Pediatrician

***Note: I'm making up names and sex for all the docs I shadow to protect their privacy. All docs will be assigned a letter and will be referred to as "she" because I'm tired of "he". ***

So I started shadowing a pediatrician last week. Let the record state that I've never had an interest in kids. They drool, they make messes, and they get sick. As in the words of one of my professors, they're little walking disease bags. Hence, I've never thought about being a pediatrician. But do you know what?
Kids are so damned cute.
Kids don't usually have much to complain about, occasional tummy or ear ache here and there and it's pretty much taken care of. Then they go back to doing whatever cute thing they were doing before. I haven't given it much thought, but I find it fascinating how humans develop at that age. They are starting to develop their own immune systems, their bodies are developing, and all their systems are starting to gear up. It's also a very fragile time in life. Any foods ingested at the wrong time could result in an allergy or hyper sensitivity at a critical development time. That would worry the crap out of me constantly if I were a parent. Knowing what I know now, I'd probably be pretty germaphobic with my kids. So parents, I have to hand it to you.

Another aspect about being a pediatrician that the doctor brought to my attention. People will also make appoints even though the kids aren't sick? What? I mean isn't that what a doctor is there for? Not to a pediatrician. For those of you that aren't already parents, well-child visits are appoints you make with the pediatrician every couple of months/years to make sure your kid is developing properly and make they have all their shots. Dr. P loves these visits. In addition to the usual shots and physical, she believes that it is the perfect time to communicate with parents about how to raise kids. You know what? I agree. I mean there are parenting classes but those are rare. New parents already have the time sucked out of them by adjusting to a new person in their lives. How else are parents supposed to know at what age to start potty training their kids or what foods to feed them? I think that it is important that parents ask these critical questions because how else are they going to get credible information?
I've never seen this side of pediatrics and I find it extremely interesting. I like having knowledge and I love spreading it to benefit others. I find that this specialty is more about teaching as well as healing. Very cool.

There is a growing concern that Dr. P did bring up. She works for a big hospital and her boss told her to cut down on these well-child visits and see more sick patients. They get paid the same whether it be a 30 minute well-child visit to discuss development or 15 minute check for an ear ache. She grows increasingly tired of the bureaucracy and she told me to keep an eye out since it's starting to really affect how doctors operate and even deliver health care from when she first started practicing.
While I understand that concern, I never really knew how it was "back in the day" so all the regulations and red-tape will already be apart of my medical training. The thing that I do raise concerns about is if indeed getting through bureaucracy does affect the care of the patient, are current and future doctors providing less care for their patients than the old doctors?