Aptitudes & Abilities Needed to Be a Pediatrician

A pediatrician is a physician who specializes in diagnosing and treating children's health issues. She must have have basic medical qualifications, and she must have the ability to work well with children and their parents. A pediatrician completes medical school and has a medical license to practice. As of May 2020, the mean annual wage for pediatricians was ​$184,570​, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Good Communication Skills

Communication is one of the most important abilities of a pediatrician, especially in the area of the doctor-patient and doctor-family relationship. Pediatricians need to be able to effectively engage small children in conversation to get them to open up about feelings and concerns.

They also need to be able to ask parents questions about what is going on and listen well to parents questions and concerns. A primary concern for parents in finding a capable pediatrician is feeling like the doctor has a genuine concern for kids. This typically comes as a result of the pediatrician doing a good job interacting with the kids and parents.

Good Rapport With Children

Even with good communication skills, pediatricians often need strong interpersonal intuition when working with kids. The ability to detect from a child's body language and mannerisms that something is wrong is critical in detecting more subtle or emerging health problems and is one of the main skills needed for a pediatrician. Kids sometimes struggle to effectively convey what is bothering them and rely on doctors to detect problems from observations and simple health checks.

Problem Solving Abilities

Pediatricians are problem solvers. They identify what is wrong with a child and come up with appropriate treatment solutions. This includes prescribing medicines, but it often means referring kids to specialists when additional testing and treatment is needed.

In some cases, pediatricians need to thoroughly examine a problem and use unique approaches to coming up with solutions. For instance, a child with asthma might require testing of various breathing treatment solutions before settling on the right one.

Patient-Centered Orientation

Families have more choices in medical care for children in the early 21st century. This has placed more pressure on professionals to have a service orientation when providing care. Given the sensitive nature of treating kids, this is especially critical.

A generally warm, friendly demeanor and a patient-first approach are vital to attracting and retaining patients. Pediatricians spend a lot of time with small children during their first few years, which makes this relationship or service-orientation necessary to successful health care.