My residency program is three years long, with each year composed of 13 four-week blocks. During our first year, there is a pretty rigid set of rotations including 4 of inpatient floors, 1 NICU, 1 newborn nursery, 1 ER, 1 heme/onc, 1 advocacy (including child abuse), and 4 electives. The order is almost random and you can have pretty rough stretches and other rather pleasant periods.
For our second year, we have a little more flexibility. We choose one of a handful of tracks that somewhat tailor our schedule to match our professional aspirations. In my case, I'm thinking of doing critical care so my schedule is stacked with an extra PICU block, a sedation rotation, and a "skills" block where we get to practice minor procedures.
This month, however, I am doing one of my required rotations in a nearby pediatric office. The idea is to give us some exposure to an outpatient setting on the other end of the spectrum from our resident-staffed clinic. Whereas we generally see an urban, poorer population with several barriers to care (transportation, insurance, parents that work multiple jobs, single parents, foster parents, etc), Most of the pediatrics offices in the surrounding suburbs have patient populations that have fewer problems. Patients tend to show up on time, they tend to actually take their medications as prescribed, and they call the office frequently instead of visiting the ER for minor issues.
It's a very pleasant rotation, by all accounts.
TIL: There is some evidence that probiotic drops can help some babies with colic (unexplained fussiness and crying greater than normal). These are different than the old simethicone "baby drops" that used to be given out to theoretically combat gas. In reality, they had no greater effect than a placebo. Probiotics have a greater effect than a similarly administered placebo, but placebos work pretty well too. Half the battle is just running out the clock until this condition resolves on its own between three and four months of age.
No comments:
Post a Comment