I spent yesterday shadowing a pediatrician in the clinic. Dr. E was very good with the kids, though I did notice a stark difference in her attitude when she was around patients and when we were in the privacy of her office. To be blunt, she was the most cynical pediatrician I've ever met, though I suspect that that's not a very fair evaluation, as I haven't met too many pediatricians and it's absolutely possible that most of them are exactly like Dr. E. Anyway, it was refreshing and a bit of a relief that I didn't have the spend the day being obnoxiously nice. In fact, we had some good laughs over stories of patient stupidity.
The day started with walk-ins, which weren't much fun because there were so many of them that we could only stay in the exam room for maybe a minute before running off and printing prescriptions and moving on. The peds department is currently severely understaffed, with only 2 full-time physicians and a handful of part-time nurses. According to Dr. E, the clinic hasn't been actively seeking a new physician, and she doubts that anyone is going to want to work there without some significant new incentives.
Anyway, over the course of the morning we saw 34 walk-ins and a handful of scheduled visits. As I had predicted, most of the walk-ins were for things like runny noses, ear infections, and a nasty strain of RSV that's currently being passed around.
After lunch the appointments slowed down a bit and we got to spend more time talking with the patients and their parents. There were several babies in for their vaccinations, which was nice because babies, unlike children, don't usually go bananas when the doctor looks in their ears. At one point, I was able to listen to a 3-week old’s heartbeat; it was going very fast (~160 bpm), and I realized that it must be very difficult to hear a heart murmur in a young child.
Though I’m not sure pediatrics is for me, I’m not discounting it for now. Interestingly, as we were leaving one of the patients in the afternoon, Dr. E gave me a weird look and asked if I’d worked with babies before. “They all really seem to like you,” she said. I was taken aback, and said that my experience around children was minimal, which is true. But, I guess it’s good that I don’t freak kids out as badly as I previously assumed I would.
I understand that a lot of pediatricians must hate dealing with hypochondriac moms, but I must say that when Richard was hospitalized last spring, the othed peds from our practice REALLY pissed me off. They were male, and EXTREMELY patronizing, and completely unwilling to accept that I had any knowledge of Richard's diabetes. Erggg. I can't even talk write about it without getting angry all over again.
ReplyDeleteIt's unfortunate that your experience with peds hasn't been so great. I think that people who want to go into the field should recognize that they're going to be dealing with a lot of annoying parents and that they still need to treat everyone with respect. There are certainly ways to be firm with an overbearing parent without being obnoxious. The doc always has the option of leaving the room if things get too heated.
ReplyDeleteI hate to be stereotypical, but yes, female docs tend to be more empathetic and willing to listen. I've already started making a list of "things NOT to do/say," and most of my negative examples have come from men, unfortunately.
listing "things not the do/say" definitely is not partial to medicine! i hear stories from teachers that i am appalled to hear about. not even kidding, the head of the math dept asked us at our last student teaching meeting "is it okay to date your students when your placement is done?.... you laugh but i am asking for a reason"
ReplyDeleteI'm sure you get lots of fun stories from all the things you're doing lately
HJW
Oh, I believe it...and yes, I'm gathering a lot of good stories about crazy patients. And the same complaints are coming up over and over again, which is interesting...
ReplyDelete