Learn About the Pediatric Profession

Speaker: Of all the areas of medicine, Pediatricians are very, very special because most of them didn't go in it for the money. Is that true? Speaker: Well, I can only tell you about my experience. I find that Pediatricians are really child advocates. They are by and large, a group of very, very sensitive, very interested people, who go into the profession because they really want to help children and also want to prevent disease. Very often people go in to medicine for a whole host of reasons but, by and large, I think pediatricians are very, very special because we go into it, because we really want to help families deal with the children, we are the experts in child development and adolescent development and we really want to help prevent many, many diseases and certainly through immunizations, we have been able to do that. Speaker: Like, if a child was brought to you uninsured, they had no insurance, the kid was sick, they are not sent away. Speaker: No, especially in hospitals legally cannot refuse a patient who seem -- Speaker: Not about the legal, I know perfect. You, your institution will never send a kid away. Is that true? Speaker: At Coney Island Hospital, we are, we are here for all patients, no matter whether they are able or unable to pay for health care and we will treat them the same, whether they have cash or they have insurance or they are uninsured. Speaker: That's what makes Pediatricians so special and you can't figure out, you are on the phone, you are talking with somebody. No one says no. It's a child and that's what makes Pediatricians very special is that true? Speaker: We go into Pediatrics because we care. We care about our patients, we care about the families that we serve and we want to be part of making this world a better place for kids and their families. Speaker: Besides extended fathers and grandfathers for the whole community and I think we work it as a unit, don't we? Speaker: Well, you know one of the things that we are now doing more and more in Pediatrics is what we call Family-Centered Care. The family becomes part of our extended family. Family-Centered Care means that we include the family in all the medical decisions that we make. We don't want to take over for the mother or the father, the mother or father know their child best and including them in all the medical decisions that we make. I think this is really what Pediatrics is all about in this 21st century. Speaker: We spend more on preventive care than any part of medicine, is that true? Speaker: That's the reason I went to Pediatrics, it's to prevent disease. I am not interested in just waiting for somebody to get sick and then try and make them as comfortable as possible. I really want to prevent the children in adolescence from getting sick in the future. Speaker: A good pediatricians you say, when a kid gets admit to a hospital, he thinks what could we have done so kid didn't come here. Speaker: It's interesting, I always say that when a child is sick that's the example of my failure as a pediatrician. If you really do good prevention, child should never get admitted to a hospital. We really should be able to see them in an office setting, we hopefully will never see them in the emergency room and hopefully never have to admit them to a hospital because that means that we didn't do the right thing and we have to stop that and say what could we have done better. Speaker: Sometimes, the payment is that thank you in the eyes of the parents. Speaker: It's all about that appreciation and being included as a part of the health care team and that extended family, that Family-Centered Care that's really what it's all about and when I see kids coming back to me years later with their children and they are showing off their families, I know I did a good job in prevention. Speaker: That's why Pediatricians are very special. Speaker: It sums it all up.