Peds ID Job Market?

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dextor2003

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I did my peds ID rotation last month, and my attending told me that if I wanted a decent living, I'd have to supplement the job with research or some other academic activity. I'm now doing peds AI, and 2 fellows from two different institutions told me to be wary of the field altogether. They were both wanting to do peds ID initially, but both were warned against it because apparently there's no job market for it? They were saying I could take my pick of fellowships, but after that, it's really hard finding a job. I was wondering if anyone had any input on this?

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I did my peds ID rotation last month, and my attending told me that if I wanted a decent living, I'd have to supplement the job with research or some other academic activity. I'm now doing peds AI, and 2 fellows from two different institutions told me to be wary of the field altogether. They were both wanting to do peds ID initially, but both were warned against it because apparently there's no job market for it? They were saying I could take my pick of fellowships, but after that, it's really hard finding a job. I was wondering if anyone had any input on this?
I don't practice peds ID but they are right in the sense that you'll need supplemental source of revenue. Most academic peds ID people do research or some other academic enterprise. I have seen also the peds ID plus private practice model as well as the more rare dual fellowship training, peds ID and ER and peds ID and ICU.
 
Of the Peds ID people I know...
One is a PD and practices general peds as well
Two are research heavy
One found a niche in CF
One is semi-retired, but only does ID

So yeah, I agree--you need something else if you want to make a living.
 
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I did my peds ID rotation last month, and my attending told me that if I wanted a decent living, I'd have to supplement the job with research or some other academic activity.

I'm not really sure what this attending is telling you here. Academic positions, which most peds ID positions are, always include in the salary expectations for academic activity which often includes research. This does not change the overall salary which is usually, but not always, set based on standards such as the AAMC salary standards. Some ID specialists can do consulting or otherwise supplement their income from pharmaceutical studies, but this isn't that common anymore and would not be something I believe a new faculty member would be able to count on. That is likely what they were referring to by supplementing with research. There are a few non-academic jobs in peds IDs at some children's hospitals, and they would likely pay more than the traditional academic jobs.

Overall, the pay for a peds ID attending is not terribly different than that of a general pediatrician, despite the added training. I don't have a good handle for the job market but I suspect it's like some of the specialties that are hospital based and primarily academic and is somewhat tight, especially in larger cities. There are always going to be academic jobs for serious researchers who are going the NIH funding route, but for those whose focus is primarily clinical with some pharma studies, it would be tighter.
 
I don't practice peds ID but they are right in the sense that you'll need supplemental source of revenue. Most academic peds ID people do research or some other academic enterprise. I have seen also the peds ID plus private practice model as well as the more rare dual fellowship training, peds ID and ER and peds ID and ICU.

Of the Peds ID people I know...
One is a PD and practices general peds as well
Two are research heavy
One found a niche in CF
One is semi-retired, but only does ID

So yeah, I agree--you need something else if you want to make a living.

I'm not really sure what this attending is telling you here. Academic positions, which most peds ID positions are, always include in the salary expectations for academic activity which often includes research. This does not change the overall salary which is usually, but not always, set based on standards such as the AAMC salary standards. Some ID specialists can do consulting or otherwise supplement their income from pharmaceutical studies, but this isn't that common anymore and would not be something I believe a new faculty member would be able to count on. That is likely what they were referring to by supplementing with research. There are a few non-academic jobs in peds IDs at some children's hospitals, and they would likely pay more than the traditional academic jobs.

Overall, the pay for a peds ID attending is not terribly different than that of a general pediatrician, despite the added training. I don't have a good handle for the job market but I suspect it's like some of the specialties that are hospital based and primarily academic and is somewhat tight, especially in larger cities. There are always going to be academic jobs for serious researchers who are going the NIH funding route, but for those whose focus is primarily clinical with some pharma studies, it would be tighter.

Thank you all for the insight! That's really helpful to know
 
Peds ID fellow here.
We don't get paid a lot. I left a hospitalist position knowing I probably will not make that kind of money again, but I love what I do and don't care about the money.

That being said, there is a lot of flexibility on what you could be with ID, all revolves around how much research you want to do. made sample list below with research predominance at top and decreasing going down.
Researcher: no clinical
Physician Scientist: to give you an example NIH funding usually wants >50% of time to be research based.
Transplant ID: Large hospitals usually have 1.0 FTE
Infection Control: usually 1.0 FTE position
Stewardship: ~1.0 FTE position
Hospitalist/ID: Part time in both
Physician Educator: ie PD
GenPeds/ID: Part time in both
Admin/ID: ie Chair, department head

Actual clinical work usually makes up 0.1-0.5FTE of your salary, the rest is filled with either research, admin, education, vaccine trials, etc, etc.

here's a link to job postings....so it's not like there's nothing out there.
Job Seekers - Pediatric Infectious Diseases Society

It all depends on what you want to do. If you want to stay at a large academic center research is expected with whatever you do.
I came from a smaller children's hospital where the ID attendings were clinical only, so those are out there too.

If you need any more convincing.... please ask away

#JoinID #BestSpecialty #NotBias
 
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