This past Wednesday all across Canada it was Bring your kid to work day for grade nine students. It was basically where we got to experience and learn about what our parents do at their work and also maybe get an idea of what you would like to be when you are older. You get to go around and see what your parents do, then interview one to three people at the work place with a few questions about their job.
Me and my dad:
I went to both my parents’ work as they own a doctor’s office in downtown Vancouver for Pediatric dermatology and allergy. My mum is the manager of the office and my dad is a pediatric dermatologist and allergist. It was pretty cool to see what my parents do on an everyday basis as I only knew a little bit of what they accomplish.
looking into the offices:
The day started out with my dad introducing me to a few of the medical residents who come and work with my dad for a few weeks. Residents are students in their forth year of medical school or speciality program who come and work with doctors to see what type of speciality they want to pursue and gain work experience. Throughout the day I got to go in and visit some of my dad’s patients and see some of the diseases such as eczema. Also, I was able to see what happens behind the scenes and what planning it takes to organize a doctor’s office.
As my dad is a pediatric doctor, which means he works with kids, one of my favourite parts was getting to see all the little kids who were so adorable.
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- View of the waiting area
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- View of the kids area
For the interviews we had to ask four question to the people we were interviewing. The question were “What are the essential skills necessary to perform your job?, What are some of the duties performed during a typical day? Week? Months? Year?, What are the academic qualifications for your position? and What are the employment prospects in your field?”. I decided to interview my dad.
When I interviewed my dad I learned a lot about his work that I didn’t know before, such as he is the only dually trained Pediatric dematologist and allergist in North America.
These are his answer to the questions:
Question one: “knowledge of physiology and good problem solving skills, also personal interaction skills.”
Question two: “performing a history and physical exam, prescribing medication and explaining diseases in a understandable way so people are more knowledgeable and treat their diseases.”
Question three: “4 years for Science degree, 4 years of Medical School, 6 years of Residency, and two years of sub speciality fellowship training”
Question four: ” kids get skin diseases that need to be treated but there is only one Pediatric dermatologist/allergist in North America ”
These are some pictures of the office:
After experiencing what my parents do and learning about different aspects that go into running a doctor’s office and what it’s like to have a work experience, I had a great time going and shadowing my dad and mum. I personally wouldn’t want to become a doctor myself because I wouldn’t want to go to 10+ years of school. Also, it just isn’t what I want to pursue in life and this experience helped me with my choice. However I do think that a doctor is a cool job especially because you get to help people. Overall, this was a very fun experience and I would definitely do it in the future by shadowing a profession that I would want to do one day!