Everything is better in pediatrics.
Maybe that's my bias come out, but honestly I think medicine for little people is generally better.
Let me give you an example:
Adult with a cold? Gross - get a tissue. Don't infect me.
Little baby with a cold? Oh so cute! Let me suck your boogers out with a special little instrument designed specifically for the purpose! But still don't infect me (I'm a pediatrics resident, guys, I don't have a death wish!).
I've been thinking about this lately because I spent the last month working with the surgery department at my hospital, and it has been so much more fun than adult surgery! Long hours? Yes. Sore feet from the operating room? Double yes. Not exactly my forte, as a medical resident in a surgical group? Yes again.
But the patients are really adorable, and sometimes I get to prescribe popsicles.
And one of the surgeons asks every child before they have their surgery what type of band-aid they want. Twenty-plus years in practice, and she makes a point of having a wide assortment of thematic band-aids ranging from Princess to Paw Patrol just so the surgical dressing looks a little more fun and a little less scary.
I like that kind of attention to the non-medical aspects of medicine. More and more we hear about treating the whole person, and recognizing that illness encompasses so much more than the pathology of the disease causing it. That never used to be a part of the discussion, from what I'm told. Sure, there was good or bad 'bedside manner', but it wasn't something actively taught to medical students. Now it is. I had whole courses about the patient and society; about making my practice safe for everyone; about being accepting of people in order to have a therapeutic relationship with them; about not alienating them because of beliefs or life choices that are different from mine.
Sure, some of those beliefs and choices are a lot more polarizing than the great "Paw Patrol versus Princess band-aid" debate, but at the end of the day the same principle applies: the point is not about whether I agree with you; it's about respecting your choice. There is so much more I could say about this, but I think I would just be diving into the nuance and muddying what I'm trying to say.
And what I'm really trying to say is this:
If it makes a youth feel they can open up to me about their real life choices because I use the pronoun they want me to use, I am going to do it. If it makes them feel safer because I give them the Paw Patrol band-aid they asked for when they wake up from their appendectomy, I am going to do that too.
Maybe that's my bias come out, but honestly I think medicine for little people is generally better.
Let me give you an example:
Adult with a cold? Gross - get a tissue. Don't infect me.
Little baby with a cold? Oh so cute! Let me suck your boogers out with a special little instrument designed specifically for the purpose! But still don't infect me (I'm a pediatrics resident, guys, I don't have a death wish!).
I've been thinking about this lately because I spent the last month working with the surgery department at my hospital, and it has been so much more fun than adult surgery! Long hours? Yes. Sore feet from the operating room? Double yes. Not exactly my forte, as a medical resident in a surgical group? Yes again.
But the patients are really adorable, and sometimes I get to prescribe popsicles.
And one of the surgeons asks every child before they have their surgery what type of band-aid they want. Twenty-plus years in practice, and she makes a point of having a wide assortment of thematic band-aids ranging from Princess to Paw Patrol just so the surgical dressing looks a little more fun and a little less scary.
I like that kind of attention to the non-medical aspects of medicine. More and more we hear about treating the whole person, and recognizing that illness encompasses so much more than the pathology of the disease causing it. That never used to be a part of the discussion, from what I'm told. Sure, there was good or bad 'bedside manner', but it wasn't something actively taught to medical students. Now it is. I had whole courses about the patient and society; about making my practice safe for everyone; about being accepting of people in order to have a therapeutic relationship with them; about not alienating them because of beliefs or life choices that are different from mine.
Sure, some of those beliefs and choices are a lot more polarizing than the great "Paw Patrol versus Princess band-aid" debate, but at the end of the day the same principle applies: the point is not about whether I agree with you; it's about respecting your choice. There is so much more I could say about this, but I think I would just be diving into the nuance and muddying what I'm trying to say.
And what I'm really trying to say is this:
If it makes a youth feel they can open up to me about their real life choices because I use the pronoun they want me to use, I am going to do it. If it makes them feel safer because I give them the Paw Patrol band-aid they asked for when they wake up from their appendectomy, I am going to do that too.
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