Someone blogged about their reasons about not going into Peds. Well, here is my take on it:
1) I spent my whole damn rotation sick with URIs and GI bugs.
Surprisingly, I didn't get sick at all during the peds rotation. But I usually get sick at least twice a year anyways.
2) Really sick kids make me desperately sad, to the point where even doing a practice question about a child with cancer ruined my whole day.
Interestingly enough, I did heme/onc clinic, and I was worried I would get really sad, but I didn't. Maybe it's because it was an outpatient clinic, so the kids were still well enough to not have to stay in the hospital. But in general, even the sickest kids have some spunk about them.
3) I am really, really bad at looking in screaming baby ears. And that's like half of what pediatricians do.
Hm...I guess I didn't really do too much of that. I suppose when it has to be done, it has to be done. I think after taking care of my baby brother, I've learned how to be tough with kids when necessary.
4) I found medicine involving non-sick kids to be really boring. Strep throat? Boring. Rashes? Boring. Otitis media? Boring.
I just enjoy seeing the kids. Even if they just have a cold, they're just a joy to be around.
5) Parents = mega aggravating. (Of course, now I deal with adult children, which are also mega aggravating.)
True...unfortunately. But I figure if you can get along with the kids, that's half the battle.
6) When I saw a cute baby, I mostly just wanted to play with the baby, kiss him all over his cute little pudgy face, and then go home and make lots of babies. And when I couldn't do those things, I got frustrated.
That's also very true, minus the make lots of babies part. I suppose if I really need to play with someone, I can always find my little bro.
7) Whenever we'd have guests at peds club, they always complained about their salary. (I saved the most shallow reason for last.)
1) I spent my whole damn rotation sick with URIs and GI bugs.
Surprisingly, I didn't get sick at all during the peds rotation. But I usually get sick at least twice a year anyways.
2) Really sick kids make me desperately sad, to the point where even doing a practice question about a child with cancer ruined my whole day.
Interestingly enough, I did heme/onc clinic, and I was worried I would get really sad, but I didn't. Maybe it's because it was an outpatient clinic, so the kids were still well enough to not have to stay in the hospital. But in general, even the sickest kids have some spunk about them.
3) I am really, really bad at looking in screaming baby ears. And that's like half of what pediatricians do.
Hm...I guess I didn't really do too much of that. I suppose when it has to be done, it has to be done. I think after taking care of my baby brother, I've learned how to be tough with kids when necessary.
4) I found medicine involving non-sick kids to be really boring. Strep throat? Boring. Rashes? Boring. Otitis media? Boring.
I just enjoy seeing the kids. Even if they just have a cold, they're just a joy to be around.
5) Parents = mega aggravating. (Of course, now I deal with adult children, which are also mega aggravating.)
True...unfortunately. But I figure if you can get along with the kids, that's half the battle.
6) When I saw a cute baby, I mostly just wanted to play with the baby, kiss him all over his cute little pudgy face, and then go home and make lots of babies. And when I couldn't do those things, I got frustrated.
That's also very true, minus the make lots of babies part. I suppose if I really need to play with someone, I can always find my little bro.
7) Whenever we'd have guests at peds club, they always complained about their salary. (I saved the most shallow reason for last.)
Ah, the money issue. I'm just hoping God will provide. Also helps that I've always been a minimalist.
Although my clerkship evals weren't as stellar as I had hoped (should've scheduled it later in the year), peds turned out to be one of my higher shelf scores.
After doing orthopedics where the resident talked daily about how awesome it is that you can just find a problem and fix it, I actually started thinking about surgery since the general stereotype of surgeons are "jocks" and I figured I was fairly athletic. Although I do like how there's a definite fix and I love the mechanical/hands-on part of surgery (considered doing mech-e as an undergrad), there were definitely aspects of general peds that were more appealing. My calm, detail-oriented personality seems to be more fitting for general pediatrics. I like having the chance to talk to patients and really getting to know them - especially those cute little kiddos! I also like having the opportunity to follow patients for a long time, given that I tend to be someone who remains friends with elementary school friends. I like coming up with a differential and going through all the evidence of ruling out things. One of my favorite parts of medicine was going to resident rounds and see them go through the thought process of coming up with a diagnosis. Ah...too bad there isn't really one thing that encompasses everything, except for maybe family medicine and possibly ob/gyn. But trying to do everything makes it seem like it would be too difficult to be good at anything in particular (family medicine), and ob/gyn seems to be relatively simple internal medicine stuff, and when it gets more complicated, they get consults anyways. I suppose it's true with general peds too that the more complicated stuff gets consulted on. Ah, that's the dilemma of medicine: do you want to know very little, but know that little stuff very well or know a lot, but not anything in particular that well?
Although my clerkship evals weren't as stellar as I had hoped (should've scheduled it later in the year), peds turned out to be one of my higher shelf scores.
After doing orthopedics where the resident talked daily about how awesome it is that you can just find a problem and fix it, I actually started thinking about surgery since the general stereotype of surgeons are "jocks" and I figured I was fairly athletic. Although I do like how there's a definite fix and I love the mechanical/hands-on part of surgery (considered doing mech-e as an undergrad), there were definitely aspects of general peds that were more appealing. My calm, detail-oriented personality seems to be more fitting for general pediatrics. I like having the chance to talk to patients and really getting to know them - especially those cute little kiddos! I also like having the opportunity to follow patients for a long time, given that I tend to be someone who remains friends with elementary school friends. I like coming up with a differential and going through all the evidence of ruling out things. One of my favorite parts of medicine was going to resident rounds and see them go through the thought process of coming up with a diagnosis. Ah...too bad there isn't really one thing that encompasses everything, except for maybe family medicine and possibly ob/gyn. But trying to do everything makes it seem like it would be too difficult to be good at anything in particular (family medicine), and ob/gyn seems to be relatively simple internal medicine stuff, and when it gets more complicated, they get consults anyways. I suppose it's true with general peds too that the more complicated stuff gets consulted on. Ah, that's the dilemma of medicine: do you want to know very little, but know that little stuff very well or know a lot, but not anything in particular that well?
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