Pediatric Surgeon Salary, Schools and Job Description

By Patmos Zen •  Updated: 05/12/16 •  4 min read

The Pediatric surgeon salary is between $97,760 – $434,591 according to recent data from Payscale. This vary widely due to variety of factors.  Statistics and facts about average pediatric surgeon salary vary according to location, years of experience, skills, employers, state, level of education and other factors.

Pediatric surgeon salary information: average annual pay, starting salary, salary range, income by state and city, hourly rate, and benefits are different in each country, however the pediatric surgeon job description may be similar. You can train to became a pediatric surgeon in accredited Medical colleges, see more information below.

Who is a Pediatric Surgeon

A pediatrician specializes in the treatment of infants and children, however a pediatric surgeon is a person with the experience and qualifications to treat children, usually focusing on the most severe cases requiring surgery from the neck to the pelvic region.

Treatment of children and infants can be delicate, they perform surgeries to correct, repair and treat ailments in children. The pediatric surgeon can be found in most children and teaching hospitals.

Pediatric Surgeon Salary

The pediatric surgeon salary is one of the best in the health sector, this is largely due to the high level of risk and need for special care. As a specialty pediatric surgeon salary ranges from $97,760 – $434,591, while top-tier doctors earn higher in the region of $500,000+.

Factors such as level of education, experience, skills, employer, location and credentials may affect the salary of a pediatric surgeon. A physician salary survey performed by the American Medical Group Association reported a median pediatric surgeon salary of $462,801 for pediatric surgeons, which is lightly above the range. This is due to the fact that most pediatric surgeons are well qualified and highly educated to merit such earnings.

Pediatric Surgeon Training and Schools

The average number of years a pediatric surgeon spend in school is between 13-18 years, they spend the first 4 years for a science based undergraduate degree, next 4 years in a Medical School or College, another 4 years in a residency program and 1-6 years for board examinations and specializations courses.

To became a pediatric surgeon you must first complete a 4 years bachelor degree program with courses in Physics, Chemistry and Biology. Then you can sit for the MCAT exams, once you pass, you will spend 4 years in the medical school.

The first two years will be focused on general medicine and the last two years on specialty and clinical. You will continue to an intership program that leads to residency. Once residency is completed you can now sit for general pediatrics certification program. This leads to been board certified to practice as a pediatrician.

After this stage you can continue to specialize in pediatric surgeon. The typical pediatric surgeon completes 9 years of training after medical school and has passed two certifications administered by the American Board of Surgery, one in general surgery and one in pediatric surgery.

To learn more about the special qualifications and training of a pediatric surgeon visit the American Board of Surgery or the American Pediatric Surgical Association website.

Pediatric Surgeon Job Description

The pediatric surgeon job description is similar to that of a general surgeon, but with emphasis on children and infants.

Pediatric surgery depends on the procedure, its general purpose is to correct any disease, traumatic injury, congenital condition, and other disorders of pediatric patients through surgery.

Their key responsibilities of the pediatric surgeon include diagnosis, prevention, operative, and management care that children in need of surgical attention require, in conjunction with the patient’s primary pediatric physician. Because there are infants born with certain complications who cannot hope to live healthy lives without surgical intervention, a large number of patients needing pediatric surgery are infants.

If you have further questions or suggestion on pediatric surgeon salary, the schools and job description, place you comment below. you can search for schools using the school search box.