Question: What did you like about Paediatrics that made you want to study it?

Pip Millington answered on 14 Nov 2016:

I just answered this question to somebody else. I hope you don’t mind if I paste my reply here as well!

“There are a few reasons. Here are some:

1) I like the challenge of having to alter my approach depending on the age of the patient. Most adults can make decisions about their own healthcare and the way you have to talk to them is similar. But the interaction you have with a baby, compared to a 5-year-old, compared to a teenager is completely different. How much you have to talk to the young person compared to their parents changes a lot a t each of those ages too!

2) Most children come to hospital with one medical problem. If you fix it, then they can go back to being normal kids. I think that’s quite a rewarding process to see. With adult medicine, a lot of people have very long-term problems and you I think it could be argues you can’t make people completely better so often.

3) It’s a lot broader that most specialties in adult medicine, where people tend to specialise in their favourite organ of the body. In Paediatrics we have to be prepared to deal with pretty much anything!

4) I feel I had a good life growing up and bad health never got in the way of me doing what I wanted to do. I only ended up in hospital once because my appendix needed to be taken out! I want to give today’s young people an opportunity to reach their potential without bad health getting in the way ?”