Tech hosts pediatric med students
By Ruth Friedberg Campbell
Odessa American
For the first time, Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center is hosting pediatric medical students.
?We?re kind of excited about it,? said Anthony Talbert, professor of pediatrics at Texas Tech Health Sciences and clerkship director for the program.
Dr. Rita Estep, assistant professor of pediatrics, said the students have been ?very fun to work with.?
Estep added that the interaction with students also keeps faculty members on their toes.
?They?ll get teaching here they won?t get at other hospitals. ? If we do our job right, people will be asking to come here,? Talbert said.
There are two pediatric medical students and six doing clinical rotations within the University Women?s Health Center, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, all from the University of North Texas Health Science Center, Texas College of Osteopathic Medicine at Fort Worth. They started here July 6.
The University of North Texas has been sending OB students here for rotations for three years and needed additional teaching sites for pediatric students, said Dr. Thomas McHattie, regional chairman for obstetrics and gynecology at Texas Tech, assistant dean for clinical affairs and department chair at Medical Center Hospital.
McHattie said from what he?s heard, the pediatric students are ?happy with the experience and the teaching that?s being provided by the pediatric staff.?
Along with the two pediatric medical students, there are six students doing clinical rotations here in OB-GYN. Students will come in waves through the year, said Dr. Donald Loveman, regional dean of Texas Tech Health Sciences Center.
Jennifer Thigpen and Brian Anderson are both third-year students doing clinical rotations in pediatrics here.
Thigpen, 24, said she chose to come to Odessa because she knew there would only be two pstudents in pediatrics here right now.
?I think it?s been a good experience, especially because there?s no residency program in pediatrics here, so we?re working directly with the docs. It gives us a good experience,? said Anderson, 25, of Austin.
Both students said they will be required to rotate through several disciplines during their last years of medical school ? family medicine, psychology, internal medicine and OB-GYN.
Both got interested in medicine because they each experienced sports injuries.
Anderson said he first thought he wanted to work in rehabilitation, but then he decided he wanted to give the diagnosis instead.
?I started to get interested in medicine in high school,? said Thigpen, of Temple. ?I wasn?t sure I wanted to do it because I knew it was a long road.?
Thigpen said she got ?a lot of sports injuries,? growing up so she was exposed to hospitals.
Another factor was someone who went to her church and was in medicine and was ?very giving.?
?I wanted to be like that,? she said.
Thigpen is staying on with Tech for her OB-GYN rotation, which, like the pediatric rotation, is six weeks.
Days start with hospital rounds; then continue with morning report, during which students discuss cases. Anderson describes it as half teaching and half discussion. Following that are clinic, lecture and back to the clinic again.
Thigpen said she and Anderson have done ?a lot of well-baby check-ups.? This teaches the students milestones and normal development patterns.
Estep said students also learn to do vision and hearing screenings and when vaccinations are needed.
When he does hospital rounds, Anderson said he gets to visit a patient and do a normal interview to get a ?feel for what?s going on,? then talks to the attending doctor. Anderson and the doctor then go and visit the patient.
?Sometimes you find out you?re completely wrong,? Anderson said.
So far, Thigpen said she?s liked the learning experience through Tech and Medical Center Hospital. ?They?re very knowledgeable,? she said of the faculty, ?which is good because we have a lot to learn. We don?t have much clinical experience.?
?You get here and learn what things actually look like, not just in a book,? Anderson said, adding that he?s also learned some of the business aspects of medicine.
