Today I shadowed Christine Wu at her Knightdale Pediatrics office. I started out the morning by meeting Lori, Dr. Wu’s assistant doctor in the office. Then I got to go with a nurse, which was different to rooms to see what a nurse typically does. She went into the rooms and asked similar questions that Dr. Wu asks and did tests like the strep test and blood draw (finger prick) to test for things like strep throat and mono. I also got to see how babies (and young toddlers) are weighed, using a baby scale. The nurse then sends Dr. Wu a note through their system to let her know what kinds of tests she took, what the parents are saying, and the results of those tests (if they are available at that time). The nurses also check vitals when they go into the rooms and after they bring the patient back from the waiting room. Dr. Wu then goes into the room and asks the same questions and figures out what to do for treatment, or for a physical she just makes sure they are growing and everything else looks normal.
I also got to see a family that had an infant and did not like vaccines. Dr. Wu explained to me that while parents have the ultimate say for vaccines, many of their judgements are flawed based on the internet or their friends. She also told me that because she works in a private practice she can refuse patients who do not get immunizations required by them by certain dates and thus she told this family that if their daughter did not get the immunizations by 2 yo they would have to find a new practice.
I also got to experience the lab today, which was very cool and I got to see how blood is tested for hemoglobin and wbc levels.
I also got to see babies being weighed and their heads being measured for a 2 day old baby and a 4 day old baby. Dr. Wu also told me that all babies when they are born have jaundice, which I thought was interesting.