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A career in...

Interviews with paediatricians

Seven trainees and consultants talk about the highs and lows of the specialty

By: Tom Cassidy, Laura Watson

Children can get better quickly, but they can also become sick rapidly. The challenge is spotting those likely to deteriorate and intervening at the right time.

You learn lots of different procedures—from inserting umbilical lines and intubation in neonates to putting cannulas in small children. I love the variety of cases you see at district general hospitals: you can be checking a newborn baby at an emergency caesarean section one minute, clerking in a teenager with abdominal pain the next, followed by assessing a toddler with croup in resuscitation.

It can be an emotionally challenging job, especially when you lose a patient. This is difficult in any specialty, but particularly hard to take when children are involved.

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