What sort of person makes a good paediatrician?
You will need to be a hard worker as it can be pretty busy at times. The exams are not easy either. You must be good in a team, and good at communicating with others at all levels. You must like the excitement of dealing with very sick patients. Airs and graces will not be tolerated by other staff or the patients. Those craving status need look elsewhere. You must be genuinely interested in your patients’ well being, as the joy of this speciality lies in getting involved in your patients (and families) problems and solving them. You will need to be good with your hands too – all the procedures are miniaturized. Oh – you need to like the company of children too, not minding the attendant noise and mess! Aren’t the hours terrible? No worse than any other acute speciality. Like the rest of the hospital, we are cutting down to 48 hours a week. One of our advantages is that the wards and A+E are much less busy in the summer than the winter, so having to stay late on a glorious evening is no
