If nothing else, this summer has proved that I am an unfaithful blogger. So I will write a summary post here, and yet again promise to blog more often.
I spent this summer doing a "primary care preceptorship" which I prefer to call "Shadowing Version 2.0" or "Being a 3rd year with a good excuse not to know anything". For the past eight weeks I have mostly worked with a pediatric hospitalist, but I also spent a couple weeks at non-for-profit pediatric clinic. A pediatric hospitalist is a doctor who has done a pediatric residency who, instead of going into an office setting or specializing further, works in multiple different hospital settings. It is a relatively new specialty. I mostly spent time in the newborn nursery and the emergency room. I shadowed a number of different hospitalists and asked them all "what made you decide to be a hospitalist?" and the answers were always surprisingly similar - more flexible hours and you don't have to deal with the business side of medicine as much. Some doctors mentioned how they like dealing with the sicker kids but didn't necessarily want to specialize.
What I love about pediatricians, though, is that if you love kids, they will love you. I've always loved working with kids, and this summer has persuaded me that I would love doing pediatrics. You may be surprised to hear this, but kids smell way better than adults! In spite of the poop, pee and vomit, kids always seem to be cleaner. And their shampoo smells nicer. When I say adult, you may be thinking of yourself, and you may be saying "I shower every day!" Well, I hate to break it to you, but the few adults I met in the hospital over the past year did not smell very good. I'd take a poopy diaper over an adult who hasn't showered in a week any day.
I'm not set on it or anything - don't worry, I'm keeping my mind open! - but for most specialties, you can generally choose between adults or kids, and I definitely choose kids. Yay one choice down.
The other thing this summer did is give me hope. The first year of med school was hard for me. I didn't feel any passion for my classes. I struggled to create a life that kept me inspired and made me want to get out of bed in the morning. But this summer was wonderful - I loved being in the hospital, I loved working with the babies, I loved reading about diseases in between patients. I really loved wearing scrubs all the time. And I felt confident - I felt good about what I was doing. One of the highlights of my summer is the other day when my preceptor told another doctor that he thought I was operating on a third to fourth year level. It is really encouraging to know that while doing well on these stupid tests and paying attention in the classroom may be a struggle for me, I have the potential to be really good at what I will be doing for the rest of my life (after this year). I hope I can keep that in mind as I try to learn a terrifying amount of knowledge over the next ten months. I hope I can remember that the more I learn (and truly ingrain, rather than memorize in the short term for a test) the better I can serve my future patients.
