service they need, and on the time scale they expect.
A thorough and detail-focused approach to everything that you do within the workplace.
Excellent customer service skills.
The ability to use a computer and the main software packages competently

What a Paediatrician Does

The day-to-day role of a paediatrician is incredibly varied. If you pursue this career, then you can expect your every day responsibilities to include:

Assessing children who are ill, injured or have disabilities. Determining their ongoing treatment plan and ensuring that they receive care as promptly as possible.
Completing referrals for your patients to ensure they have the tests, or specialist consultant appointments that they need.
Creating a treatment plan which could include medication, surgery or therapies.
Determining a diagnosis for your patient, and then sharing this diagnosis and any subsequent treatment plan to both the child and their parents or primary clear giver. Ensure that this explanation is clear and that your patients and their parents understand what the next steps will be.
Writing detailed patient notes, including any treatment plans or medications and any diagnostic tests. You may also be required to write more detailed medical reports that can be shared with specialists or other medical professionals.
You will build a relationship with your patients, particularly those under in-hospital care, as you will visit them regularly to monitor their progress and the way in which they respond to any treatment plan you administer.
You will supervise and train junior medical staff, allowing them to accompany you on your rounds and examinations (provided the patient in question agrees that they can be present).

How Much Does a Paediatrician Earn?

The amount you will earn as a paediatrician will depend on whether you choose to work in the private or public sector, with the vast majority of the paediatricians in the UK choosing to work for the NHS. Salaries in the private sector can vary wildly, but the transparent salary structure laid out by the NHS agenda for changing pay scale is clear, making it much easier to work out your future earning potential.

The amount you will earn as a paediatrician will depend largely on what stage of your career you’re at. Medical students are not paid for their work within the hospital, for example, whilst once you are undertaking your foundation training years after medical school, you will be paid a basic salary that ranges from £29,384 to £34,012.

Once you start your speciality training as a paediatrician employed by the NHS, you will fall under Band 7 of the Agenda for Change pay scale. NHS employees at this level with less than two years’ experience earn £40,057, if you have between two and five years’ experience you will earn £42,121, and with more than five years’ experience, your earning potential will be £45,839.

As well as with experience, your earning potential can also increase as you develop your career. As a consultant paediatrician, for example, you will have an earning potential of between £84,559 and £114,003, depending on your years of experience.

Qualifications Needed for a Paediatrician

If you wish to become a paediatrician, then your first step will be to secure a place at medical school. Paediatricians are specialist medical professionals, which means that they first train as doctors with a broad knowledge of all sectors, before choosing paediatrics as their specialism.

You should apply for your place at medical school via UCAS, where you will apply for a degree in medicine or allied subjects. The entry criteria for each university with a medical programme is different, but as a general rule you can expect to need excellent GCSEs, or equivalent, followed by A or A* grades at A level in at least three subjects. Most medical schools will ask that one of your A levels is in chemistry. Some may also ask that you secure A levels in biology, maths, physics, or a combination of all these subjects. Medicine is a five-year undergraduate degree, but if you have already secured a degree in another subject then you could apply for a four-year postgraduate degree in medicine, which will give you access to a medical degree in a shorter time frame.

Places at medical school are incredibly competitive, and unlike other university courses, the application process is much more complex than simply submitting your application via UCAS. You will also need to pass an interview and admissions test, where you will be asked to demonstrate why you would like to become a doctor and to show how you would represent the NHS values of compassion and respect. You could be asked to take the University Clinical Aptitude Test (UCAT) or BioMedical Admissions Test (BMAT) when you apply for a course. Because medical school places are so sought after, applicants are advised to undertake work experience and relevant courses to demonstrate their long-term commitment to the profession. There is a wide range of paid and unpaid work experience opportunities that would enhance your application: from volunteering in your local hospital to reading to residents in your local care home. You could also volunteer in youth group settings (such as scouting or local sports or youth clubs) if you would like to demonstrate your commitment to working within paediatrics.

The following health and social care short courses could also enhance your application by demonstrating your commitment to working within a medical setting:

Diversity in the workplace is important, and this includes in a hospital setting. For this reason, many medical schools will consider your educational and economic background, as well as your geographic location and family circumstances, when assessing your wider application.

On-the-Job Training

On-the-job training is incredibly common within NHS roles, meaning that you will be working as a paediatrician whilst training for the position. The route to becoming a paediatrician can be an incredibly long one. First, you will need to complete your five-year medical degree, which will comprise a mixture of study-led learning, examination, and hands-on learning. At this point, you can apply to join the NHS’s paid two-year foundation programme where you’ll work in six placements in different settings. If you already know that you plan to become a paediatrician, then one of these six work placements should be in paediatrics if possible.

Once your foundation programme is complete, you are finally in a position where you can specialise in paediatrics. Speciality training is a paid training programme, and paediatrics training takes a minimum of eight years to complete: longer if you choose to train on a part-time basis. Part-time training opportunities are available in some circumstances, for example for health reasons or if you have family or caring responsibilities.

Once you are a fully qualified paediatrician, there is still plenty of room for career development within this profession. You could choose to specialise further, becoming an expert in areas such as diabetes, Neurodisability, nutrition, gastroenterology or public health, specifically for children. Many paediatricians choose to dedicate their careers to conducting research within these areas. You could also teach medical students or postgraduate students in training, join a university to focus more fully on research or secure a position within the private sector.

Professional Bodies

You cannot practice medicine at any level unless you are registered with the General Medical Council (GMC) so becoming a member of this professional body is essential if you wish to become a paediatrician. The primary role of the GMC is to protect patients by ensuring all doctors are registered with a licence to practise before they work in the UK. However, as well as giving you the green light to practice in the UK, there are other benefits of becoming a member of the GMC. This includes access to courses and educational opportunities, as well as professional support when it is needed.

To fully demonstrate your commitment to a career focusing on the health and wellbeing of children, you could also consider joining the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health (RCPCH). This is a professional body whose sole aim is to support paediatricians through every stage of their careers. Just some of the benefits of membership include:

Access to the essential online resource on child protection and safeguarding will make ensuring that you safeguard each child under your care much more straightforward.
Access to the RCPCH Academic Journal, and its online archives, giving you access to thousands of relevant articles and papers that could help you to further enhance and develop your knowledge base.
An exclusive continued professional development (CPD) support tool, which will allow you to Assess and plan your educational needs with a Continuing Professional Development scheme. The tool includes a CPD diary, as well as access to a team of professionals who can help you to ensure your CPD goals are achievable and will work for you.