Kaitlyn Crow

Mr. Ratliff
ISM-1
30 October 2019
Trauma Surgery
Research Assessment #9

Schulman, Andrew. “A Day in the Life of a Pediatric Surgeon.” ​Pediatric Surgical,​ 6 Mar. 2017,
http://www.pedsurgical.com/day-life-pediatric-surgeon/.

Since my mentor is a pediatric orthopedic trauma surgeon, I have been focusing on

researching each aspect of her work before my first mentor visit. After completing assessments
over trauma surgery and orthopedic surgery, I decided to perform this one over pediatric surgery.
The article is from Dr. Andrew Schulman, a pediatric surgeon describing one of his on-call days.
One aspect of Dr. Schulman’s work that I found interesting was that even though he is
not a trauma surgeon, he still gets called into emergency surgeries when on call. In this way,
every surgeon is a sort of trauma surgeon when on-call. However, Dr. Schulman did get to go
home during his shift while on-call. Trauma surgeons must stay in the hospital for their whole
shifts, which are basically extended versions of the emergencies that other surgeons experience
while on-call.
Dr. Schulman described an emergency situation at 3 am, in which he had to go into the
hospital and perform surgery. Before surgery, he had to meet with the parents and describe the
situation. This was different from trauma surgery, in which surgeons often have to rush to the
operating room and inform families afterwards. I can only imagine how difficult it must be to
have to speak to parents in this way before performing life-threatening surgery on their child.
The surgeon then must immediately focus on doing their best to plan and execute a surgery,
often in little time. While I assume this can be difficult for most surgeons, it seems like it would
be even worse for pediatric surgeons. I enjoyed what Dr. Schulman emphasized about only
focusing on helping the patient, and I plan to attempt to do the same on my mentor visits.
Pediatric surgery can seem daunting because of the gravity of working with children in
life-or-death situations, and approaching it with the correct mindset is very important. I plan to
discuss with my mentor what her methods for coping with the tragic aspects of her job are.
Another part of pediatric surgery that Dr. Schulman mentioned was that the field not only
requires specialized surgeons, but also specialized nurses, anesthesiologists, and technicians.
From what I have learned in the medical field and researched, pediatric patients are not simply
smaller versions of adults. Their body systems work in different ways. Their heart rates are
higher, they breathe faster, and finding a pediatric vein takes special skills. The first time I saw a
fetal monitor that said heart rate was 150 bpm, I panicked and grabbed a nurse, when little did I
know this is completely normal for a mature fetus. I had never considered that the medical team
for pediatrics must be different on every level, for what is normal for adults could be
life-threatening to children, and vice versa.
Overall, while Dr. Schulman’s work had many similarities with that of trauma surgeons,
his schedule was far more structured. Even though he was on-call, he had strictly scheduled
surgeries all day until going home for dinner at 5:30. If this is a typical day for a pediatric
surgeon, it seems far less stressful.
After researching the three parts of her job title, I am extremely excited to begin
shadowing Dr. McIntosh next week and see all of her sub-specialties combine!