How To Become A Pediatric Hospitalist: What It Is and Career Path

What is a pediatric hospitalist and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

4 min read

If you have a passion for treating ill or injured children, becoming a pediatric hospitalist may be just the right role for you. As a pediatric hospitalist, your goal is to help hospitalized children become healthy again with proper treatment and holistic approaches to healthcare.

Your duties as a pediatric hospitalist will revolve around diagnosing patients, preparing treatment plans, ordering tests, collaborating with other healthcare professionals, and communicating with parents of children to educate them about their child's condition and treatment plans. This job also involves interacting with children regularly and comforting them through their illness or injury.

The path to becoming a pediatric hospitalist is a rigorous one, involving pre-med, med school, internship, residency, and specialization -- all of which can take more than a decade. Nevertheless, your passion should keep you motivated to push through with all the steps it would take to become a fully-fledged pediatric hospitalist.

Another thing that might motivate you is the salary. As a pediatric hospitalist, your income potential is at $177,000, on average, and may even be as high as $268,000 annually.

ScorePediatric HospitalistUS Average

Salary

9.2

Avg. Salary $163,042

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability Level

9.7

Growth Rate 7%

Growth Rate 0.3%

Diversity

1.8

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.10%

Asian 19.37%

Black or African American 3.95%

Hispanic or Latino 6.17%

Unknown 2.42%

White 67.99%

Gender

female 65.96%

male 34.04%

Age - 48

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 48

Stress Level

9.7

Stress level is very high

7.1 - high

Complexity Level

8.8

Complexity Level is advanced

7 - challenging

Work Life Balance

5.6

Work Life balance is fair

6.4 - fair

Newest jobs for Pediatric Hospitalist in Columbus, OH

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Key steps to become a pediatric hospitalist

Explore pediatric hospitalist education requirements

Most common pediatric hospitalist degrees

Doctorate

47.5 %

Bachelor's

32.5 %

Certificate

17.5 %

Start to develop specific pediatric hospitalist skills

Skills	Percentages
Nursery	48.68%
Patient Care	26.49%
Acute Care	9.64%
Community Hospital	5.42%
Inpatient Care	4.63%

Complete relevant pediatric hospitalist training and internships

Accountants spend an average of Less than 1 month on post-employment, on-the-job training. New pediatric hospitalists learn the skills and techniques required for their job and employer during this time. The chart below shows how long it takes to gain competency as a pediatric hospitalist based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real pediatric hospitalist resumes.

Research pediatric hospitalist duties and responsibilities

Manage acute and chronic illnesses including cardiac, respiratory, GI, infectious and skin issues.
Complete admission history and physicals, develop differential diagnosis, order appropriate laboratoryand diagnostic studies, present pertinent data to attending staff ..
Perform minor suturing as indicated.

Apply for pediatric hospitalist jobs

Now it's time to start searching for a pediatric hospitalist job. Consider the tips below for a successful job search:

Browse job boards for relevant postings
Consult your professional network
Reach out to companies you're interested in working for directly
Watch out for job scams

How do pediatric hospitalists rate their job?

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Pediatric Hospitalist reviews

A zippia user wrote a review on Sep 2023

Pros

Money and also working in a hospital I also love biology

Cons

watching babies die and dealing with the emotional trauma of staring in to dead eyes