JohnnyOU said:
Hi everyone.
Does a pediatrics doctor working in a hospital encounter children dying on a regular basis?
I would enjoy being a children's doc...but am not sure how I would handle
seeing kids die regularly.
Thanks
Johnny
Greetings:
This topic has been discussed a few times before so you might get some more insight with a search. In general, how often you deal with the death of a patient depends largely on your specialty. However, it is almost inevitable that it will occur at least occaisionally in both specialty and even general practices. Certainly it is a part of the residency training process, especially when rotating through neonatology and pedi intensive care.
However, I hope that you won't let this deter you from going into these fields. It is undeniably true that the first few times one of your patients dies, it can be very hard, and it is not uncommon to have doctors, especially residents, cry when one of their patients dies. However, as the doctor caring for these patients and their families, you have responsibilities that will be the focus of your time and hopefully, your energies.
First, relatively few deaths are completely unexpected. Rather, death occurs after a long or short illness accompanied usually by gradual worsening of the patients condition. As such, often the death of a baby (for example) is the end of a long period of very obvious suffering and/or the result of a hopeless congenital condition, and as such doctors and nurses, although sad about the death feel relieved that the suffering is over.
Furthermore, we are responsible for providing compassionate care for the dying child (pain medication, etc) and for talking with and helping the family throughout this proocess. After the child's death, our responsibilities include issues of offering an autopsy, signing death certificates (it was a long week last week, I did three of these), and months later, meeting with families to review the autopsy.
After many years although it is never easy to have a patient die, learning and becoming comfortable with doing this aspect of medicine "properly" and compassionately, is a source of some satisfaction and as such I don't think it is a major burden for most pediatricians, generalists or specialists.
Regards
OBP
