Most commonly reported Work Activities

• Assisting and Caring for Others Providing personal assistance, medical attention, emotional support, or other personal care to others such as coworkers, customers, or patients.
• Establishing and Maintaining Interpersonal Relationships Developing constructive and cooperative working relationships with others, and maintaining them over time.
• Updating and Using Relevant Knowledge Keeping up-to-date technically and applying new knowledge to your job.
• Making Decisions and Solving Problems Analysing information and evaluating results to choose the best solution and solve problems.
• Communicating with Supervisors, Peers, or Subordinates Providing information to supervisors, co-workers, and subordinates by telephone, in written form, e-mail, or in person.
• Documenting/Recording Information Entering, recording, storing, or maintaining information in written or electronic/magnetic form.
• Getting Information Observing, receiving, and otherwise obtaining information from all relevant sources.
• Interpreting the Meaning of Information for Others Translating or explaining what information means and how it can be used.
• Performing for or Working Directly with the Public Performing for people or dealing directly with the public. This includes serving customers in restaurants and stores, and receiving clients or guests.
• Identifying Objects, Actions, and Events Identifying information by categorising, estimating, recognising differences or similarities, and detecting changes in circumstances or events.

The Work

The work of a Paediatrician involves specialising in the care of children. This can involve assessing the care needed by sick children and by new babies, and monitoring their subsequent growth and development. It can also involve working in a children's hospital and dealing with all ages up to early teens. They assess and treat children with emergency admissions, assessing and monitoring current in-patients and re-assessing ex-patients in the out-patients department.

Most commonly reported Work Tasks

• Prescribe or administer treatment, therapy, medication, vaccination, and other specialised medical care to treat or prevent illness, disease, or injury in infants and children.
• Examine children regularly to assess their growth and development.
• Treat children who have minor illnesses, acute and chronic health problems, and growth and development concerns.
• Examine patients or order, perform, and interpret diagnostic tests to obtain information on medical condition and determine diagnosis.
• Advise patients, parents or guardians, and community members concerning diet, activity, hygiene, and disease prevention.
• Explain procedures and discuss test results or prescribed treatments with patients and parents or guardians.
• Collect, record, and maintain patient information, such as medical history, reports, or examination results.
• Monitor patients' conditions and progress and reevaluate treatments as necessary.
• Direct and coordinate activities of nurses, students, assistants, specialists, therapists, and other medical staff.
• Plan and execute medical care programs to aid in the mental and physical growth and development of children and adolescents.

This occupation is typically suited for people with the following Career Interests:

Investigative

The Investigative person will usually find a particular area of science to be of interest. They are inclined toward intellectual and analytical activities and enjoy observation and theory. They may prefer thought to action, and enjoy the challenge of solving problems with sophiscticated technology. These types prefer mentally stimulating environments and often pay close attention to developments in their chosen field.

Enterprising

Enterprising people like situations that involve using resources for personal or corporate economic gain. Such people may have an opportunistic frame of mind, and are drawn to commerce, trade and making deals. Some pursue sales and marketing occupations. Many will eventually end up owning their own business, or in management roles in larger organisations. They tend to be very goal-oriented and work best when focused on a target. Some have an entrepreneurial inclination.

Social

The Social person's interests focus on interacting with the people in their environment. In all cases, the Social person enjoys the personal contact with other people in preference to the impersonal dealings with things, data and ideas found in other groups.

Many will seek out positions where there is direct contact with the public in some advisory role, whether a receptionist or a counsellor. Social people are motivated by an interest in different types of people and like diversity in their work environments. Many are drawn towards careers in the caring professions and social welfare area, whilst others prefer teaching and other 'informing' roles.

A specialist is a doctor who is certified to practise independently in a specific area of medicine (eg Paediatrics). A specialist has completed all of their postgraduate training and does not require supervision by a more senior doctor. It can take about 15 years to become a specialist.

Training & Development 

The career pathway is as follows:

1. Medical Degree  - a five to six-year undergraduate medical degree programme at one of the six medical schools in Ireland.

2. Internship - newly graduated doctors spend 12 months training in hospitals as an Intern (equivalent to ‘house officer’ in some jurisdictions), working as part of a team with nurses and experienced doctors, and earning their first salary as a doctor.

