MY THIRD YEAR EXPERIENCE: PEDIATRICS

Today's blog will feature my experience in Pediatrics.

Length of Rotation: 4 weeks
Location: Pediatric/internal medicine outpatient clinic. Sometimes at the hospital for newborns.
Environment: 2 doctors, 2 nurse practitioners, 4-6 nurses. I worked with one doctor but if the other providers had children to see, I would work with them (because babieees). I saw from 5-8 pediatric patients a day.
Attire: business casual/professional. I wore blouses with dress capris and loved my comfy Payless Shoes everyday.
Types of Patients: newborns to 16 years of age. Well child and acute visits.
Schedule Type: Routine Monday-Friday from 8:30am to 5pm

Things that were expected of me:

• Take history and do physicals on well child visits. These were different from other rotations because certain ages have a "Bright Futures" form that has certain milestones, vaccinations, etc. that you need to complete. Also, most of history taking was done through the parent instead of the patient.
• Memorize developmental milestones and vaccination schedules
• How to calculate pediatric dosages for medications
• Write SOAP notes on the EHR
• Know the most common causes of ear infections, colds, rashes, abdominal pain, etc. and how to treat it

What it was like daily: 

• 8:15am: arrive to clinic and peek at the EHR for pediatric visits
• 8:30am to noon: see pediatric patients. 
• Lunch time! Thank goodness for drug reps that bring food during most days!
• 1 to 5pm: see more patients!
• I studied in between patients but when I got home I would watch one Online Med Ed video a day and do several Med U Cases.

What I learned: Babies are cute, especially the 4 month chubby ones! But in all seriousness, I learned that you really need to know your milestones and vaccination schedule. I was often pimped at certain visits on what vaccinations the patient needs and what milestones they should meet. There are a lot of well child visits in the first several years (newborn visit, 1 month visit, 2 month, 4 month, 6 month, 9 month, 1 year, etc.) and each have a different Bright Futures form. Also knowing dermatology was clutch because babies get lots of rashes and they all look the same to me (haha).

I also had a difficult time initially examining babies especially newborns because they seem so fragile! But my preceptor told me that you have to really grab their heads when inspecting their ears. They also have pretty stable heads but definitely ask how to hold babies if you are unsure!

Things I wish I could have done more of: I wish I interacted more with the nursing staff and patients. I felt I was very shy during this rotation but I think it would have been more enjoyable had I been more social. I also wish I took the opportunity to ask my preceptor more questions but overall this rotation is pretty straightforward in what was expected of me. 

Resources used for shelf exam:

• Online Med Ed videos
• Med U Cases
• COMBANK COMAT questions
• Case Files: Pediatrics
• This was by far my best COMAT!