Alysia
What is the hardest part about being a pediatrician?
#medicine #pediatrician #pediatrics #pediatric-nurse
2 answers
Mark J Lester MD., FAAP
Mark J’s Answer
The hardest part of being a pediatrician is learning how to achieve a balance between work and your life outside of work. Being a pediatrician means that you are always placing the well-being of a child first. If you have to squeeze one more sick child into your schedule or stay late because a patient arrived late or call a parent back because they have questions and are really worried about their child then you will do it and sacrifice your own time and energy to this endeavor. As a pediatrician you will always feel like your patients are the ones that need you more than anyone else and sometimes you will sacrifice time with your own family because you feel like your patients need you more. Sometimes that is true but sometimes it will be the wrong choice. The hardest part of being a pediatrician is figuring out when to put life outside of work ahead of your patients.
Residency is hard too. Also when you get done with residency and are seeing patients for the first time without supervision can be scary and hard also. But these things pass with time. Just keep going and these things get easier. What I mentioned earlier gets harder as you become more seasoned. More people trust you (and only you) so you can't let them down so you give more and more of yourself. But you have to remember that you are more than your job. You have to have a balance.
Parents that don't listen to you are also hard to deal with but you have to remember that - for the most part, parents want what's best for their children and if they don't listen to you its because they believe that what they are doing is best for their child(or some other social stressor is a barrier). You just have to convince them that your suggestion is evidence based and also in the best interest of their child.
Thomas Sutherland
Thomas’s Answer
Managing the family unit
Parents whose children are sick enough to be hospitalized are often stressed out, sleep deprived and understandably emotional. This frustration can lead to tense conversations with pediatricians.
Dr. Lloyd says empathy and strong communication skills are important in these situations. "Doctors have to remember that when parents voice frustration, it's because they're worried and scared," she explains. "If a parent is angry, pediatricians must take a step back, consider how stressful his or her life is and not take it personally."
Treating sick children is a team effort, says Dr. Lloyd, which means everyone needs to be on the same page. "Everybody involved has the best interest of the child in mind. Together we need to decide what's going on, how to best treat the child and how to implement that plan. Often that means starting over — sitting down with the family and involving social workers and bedside nurses to clear up any misunderstandings and move forward."
Solving medical mysteries
Being a pediatrician is rewarding and challenging work. But how do they overcome the unique challenges that come with the job?
Being a pediatrician is rewarding and challenging work. But how do they overcome the unique challenges that come with the job?
When treating young or developmentally delayed patients who can't explain their symptoms, pediatricians must also be good detectives.
"Maybe you have a 2-year-old child complaining of some vague abdominal pain," says Dr. Lloyd. "Sometimes it's hard to distinguish between gastroenteritis, appendicitis or some other ailment. So you have to rely on your clinical skills."
This means performing thorough physical exams, which can be challenging with small children. "You learn certain tricks of distraction. I have been lucky to learn from wonderful role models at UCLA," she says.
The best diagnostic tool is often chatting with the parents. "They know their children better than anyone," she says. "When they say, 'This behavior is unusual,' a red flag should go off in your head. If they say, 'He always complains of tummy pain when he doesn't want to go to sleep,' the red flags don't go off as much."
Dealing with emotional trauma
One of the toughest challenges pediatricians face is seeing children and their families suffer, in addition to losing young patients. "It can be devastating," says Dr. Lloyd. "But you have to be the best pediatrician you can while understanding that not everything is in your control. Bad health outcomes unfortunately do happen to children. You have to find ways to process that and still have a good attitude so you can care for the next child and family."
Dr. Lloyd admits this is an ongoing struggle, and says good relationships with other pediatricians are her greatest comfort. "Talking a lot and getting support from each other is so important," she says. "That's probably the number one thing we all do to process."
In a similar vein, Dr. Lloyd recently partnered with Brenda Bursch, PhD, a professor of psychiatry and pediatrics at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, to create a resiliency program for pediatric residents. "We adapted a training model the military uses, the FOCUS Project, that was originally developed at UCLA. I learned several tools that help to be resilient in face of trauma and sadness, such as inspirational goal-setting and using narrative storytelling to debrief after something sad happens. We are really excited to teach residents these skills so they can start using them earlier in their careers."
By Taylor Mallory Holland
-https://medschool.ucla.edu/body.cfm?id=1158&action=detail&ref=605