What Nobody Tells You About Hiring for Pediatrics

Say you want to hire physicians for a pediatric hospital. You draw up job descriptions, secure alluring compensation, and post job ads. Four months later, the positions are still open. What’s going on? Why are the roles not filled?  

Pediatric healthcare organizations are their own animal—and administrators too often hire for them as they do for adult healthcare. It rarely works. “A children’s hospital is not an adult hospital for smaller, younger people,” says Scott Sette, sector leader for children’s healthcare at Korn Ferry. “The differences are more significant than people realize.”

For starters, pediatric physicians are committed. “Everyone in healthcare is mission-driven, but there’s a different level at children’s hospitals—it’s palpable,” says Lauren Glaccum, sector leader for the health systems and academic practice at Korn Ferry, who notes that widespread devotion to children’s well-being changes the vibe. “There’s a lightness,” she says. Entire staffs with this trait fuel a tangible difference in the feel of pediatric institutions. “It’s warmer,” says Jennifer Cano, director of the national healthcare practice at Korn Ferry, who was previously the CEO of a children’s hospital. “You see a lot more camaraderie, and people working together more.” Healthcare can be stressful in any setting, but staff are more able to remain connected to their purpose while serving a vulnerable group. “Burnout is just more prevalent on the adult side,” she says.  

In job searches, the talent criteria are very different. Unlike adult physicians, pediatric doctors must care for a patient’s family as well as the patient, which adds layers of communication, education, social work, case management and psychology to bedside work—not to mention key bedside skills like handling tantrums and managing patients who just want to watch Bluey. “It’s fundamentally a different skillset and a different marketplace,” says Mitul Modi, senior client partner in the global healthcare services practice at Korn Ferry. “You can’t assume you’re recruiting from the same market in any way.”  

Unfortunately for hirers, the pediatric physician candidate pool is much smaller, partially due to dwindling numbers of medical students choosing to specialize in pediatrics: the pediatric residency fill rate dropped from 98% in 2000 to 94% in 2026. Pediatric doctors earn, on average, 25% less lifetime compensation than analogous adult doctors, because they often see fewer patients, perform fewer procedures, and in some cases have lower reimbursement rates than their adult counterparts. Pediatric subspecialists typically cover large geographic areas—sometimes multiple states—while outreach clinics are often staffed by APPs. That means that when hiring, organizations are typically competing for talent on a national scale, and an open position can turn into a multi-year recruiting effort. In specialties like pediatric cardiology, endocrinology or neurology, only a few hundred or few thousand pediatric physicians might practice nationally—and they tend to be already employed. “Adult medicine has many recruiting pools to draw on,” says Sette.  

The upside is that children’s healthcare systems tend to fund positions that might not survive in adult hospitals. For example, specialties such as pediatric burn care are often subsidized by the healthcare system: everyone agrees that the service should be offered to the community, and it’s not a bad thing if patient volumes aren’t quite generating profits. Yet the overall physician shortage means that children’s healthcare systems lean more heavily on advanced practice providers (APPs).  

Search experts advise pediatric hirers to, above all, “Plan ahead,” says Sette. “Anticipate retirements and job changes, and prepare for them proactively—you usually can’t just replace a pediatric physician.” Hiring goes best when the job requirements are as flexible as possible, including hybrid or remote work options. For example, pediatric radiologists are in huge demand; perhaps they can read images remotely three weeks a month. Flexibility widens the candidate pool for these highly sought physicians. And don’t let a long-running search get you down—they’re common in pediatrics. “Be patient,” says Sette. “It’ll happen.”  

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