Why I’m not going to be a Neonatologist.
2 years ago, I thought there was a chance I may be interested in neonatology...
Kids are great. I like seeing kids--in clinic, on the pediatric ward, running through departments stores causing holy terror (I was that kid). For me, the best part of working in medicine are the people. That’s what I love about my program, the people here are genuine. American. Polish. Mexican. Russian. Puerto Rican. Somali. White. Black. Male. Female. Infant. Elderly. Teens. Gay. Straight. Homeless. Poor. Middle class. Upper class. And everything in-between. They ALL have a story to tell. My last ward month, the attending would ask, “What the story with your MI rule out in bed 352?” That “MI rule out in bed 352” was a recent Egyptian immigrant who was unemployed, trying to provide for himself, his wife, and his daughter, and was worried sick that this hospital visit was going to further ruin his meager financial picture. My attending didn’t know this. I did, I wanted to know WHO this guy was that I was taking care of. With kids, it’s a short story, and you get the parent’s story as well.
That’s the problem with the NICU. These kids don’t have a story. Well, they do, it just happens to be short. (Hi, I’m bobby. I was conceived 7 months ago after a drunken night on the town, my mom had high blood pressure while pregnant, and I was born way too early. I’ve been in the NICU for 45 days). Granted, the parents have a story, but I find it hard to connect with the parents in the same way that I can connect with the parents of kids on the pediatric ward, or the parents of kids I see in clinic. And for this reason, I’m not going to be a neonatologist, I couldn’t do this stuff daily for the rest of my life. I do, however, want to be a doc who is competent and comfortable stabilizing these kiddos until I can get them to a NICU...
Realizing this issue last night brought quite a bit of clarity.
.jpg)