Day 1

On our first day at CHOP, we spent the day in clinic shad­ow­ing Dr. Howard Sny­der ’65, a Senior Urol­o­gist in the Depart­ment of Urol­ogy. Every­one was really wel­com­ing, and took time to accom­mo­date our arrival. Dr. Snyder’s assis­tant, Ms. Brown, showed us around the urol­ogy depart­ment, and intro­duced us to all of the staff. Dr. Sny­der had a full day lined up, and we were able to learn about the symp­toms of com­mon infec­tions. Many of the cases were uri­nary tract infec­tions. It was inter­est­ing to see how much Dr. Sny­der relied on ultra­sounds and other types of imag­ing in order to make a diag­no­sis. The nurse prac­ti­tioner, Ms. Rudick, also took time to explain to us how to read the ultra­sounds, and what abnor­mal­i­ties to look for. Through­out the day, Dr. Sny­der also explained to us his work in lob­by­ing Con­gress, and his role on dif­fer­ent med­ical asso­ci­a­tions. It was eye open­ing to learn just how impor­tant gov­ern­ment pol­icy is to the day-to-day task of deliv­er­ing med­ical care.

Day 2

Today we spent the day in the oper­at­ing rooms. This was very excit­ing for me, since I had never observed any surg­eries before. Though Dr. Sny­der him­self doesn’t oper­ate any­more, we shad­owed his col­league Dr. Lam­bert and the res­i­dents. The surg­eries lined up for the day included tes­tic­u­lar realign­ment, and her­nia repairs. We were told that these surg­eries were very typ­i­cal. Dr. Lam­bert and the res­i­dents were very wel­com­ing in answer­ing ques­tions, and made sure we under­stood what was going on. She was also very accom­mo­dat­ing in mak­ing sure we could see what was going on. The entire oper­at­ing room was equipped with video screens, and she also let us stand up on stools so we could view the surgery directly. Through­out the day, I also had a chance to talk with the res­i­dents about med­ical school, and why they decided to choose urology.

Day 3

Dr. Sny­der, and the Princeterns

On our last day at CHOP, we spent half the day in clinic and half the day in the oper­at­ing room. The cases in clinic this morn­ing were more var­ied; there were cases of blood in the urine, a bike acci­dent, and kid­ney stones. In the oper­at­ing room, the cases were fairly sim­i­lar to the ones we saw the pre­vi­ous day. We shad­owed a dif­fer­ent doc­tor today, and it was inter­est­ing to see the dif­fer­ent approaches dif­fer­ent sur­geons had to the same cases. Once again, we had the oppor­tu­nity to talk to the res­i­dents, and learn not only about the case going on, but also about life as a doc­tor. Over­all, this was an amaz­ing expe­ri­ence. Dr. Sny­der is a great teacher, and has an exten­sive knowl­edge in all aspects of med­i­cine. I would highly rec­om­mend this oppor­tu­nity to any­one else inter­ested in medicine!