Rural Rounds

Since the beginning of August I've been working on my pediatrics rotation. It started mundanely enough with 8 am - 5 pm clinic hours, and by the beginning of September picked up in worktime, with 6 am - 5 pm the norm for a day's work, Monday through Saturday. Still, despite peaking with 75 - 80 hours each week not including time spent studying, pediatrics is the most enjoyable thing I have encountered in medicine thus far, and the largest reason for that is the children. Early on in the first week of the rotation Dr. Groshong, the head of the pediatrics department, spoke to us about what he wanted us to get out of the next two months. He said the primary goal is for us to enjoy learning to care for children and have fun doing the work we do at the same time. That I enjoyed working in pediatrics is an understatement; there was no house officer or attending physician who was ever unpleasant to be around or ever was in so poor a mood it was intolerable. Clinic duties consisted of ...