Experimenting

I took this photo in the parking lot on my way home. It is of Thistle Hill. They have turned this older home/property right next to the children's hospital into a food truck park at lunch. Never got a long enough lunch while I was here to make it over to taste test, but I think that it is an excellent idea for a use for the property. So many people in these two large hospitals (right next door) are probably sick of cafeteria food, so it is really nice to have other options right next door.

The photo I would have loved to take would have been the bags of tiny syringes containing various antibiotics/other drugs that my attending had the pharmacy send up for us to taste. They were really small, like 1cc/1ml, and full of various medications in various colors (yellow, pink, white, blue-ish). Unfortunately, I didn't get to take that one, because my attending has a very strict no cell phone policy. In fact if she sees you using your phone, for anything, she takes it away. Makes you feel a lot like you are in high school again. I understand the professionalism aspect, but I believe in the environment in which my peers and I will be practicing we must learn to retain control of our devices and still be professional. It really isn't as complicated of a task as our school often makes it out to be. Normally, gentle correction is all that is needed to handle violations and arbitrary rules just upset the students.

Rant over.

This was the best experience ever. No one has ever offered us this chance. In medicine one of the biggest predictors of compliance with a treatment plan is the patient's ability/desire to comply. In pediatrics, a lot of this is effected by the taste of the medication that you prescribe. Kids often cannot swallow pills so they must be given liquids or chew-able tablets which necessitates them tasting the medication. Therefore if you can choose a medication that tastes good but you choose one that doesn't your rate of successful treatment won't be as good. However, you don't ever get this information from textbooks. No pharmacology lecture ever includes that amoxicillin and cephalosporins often taste like strawberries or bubble gum and ciprofloxacin and metrodiazole make you want to gag. There are also certain steroids that taste better than others (i.e. prednisolone is better than prednisone). Even though most of what we tasted was not good, I thought this was a REALLY fun and very useful activity to get the opportunity to participate in.

She also took the time to teach us about the different formulas. This was all news to me, since I don't have any children and have never had to shop for formulas. Also super useful because now I know how to calculate the number of calories infants are taking in if I know how many ounces they have had. I also know about the reasons a baby might need to be switched to a different type of formula and the reasons they most definitely don't need to be switched. In terms of taste, all formula is nasty to an adult, but the more broken down the formula is the worse it gets. Also don't smell them.

Fun Fact: Regular newborn infant formula has 20 cal/oz. Premature infant formula has 22 cal/oz. This is based on breast milk. Mother's breast milk naturally makes this distinction.