Pediatric Hospitalist
Amelia went to Middlebury College and majored in Biochemistry. Then, spent a year in Uganda on a Fulbright scholarship researching in a rural emergency department alongside an NGO. After that, Amerlia went to medical school at Dartmouth and had a residency in pediatrics at Children’s National in DC. Currently, Amelia is working as a pediatric hospitalist.
Interview:
I'm aware that you spent some time in Uganda. How did this affect your choice of specialty?
Amelia describes her time in Uganda as deeply educational. She learned so much from the Ugandan medical staff and American doctors who volunteered with the NGO. Amelia learned of the resourcefulness and ingenuity she had to acquire in a low-resource setting. To implement sustainable change in a global health setting is challenging, but also very rewarding, states Amelia. She describes most patients as being young and under the age of five. Before Uganda, she was pretty much set on Pediatrics, but seeing the kids’ resilience in the face of very difficult circumstances, set her choice in stone.
What high school class or extracurriculars prepared you for college?
In high school, Amelia swam and played water polo. It was these sports that she continued throughout college as well. She even did a couple of years of water polo whilst in medical school. She describes these extracurricular activities as a break from her academics. It allowed her to take a step back from a rigorous schedule. This also benefited her happiness and overall time management skills. She would also like to mention the effectiveness of taking Spanish in high school. It is especially helpful in a career filled with talking to many different people from all walks of life.
What is your best tip for studying for the MCAT?
With honesty, Amelia admits the MCAT was a blur of all the standardized tests she’s taken. For every single standardized test, she found the best tip is to do as many practice questions as possible. And reviewing the ones she would get wrong to give her ‘the biggest bang for her buck’.
What were some key differences you noticed between your undergraduate and graduate medical education, and how did these stages contribute to your profession?
Coming from a liberal arts college, she had the intention of getting a well-rounded education. She achieved this by taking classes in Anthropology and even minoring in Spanish. Her college gave her the freedom to take any class that may have piqued her interest. Whereas in medical school, the first two years were jam-packed with knowledge she had to absorb. Classes were also pass/fail so there weren’t external pressures. She just had to learn what she needed to. The second two years of her medical school were filled with rotations through different specialties mixed in with normal classroom learning. Learning on the job, she says, gives you a much better sense of what a day-to-day will look like. One thing she took from all her experience was that pediatricians are, by far, the kindest doctors you’ll ever meet.
What does a typical day in your specialty look like?
Amelia is a Pediatric Hospitalist at a community hospital. Her day is a mix of healthy newborns, high-risk deliveries or C-sections, consults with pediatric patients in the ER, and admitting patients to the floor for things like Asthma, Bronchiolitis, dehydration, etc. She enjoys her job’s variety in acuity and working in a smaller hospital. Working in this environment allows her to get to know the nurses and staff on a deeper level. more than she would get in a big hospital setting.
