Thursday, November 11, 2004
From the dark side
Being a med/peds resident, I get to experience the contrasts between the two specialties. And for the residents in med/peds, we call the internal medicine portion "The Dark Side." Over the past 10 days, I have been reminded why it's called that.
On pediatrics, patients come in generally with only one complaint/problem. You take care of that problem and the patient is easily discharged home to their parent/guardian. In fact, most of the time a child sees a doctor, they are doing well and are coming in for vaccinations or a school physical.
On internal medicine, patients tend to come in with multiple problems. Their medication lists are endless. Many of the patients are on 8-10 medications at home and have to take medicines 3-4 times in a day. When they come in to see a patient, it's because something is wrong. And even when they are ready for discharge, there are often delays dealing with nursing home placement, insurance or other socioeconomic issues.
But there are good contrasts for internal medicine as well. As complex as the problems are with adults, it requires a lot of thinking and holds a lot of intellectual stimulation. When you are able to take good care of a patient, you see them as often as once every couple of weeks and can keep good progress of their health, which can be very satisfying. And adults are often easier to make diagnoses on since they are able to better describe their symptoms.
As difficult as it is to switch from kids to adults and back, it's the best thing that I could have found to do for a residency. I couldn't imagine myself doing anything else.
|
On pediatrics, patients come in generally with only one complaint/problem. You take care of that problem and the patient is easily discharged home to their parent/guardian. In fact, most of the time a child sees a doctor, they are doing well and are coming in for vaccinations or a school physical.
On internal medicine, patients tend to come in with multiple problems. Their medication lists are endless. Many of the patients are on 8-10 medications at home and have to take medicines 3-4 times in a day. When they come in to see a patient, it's because something is wrong. And even when they are ready for discharge, there are often delays dealing with nursing home placement, insurance or other socioeconomic issues.
But there are good contrasts for internal medicine as well. As complex as the problems are with adults, it requires a lot of thinking and holds a lot of intellectual stimulation. When you are able to take good care of a patient, you see them as often as once every couple of weeks and can keep good progress of their health, which can be very satisfying. And adults are often easier to make diagnoses on since they are able to better describe their symptoms.
As difficult as it is to switch from kids to adults and back, it's the best thing that I could have found to do for a residency. I couldn't imagine myself doing anything else.
