If your hospital system is like mine, it has a dedicated pediatric emergency department. A place connected to a larger children’s hospital, where all of the providers, including nurses are certified in pediatrics. They also offer a whole host of other pediatric support, like child life specialists, without whom I would not be able to suture a laceration or obtain cerebrospinal fluids samples. All of the people have one goal, the safety and well-being of the child. This system, as you might expect, fosters a unique culture of medicine; a culture which I assert is heavily steeped in paternalism…

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