Opinion: Pediatrics is becoming medicine's largest skeleton crew

Two years ago, the RSV epidemic shook pediatric hospitals across the country along with the pediatric residents in them. One of us, Faith, was a resident at the time, and she and her colleagues refer to it as the dark ages: Whether they were arriving for their morning shifts or leaving their night shifts, the number of patients they took care of would not change for weeks at a time. Hospitals were completely filled, and resources were limited. Though the media reported the hospital’s challenges during this time, no one thought of the impact this epidemic would have on the developing pediatric workforce.  

This experience led many pediatric residents to decide not to further sub-specialize within pediatrics. It also likely dissuaded many rotating medical students from a career in pediatric medicine. These interactions left a permanent imprint on their opinions of the specialty, as we now see in the outcome of this year’s National Residency Match, with 30% of pediatric residency programs going unfilled.

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