So, pediatrics? The outpatient setting was very similar to my Family Medicine rotation in that it involved a lot of well-child visits and school physicals. My preceptor was a stickler for knowing the immunization schedule backwards and forwards so I feel fairly confident about that. The biggest thing I found with pediatrics is that there's definitely a flair when it comes to handling patients and their parents. You have the hovering parents or the parents tweezing their brows and making zero eye contact with you. You have the stranger-danger kids who just burst into tears if you so much as breathe in their direction or the little angels that smile, laugh, and bump fists with you after their exam. That was my outpatient experience. It was fun but I was eager to go to my actual love, inpatient.

The inpatient side of my rotation was really incredible. Unlike my previous rotations, I rotated with several different preceptors but I was the only student at the time so there was still plenty of opportunity to build a rapport and learn from each person. The best part of the rotation was the different areas I walked around in—admissions, ER consults, pediatric psych, and newborns at labor & delivery. There were a lot of interesting cases, one of which included prenatal testicular torsion which I ended up doing a presentation after my shelf exam. And speaking of that presentation, I made it sort of batman-themed as an ode to one of the preceptors who taught me about antibiotics with his own batman-themed presentation. Guess it's par for the course for pediatrics, eh?

Another unique thing about the second half of my rotation was the two days that were set aside to spend with in Pediatric Plastics and Pediatric ENT. I had the BEST time with pediatric plastics surgeon and got to participate in an ear reconstruction and giant nevi repair. I am super thankful for the patient PA-C and scrub nurses that helped me with scrubbing in without biting my head off. Following the pediatric otolaryngologist was really great too, minus the minor incident were I collapsed in one of the rooms. Can't underestimate less than 3 hours of sleep with only a protein shake for breakfast...consider myself forewarned.

Overall, it was a really fun rotation. I'm not sure it's usurped internal medicine's place but I think I need to add plastic surgery and inpatient pediatrics to the list of possible career choices. Tomorrow is the first day of my Emergency Medicine rotation and while my schedules leaves much to be desired, I'm still interested to see the ER again (it's been more than 2 years since, I think?). I'll try to post again midway through to share some insight. Until then!