What type of doctors work in a PICU (pediatric intensive care unit)? what residency & or fellowship?

Question

I was wondering what type of doctors work in a PICU. i know that to work in a regular ICU doctors go through a internal medicine residency and then a critical care fellowship. pediatricians have a pediatric residency. but what type of doctors work in PICUs? intensivists and pediatricians? or would pediatricians go through a critical care fellowship to work in a PICU?

what type of doctors work in PICUs? and what residency/fellowship would be required?

Answer 1

Pediatric residency and neonatology fellowship for the NICU, and pediatric residency and pediatric critical care fellowship for the PICU.

Answer 2

I'm a pediatric resident and we have rotations in both PICU and NICU (neonatal intensive care unit).  Both pediatric intensivists and hospitalists, as well as regular pediatricians, may be on duty in a PICU, as well as other specialists depending on what the problem is--pediatric cardiologists, pulmonologists, surgeons, neurologists, anaesthesiologists, you name it.  There's also a special nursing staff and respiratory care staff.  In the hospitals I rotate through there is always an intensivist either on duty or on call--not all of them have large enough staffs to have one on all the time.

I'm pretty sure it takes another three years to be an intensivist on top of the regular three-year regular pediatric residency, plus a lot of people seem to have done further subspecialty work in cardiology, pulmonology, critical care, etc. as fellows.

Answer 3

Pediatric intensivists.  You can start with a pediatrics residency and do a fellowship in critical care, or do an anesthesia residency and do a fellowship in pediatric intensive care, or, as some people I know have done, do a pediatric residency, then an anesthesia residency, and THEN a fellowship.  Some people never want a real job.