Thread by @RThienprayoon

I've been thinking about compassion and pediatricians.

There's an idea that pediatricians are "softer" than internal medicine docs because we take care of kids. And kids are cute! Funny! Sticky! 1/

Once when I was a resident, a scrub tech told me I was going to treat runny noses all day while HE worked in the OR doing SURGERY.

I had already matched to a hem/onc fellowship.

But the perception was there. My job was soft. His was hard.
2/

The irony is that pediatricians embody fierce compassion.

We show up when kids have been shot. When they have been abused. When they have been disfigured.

When they are dying.

There is nothing soft about that. 3/

We become pediatricians because we are fiercely compassionate.

Not because it's easy.

Not because kids aren't sick.

But because they bring out the best in us as clinicians.
4/

Compassion isn't just kindness. It isn't just empathy. It isn't pity.
It is actively trying to relieve suffering.
And when kids are suffering, pediatricians show up.
We advocate for a better world for them.
It's hard.
But it's love. And I'm proud of us.
#Tweetiatrician 5/5/end