What sort of person should think about a career in paediatrics?
The range of potential interests and subspecialisations within the field of paediatrics is huge and includes all the standard adult subspecialties. For many years there was a very distinct split between those consultants who worked within hospital settings and those who worked in community settings. Community paediatricians might be engaged in child protection work, liaison work with community services, school health, and a variety of other areas. Some participated in the care of acutely ill children although many posts had little or no acute on call. Although this pattern of working remains in many larger centres, elsewhere there has been a tendency to bring community paediatrics back into the portfolio of the general paediatrician. For example, in my unit we have one consultant with responsibility for child protection coordination and training, with the other consultants sharing in child protection assessment as part of their on-call duties. Similarly, other aspects of traditional co
