Pediatric Radiologist

Keeping your eyes shut might be a necessity in games like Marco Polo, but diagnosing patients is best done when you get a complete image of the person. As a Pediatric Radiologist, you’re a specially trained Doctor who uses various types of technology to view (and capture) a complete image of the insides of a patient. Much of this job is exactly like that of a regular Radiologist, though the big difference is the size of the patients you work with: Pediatric Radiologists work with kids, ranging from newborns to adolescents.

Like a Wildlife Photographer obsessed with all things outdoors, you too have a special area of focus. Rather than bears, however, you spend your days looking at all things internal: bones, tissues, organs, and blood vessels. Once you capture clear images of a particular body part, you then use your skills to diagnose illnesses, broken bones, or diseases. No two patients or days are the same, and you can spot everything from a stress fracture to sickle cell anemia to cancer.

The technologies you use include X-rays, MRIs, CT scans, and ultrasounds. A Radiology Technician is the one actually operating these machines, but as a Pediatric Radiologist, you’re the one to decide which tool to use and when.

Working with kids brings its own joys, but you should also be ready to deal with some unique difficulties. One of the biggest issues is the lack of communication, since after all, you can’t explain what an MRI machine is to a newborn. Being a calming presence is one of the biggest skills you can bring to this job, since most of your patients will be young kids who are sick and in a stressful situation.