The intern year is structured so that a doctor can experience a variety of medical specialties; at least three months must be spent in general Medicine and at least three months in general Surgery. Interns can also spend 2 – 4 months in:

• Emergency Medicine
• General Practice
• Obstetrics and Gynaecology
• Paediatrics
• Psychiatry
• Anaesthesia (to include perioperative medicine)
• Radiology

This variety helps the intern decide which area of medicine they want to continue training in. In Ireland, the Medical Council oversees the intern year.

3. Basic Specialist Training - Towards the end of the intern year, a doctor must choose an area of medicine to continue training in. The next stage of training is Basic Specialist Training (BST).

There are 10 BST programmes in Ireland, including Paediatrics:

In most cases BST is two years in duration. During this time a doctor works as a Senior House Officer (SHO), mostly in hospitals and always under the supervision of a more experienced doctor.

To find out more about BST with RCPI, click here.

4. Registrar Training - After BST most doctors want to progress to Higher Specialist Training (HST). Entry to HST is very competitive. Some doctors may need to wait for a year or two before they either meet all of the entry criteria (e.g. passing postgraduate exams) or are successful at interview.

In RCPI, the Registrar Training Programme (RTP) is designed for doctors who want to continue their training at registrar level with a view to progressing on to HST.

5. Higher Specialist Training (HST) - is designed to bring a doctor’s skills up to the standard required for independent, specialist practice. HST takes four to six years to complete, depending on the specialty. During this time a doctor works as a Specialist Registrar (SpR). On satisfactory completion of HST, SpRs receive a Certificate of Satisfactory Completion of Specialist Training (CSCST) which allows them to enter the Specialist Division of the Medical Council.

6. Consultant - Once a doctor is on the Specialist Division of the Register with the Medical Council they are eligible to apply for consultant posts. However is not always easy to get into these highly-regarded positions. With the exception of GPs (General Practitioners), specialists in Ireland are generally referred to as ‘consultants’.

Many doctors spend some time working abroad and building up their portfolio of research, audits and publications before becoming a consultant.

Last Updated: April, 2023

Salary Range (thousands per year)* €49k - €193k

Salaries vary by employer, location, duties, role, experience, and sessional shift pattern & conditions.

Data Source(s):
HSE/ Payscale/ Salary expert/ Indeed/ Talent

Last Updated: August, 2024

* The lower figures typically reflect starting salaries. Higher salaries are awarded to those with greater experience and responsibility. Positions in Dublin sometimes command higher salaries.

View Salary information from Indeed.ie
Note: data not aways available

This information has been derived from the Solas National Skills Bulletin (2023).

The annual average employment growth for medical practitioners was slightly above average over the five-year period, with strong growth between 2021 and 2022. Almost 30% of those employed in this occupation were non-Irish citizens, with employment permits still acting as a source of supply of skills; over 2,100 new permits were issued in 2022 across a range of specialities. Supply from the third level education system is set to expand by 200 additional places by 2026 (beginning with an increase of 60 places each in 2022 and 2023). Given the duration of medical training, however, this increased supply is not expected to have an impact on the labour market in the short-to-medium term.

Issues in relation to GPs are being addressed with an announcement that the number of GP training places will be increased to 350 in 2024 from 258 in 2022 and an expansion of the non-EU GP Training Scheme from 50 to 250 by the end of 2024.43 However, the increasing demand for medical practitioners as a result of factors such as the rollout of the Sláintecare Action Plan, the ageing population and the tackling of the lengthy waiting lists (exacerbated as a result of COVID-19) will result in continued shortages for this occupation.

• Health Service Executive (HSE)

  • Dr Steevens' Hospital, Steevens Lane, Dublin, 8
  • 041 685 0300
  • Click Here

• Royal College of Physicians of Ireland

  • Frederick House, 19 South Federick Street Dublin 2
  • (01) 8639700
  • [email protected]
  • Click Here

• Irish Medical Organisation

  • 10 Fitzwilliam Place, Dublin 2
  • (01) 676 7273
  • [email protected]
  • Click Here