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Careers
 Careers
Guide to Becoming a Pediatrician
Many people decide to become a pediatrician because they enjoy children and being able to affect one of the most important aspects of their lives which is their health. To become a pediatrician, just like any doctor, you need to go through the years of schooling before you can ever see or help your first patient.
The First Step: 4 Year College
Getting through college is your first step to becoming a pediatrician. In college you may want to take electives that help support your career path. Although many colleges do not have many electives that will directly be related to becoming a pediatrician, you can take a few that will help on a broad note. Some choices you may want to consider are psychology, child psychology, and any other elective you enjoy or feel might be beneficial to your work place, your patients or overall business decisions.
When it comes to core classes you will want to meet minimum requirements that medical schools lay out. Although each school differs, it will usually include Biology, including labs (1-2 years), Physics, including labs ( 1 year), English (1 year), Chemistry with one year being Organic Chemistry, including labs (2 years), and Calculus (1 year).
Although you do not have to be a biology major as a requirement, you will find it helps. If becoming a biology major is not what you want to do, the next best would be a natural science major. Doing so will give you a head start in medical school. Be careful not to overwhelm yourself though. Remember, during this time you will be studying for the MCAT’s which is a critical standardized test to make it into medical school.
Medical School
Once you complete four years of college, you will then move on to medical school where you will work hard in areas such as pediatrics, clinical medicine, surgery, psychiatry and more. You will also need to excel in pediatric rotations in order to land you into a good pediatric training program.
After you have been accepted into a pediatric training program, you will then go to an internship for a year. During this internship you will be tested many times. You will more than likely be sleep deprived and sometimes ready to throw in the towel. This is normal and something you will work past. After your year of internship you will be required to take another set of National Medical Board assessments you will be ready for residency that last 2 years (or more if you choose to participate in a chief residency).
After residency you will be able to see your first patient. With a total of 11 years of schooling, late nights and lack of sleep, it will not matter once you begin your new journey in keeping children healthy and happy. A pediatrician takes a person who is caring, intelligent, trustworthy and good with people. Those who decide on this career path are truly rewarded in the end.
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