I started off on Newborn Nursery. I basically got to play with babies all day, so I know you are all incredibly jealous. At first, I was very very very careful when examining the babies. After all, they were like 2 HOURS OLD. I would put my stethoscope on them extremely gingerly, so much so that my attending would watch me with a bemused expression on her face. She later assured me that I wouldn't break the babies and I could be a little more confident with the way I was conducting the exams. Ha!
I then had 3 weeks of outpatient. The hours on outpatient are glorious. It's basically 9-5 and I had to be in clinic 3 days out the week! It was such a change from the 13-hour-6-days-a-week schedule I had gotten so used to. It was nice to have the chance to catch up on some life things, like going to the optometrist, taking my car to get serviced, getting my laptop fixed, etc. I really enjoyed outpatient too, which was a little surprising to me. I've always known that I like the inpatient setting more than outpatient - I find the time constraint of appointments a little difficult to manage and I worry after the appointment if I did all that I could for the patient. At least on inpatient services, you can always check in on the patient whenever you want to, get more information, etc. Inpatient cases tend to be more acute as well, which I find exciting. It's like a puzzle you have to solve. And (at least in academic centers) you work in a team, so you feel less isolated and it's more of a learning environment where it's easy to call consults and bounce ideas off others. So when I found myself really enjoying the outpatient part of Peds, I figured it must be because of Peds itself. I told myself I would wait and see how my month of inpatient peds went and then figure out if this is something I want to consider pursuing as a career.
The preceptors I worked with in clinics were also really great about letting me take the reigns and seeing patients on my own rather than simply shadowing. I don't think all of my classmates had the same experience and that's really unfortunate. There's a huge educational benefit to being active participants in patient care so I'm grateful the pediatricians I worked with were willing to do that for me. I also felt I learned a great deal in just a few short weeks. Even though it was summertime, I still saw plenty of sore throat cases, rashes, ear pain, and of course sports physicals. Although some cases were tough and I couldn't get more than one-word answers even though I was trying really hard, other times it was just so easy to build rapport. One kid even gave me his sticker!
After that, I had 4 weeks of inpatient service on the Wards team. Initially, I had requested either the Heme/Onc service (blood disorders and cancer) or Nephrology (kidneys), so I was a little bummed that I had gotten my third choice pick. But it turned out to be the greatest thing ever. I absolutely loved wards so very much. It's the general service so I got to see what you call the "bread and butter" of pediatrics - the typical cases that you manage. Each of my patients had a different issue so I got to experience a variety of things and it turned out to be great not just educationally but also as validation that this might just be the field for me. I loved learning about pediatric conditions, loved interacting with kids and their families, loved working with the various interns, residents, and attendings, and just always felt a sense of happiness. I was happy when I woke up in the morning, exciting to go in to the hospital and experience my day. And I was happy when I came home in the evening, excited about the things I had seen or learned about. Studying pediatrics also did not feel like a chore. At the risk of sounding like a nerd (but we all know I am one, not ashamed to admit so), I would read for hours and not realize how much time had elapsed. From meningitis to botulism to irritable bowel to rashes to cystic fibrosis, I took it all in as a starry-eyed third year student is apt to do.
On our last day of service, the pharmacist brought over samples of the medications we give kids so that we can taste them and experience what it's like. (Before anyone gets bothered, we used the syringes so we were only taking in a few drops.) Let me tell you, most of these are just nasty. I felt bad thinking back on all the times I had to prescribe some of these. I'm sorry, kids! It was for your own good and I'm so glad you got better!
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| PharmBar. |
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| Shelf day. Peds students have a dress code. |
What a wonderful rotation this was! I'm sad to leave but also excited to see what other surprises third year has in store for me. Check back in 8 months time to see if Peds is the winner.
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