Honey, I shrunk the patients

Last month, I was filled with dread as I approached the end of my senior surgical block. Not because I am gunning to become a surgeon and would miss scrubbing in during theatre sessions (quite the opposite!) but because I could see my“child health” block looming on the horizon.

Prior to this placement, I had absolutely no experience with children. I am the youngest in my family and I don’t have the hordes of nieces and nephews that other people appear to have acquired during their early 20s. Children were like tiny aliens to me, and the thought of even changing a nappy, let along trying to take a history from a screaming 6 year old instilled a deep sense of panic in me.

We had three days of introductory lectures before starting clinical placement, during which we learnt that everything that can go wrong in an adult can also go wrong with a child. On top of this, children can also suffer from a variety of often quite bizarre and rare conditions not found in older people. After these lectures we were sent out to our hospitals with strict instructions to “see lots of children.”

The month since then has been my favourite month of medical school. My fears were completely unfounded, and working with children has been amazing. I really like that in every paeds consultation there are at least two patients – the child and their carer. Both of their problems and concerns have to be explored and addressed, and the solution has to be acceptable to both.

A big difference between child and adult patients is their willingness to be examined by a student. Although obviously some children are shy, at a certain age many of them are more than willing to show off whatever ailment they have to anyone nearby who will have a look, which is very useful for learning. As a medical student you get quite used to getting sent out of adult consultations so this has been quite refreshing! Less fortunately, children also tend to have less control over their bodily functions than most adults, so if you are squeamish when it comes to getting covered in whatever happens to be coming out of a child at the time, then maybe paeds isn’t for you!

Children get ill quickly but they get better quickly as well, and in A&E I have seen really quite poorly children being given the correct treatment then bounce out of the department a few hours later, which is really satisfying!

Neonates and infants provide their own challenges, as they can’t communicate that they are unwell. One of my consultants likened paediatrics to veterinary medicine for this reason, and paediatricians have to rely on their examination skills and clinical acumen to work out what is going on with a child.

Whilst on this placement I have had the opportunity to clerk sick patients in A&E, helped to resuscitate neonates on SCBU, hold supervised clinic sessions and do some work on the wards. Oh and I’ve also now changed that all important nappy!

Megan Earle : 02 Dec 2014 13:47 |  Tags: Mbchb Paediatrics Sarah Student Warwick Wms |  Comments (0) |  Report a problem