Third rotation DOWN! When I say "time flies" I am not joking. Currently, I'm in my Internal Medicine Rotation (Part 1) so I just wanted to take a little bit of time to do a recap of my previous rotation: Pediatrics.

The pediatric rotation for 3rd year was basically outpatient peds so I was in the clinic. There was some hospital component when the doctor was on-call but we were not required to go on-call with them. But if there's a patient, we would round! Alright, so how was my experience? Peds was actually really fun. It was so different than adult medicine (which is what I'm used to since that's most of what we've seen so far), and was a challenge for me. It was challenging since most of the history you're getting is from the parents and if the kid is old enough to "try" to explain, it may not always be accurate. Nonetheless, it has taught me to trust more on the physical exam and to truly think about differentials.

I think the best part was interacting with the kids and I just saw so much potential in all of them. From the tiniest babies, to those almost graduating high school, I can just imagine the wonderful things they will do in the world. What made me sad though, is that some of them will not be provided the opportunity to fully bloom on into all that they are capable of - it sounds so pessimistic but it's the brutal truth. I can only hope for the best and hope to be able to make an influence on them even at an early point in life. A lot of being a pediatrician, from my impression, is being able to influence not only the child but also their parents and/or caregiver. They come to the pediatrician for advice, to hopefully help the child grow up as best as they possibly can. The role of the pediatrician is so crucial, I've come to find out and I have so much respect for them.

I truly enjoyed my time in pediatrics, and am excited to be able to experience in-patient peds in the near future!

Alright, now as for the COMAT Peds Exam... Here are the resources I used and found helpful:
- Peds Vaccination Schedule Mnemonic: click HERE. (YouTube Video)
- Case Files Pediatrics - I didn't go through this book extensively, but what helped was looking at the cases & making note of the "next steps" because what I found that I have trouble in is management.
- COMBANK Qbank
- COMQUEST Qbank
- First Aid USMLE Step 2 CK - I went through the pediatrics section thoroughly and it covered a lot of the high-yield topics!

Hope you all found this helpful and showed you a little glimpse into my pediatrics rotation! Next up is Internal Medicine so stay tuned ;)

Xx, Dorothy