Michael Dinh
MS2, Seattle Foundation Site
University of Washington School of Medicine
The University of Washington School of Medicine’s Pediatric Interest Group has been up and running despite COVID-19 putting a halt to many of our programs. Here are a few of things we’ve done. We have worked with Othello Kids to create activities for children accompanying their parents to clinic. More recently, we have been hosting panels inviting guest speakers to discuss different areas within pediatrics. Our most recent talk had Dr. Juanita Hodax talking about gender-affirming approaches to pediatric populations and Dr. Alexandra Molnar giving us her perspective of working with parents and as a caregiver. We also teamed up with the Teddy Bear Clinic at Kid’s Quest Museum. Children got to bring their favorite stuffed animal to experience their annual physical exam. The stuffed animals got their eyes, ears, weight, teeth, spine, and more checked by medical students. The intent was to allow children to have a better sense of what happens at a doctor’s visit and to alleviate anxiety. Our most recent project was starting up a baby cuddling program in the NICU at UW Medicine’s main campus hospital comforting newborns with neonatal abstinence syndrome and other conditions.
We hope to continue collaborating and initiating projects within our community to better pediatric healthcare. Please let us know if you have any events us medical students can assist with!