Nephrologist

Nephrologist: a physician who deals with the kidneys, especially their functions or diseases.

This work may involve electrolyte imbalances and hypertension, and the care of patients requiring renal replacement therapy such as dialysis and kidney transplantation.

Quick Facts

Competitiveness: Moderate

Length of training: 5 years

Number of fellowship programs: 128

Number of fellows in training: 649

Number in U.S. currently Board Certified in specialty: 5,846

First year median compensation: $160,000

Mean number of hours per week in patient care activities: 53.0

Residency Information

You will complete a 3 year residency in internal medicine followed by a 2 year fellowship in nephrology.

Why Choose

A lot of physicians like the challenging aspect of working with very ill patients. Doctors also like the intellectual stimulation they receive in this field, whereas other specialties are too procedure-oriented or deal with patient's personal problems.

Typical Schedule

You will be working approximately 10 to 12 hour days and there is an increasing amount of administrative paperwork due to federal and state regulations. When setting up your practice one key division will be whether you supervise a dialysis unit or not, this is done independently as apart of your practice or in a hospital setting.

Your time will also be spent conducting consultations on hospitalized patients and seeing patients as apart of your private practice.

If You're Interested

It is a good idea to do a clinical rotation with a doctor in this specialty who practices in the community because the experience is vastly different than the hospital setting. Also be aware that with more government regulation physicians in this specialty are becoming dissatisfied and concerned about government stating they are overcompensated for their work.

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