Monday, November 21, 2011

Land of the Little People

"Children are not just little adults." That's what the pediatricians would have us believe. And the converse is what other physicians assert. "Pediatrics is just veterinary medicine." That's what the surgeons say. All of this has some element of truth.

Kids are very different developmentally and metabolically compared to adults. Every age is marked with milestones, knowing and utilizing those milestones are key when "finessing" a peds patient to cooperate. And a lot of the patient history is obtained through the parent/caregiver, so in a sense it is like veterinary medicine.

I can't believe this is my 4th (and last) week of inpatient peds this year, and I still have SO MUCH MORE to learn!! Hopefully I learn a lot of that while I'm on my outpatient month coming up next. In some ways it's such a different world from that of adults, and in other respects way too similar. Like all the rotations before, there are things I like and dislike about this rotation. I LOVE my patients, sometimes I linger a bit too long in their rooms. But my team isn't as efficient as I'd like and I wish the residents had a bit more time to teach us.

So I've come to realize that I don't particularly care for hospital medicine (that is, only treating acutely ill patients in the hospital). I like a mix of inpatient and outpatient care. Peds certainly hasn't fallen on my list of things I want to go into, but this rotation hasn't reinforced it as much as I thought (or hoped). But the reasons why I'd choose peds over medicine remain true.

But that's for another post, as it's getting late and I have to be in at 6am. This month is almost like working surgery hours, ugh.

4 comments:

naturgesetz said...

Had to laugh at "veterinary medicine."

I can imagine that doing nothing but hospital medicine would be very stressful. Some people may be built to thrive on stress, but most of us aren't.

Biki Honko said...

I think the daily grind of hospital care would quickly wear one down. Hospital work requires a certain kind of doctor, and not everyone is cut out for it, and thats ok too!

Hope you had a least a day or so off to relax and recharge.

. said...

Happy Thanksgiving Aek...have a great weekend too!!

Aek said...

naturgesetz: Hospital medicine isn't particularly stressful. It's just kind of . . . tedious.

Biki: It more the hours than the work. I can do a lot of work and lot of intense work in a short time, but it's the long hours that wears me down.

.: I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving too!!