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- Attending Physician
bp1043 said:
I'm a peds resident. Over the past year I've been around hundreds of sneezing, snotty, coughing, vomiting, drooling kids who've left their wide variety of "bodily fluids" on my nametag, stethoscope, otoscope, white coat, hands, and other places. All this while probably being functionally a little immunocompromised from being so sleep deprived and stressed out and having a crappy diet. And yet I managed to go almost 10 months without so much as even a cold. Then I did an ER rotation and got sneezed on one too many times and finally got a nasty URI that became a LRI and lasted for like a month. But that's it. No gastro, no other colds, nothing for the rest of the year. But I'm really, really careful, I wash my hands a ton, use lots and lots of purel (we have purel dispensers mounted on the wall like every 10 feet in the hospital), use alcohol wipes on my stethoscope and other instruments between patients, and so on. Some things you can't prevent (like when kids cough on you). But I think you really can decrease your chances of getting sick if you're careful. And despite all the occupational hazards peds is still a blast!
Being super careful with handwashing and cleaning your equipment helps, but still I'd say many of the students who come through our outpatient clinic get sick. Peds interns also tend to get sick a few times their first year.
The nice thing is that by the time you are a 3rd year, you have antibodies of steel....
The nice thing is that by the time you are a 3rd year, you have antibodies of steel....
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I got gonorrhea from riding a tractor in my bathing suit.
