26 August 2013

Med School Update: Pediatrics

Scott's second rotation was in Pediatrics. The pediatrics rotation was broken up into two units - inpatient and outpatient. Outpatient was up first for Scott, and lucky for us the office he was rotating through was right across the street from us in Lebanon. While there Scott helped with many well-baby check-ups, circumcisions, and conducted histories and physicals for children that came in sick (rashes, fevers, etc.). While he was listed to shadow one preceptor physician, he ended up working with all the physicians. He would come in with the first physician at 7:30 Am, have a fifteen minute lunch between the last physician working the morning and the first physician with an appointment that afternoon, and then Scott would stay until the last physician left in the evening around 6:30 Pm.

Inpatient pediatrics was much different. This particular inpatient pediatrics rotation for two weeks was located at the regional hospital in Corvallis. Scott primarily worked with one physician and one resident. He needed to be at work around 7:15 Am in order to do pre-rounds and rounds for those children staying in the hospital. The hospital hosted brown-bag lunch education sessions for residents and students every day. After lunch, Scott would study his pediatric "case clips" online until a real case happened to come through to their office. Throughout the entire four-week rotation, the curriculum required Scott to complete "30-something" online case studies covering a variety of pediatric topics to prepare himself for what he might see in the clinic. The cases took over an hour each to finish, but were easily accessible online and could be done at home or when waiting in the hospital.

The biggest value from this last rotation was the time that Scott was able to spend discussing cases and his future with the current intern/resident. This resident provided some valuable insight into what kind of efforts Scott would need to take to pursue a specialized medical career, as well as advice on what specialties to look at based on Scott's interests. Scott left the rotation having a better idea of how he wanted to practice medicine, even if he's not quite sure what field that will be.

4 comments:

  1. It's so interesting to hear the differences between the two even in the same specialty. It sounds like hard work but really valuable stuff!

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  2. Man those are long days!

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  3. I told Scott at prineville that my pediatrician is totally Scott in 30 years. Like for real. He even looks kind of like Scott-but their mannerisms are very similar!

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  4. Wow, can I just say that I love the hair!!!!

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