After spending weeks and months in the NICU, PICU, and ER, taking care of truly sick kids, as a general Pediatrician, you will now be taking care of much more basic problems and illnesses that may have not been serious enough to even make it into your hospital during training.
It can be humbling to go from taking care of the sickest kids in the hospital to getting stumped by your first case of chiggers or poison ivy, just because those problems never made it into your Children's Hospital Emergency Room or Clinic. And not knowing how to handle common parenting problems, like potty training or discipline, can be just as difficult, especially if you don't have kids of your own.
Some things that can help make the transition from residency to general practice easier include:
- Reading a dermatology book cover to cover so that you can easily recognize rashes that kids may have.
- Reading the AAP Red Book cover to cover. It is easy to read and is also helpful for the boards.
- Reading a few parenting books, such as about newborns, sleeping, breastfeeding, discipline, nutrition, and potty training, etc. In addition to helping you recommend a few books to parents, it will help you come up with your own style of parenting advice to give parents.
- Visiting a drug store and browse the baby and child aisles to see what over-the-counter products are available to treat common conditions, such as colic, constipation, colds, and sprains, etc.
- Not being afraid to look things up when you don't know something. Remember, it is more important to recognize when you don't know something, then to think that you know everything.
