WILTIMS #335: Complications

Quote of the Day: "If you don't get sick on your pediatrics rotation, you either have exceptional hygienic habits or you didn't see enough kids." ~My clerkship director

Today was the orientation day for my 6-week pediatric rotation. And boy did I need orientation; this is an incredibly complicated clerkship.

I will be spending one week in the pediatric ER, two weeks on the inpatient subspecialty service, one week on the inpatient general pediatrics service, one week in the neonatal unit, and one week at an outpatient pediatric office. My hours vary from 5 hours in the ER to 10 hours on the inpatient units. I will also be doing four call shifts: two on weekdays, extending my day to 16 hours, and two on the weekends, varying from 10 to 12 hours in the ER or inpatient units respectively.

There are 10 categories of assignments that we must complete on top of our patient care duties and "extracurricular" studying (does that even make sense?). If I manage to keep all of this straight I will be amazed.

As we were led around the hospital today, we were wrapped up in our complicated near future. One of my classmates was literally rereading the call schedule list while walking on the tour of the hospital. Others of us hadn't seen each other in months and were enjoying catching up after being at various different sites for the past 6 weeks.

Then a hush fell over our chatter in the hallway. A nurse needed to get by us with a big fancy hospital bed. Adrift in the center of this comparatively vast bed was a very tiny, very sick little boy. It only took a few glances around the group to see that we had all remembered why we were there.

A pediatric intensivist at our school once described his patients as the most deserving of our professional energy. That seems crass at first, but it's a harsh truth. That little boy didn't do anything to deserve being in that bed with tubes and IVs coming out of every orifice and limb. He never smoked or over-ate or made any mistakes unexpected of any other kid. And now, thanks to him, I'm ready to work through any long hours or tedious assignments over the next six weeks if it means helping kids like him feel even a little better.

TIL: It takes between 3 and 6 months to progress from a raking sort of grasp (using all four fingers and the palm) to a scissoring grasp (using the knuckles of the index finger and thumb) and finally to a mature pincer grip (using the tips of index finger and thumb).