Pediatrician
Ana Elena Navarrete
The Life of a Pediatrician
I interviewed Dr. Navarrete about her experience and outlook on her profession. I called her over the phone because she is a Pediatrician in Mexico but nonetheless the interview was a success. Aside from her years of training (10 after a 4 year college) she has been a Pediatrician for 13 years. After 4 years of learning the Pediatric material she fell in love with the career and knew it was the right choice.
Successful training such as taking courses yearly to stay up to date and communication class are what helped her advance and be successful. Other ways to advance according to Dr. Navarrete is getting further educated in subspecialties such as Neurology and Neonatology. Dr. Navarrete begins her day early to go check up on children at the hospital in Mexico. At 10 am she then tends to patients at her clinic who are not hospitalized until noon. Then she does her last routine hospital check until 5 where she goes back to the clinic until 8. After this she goes back to the hospital if shes needed and stays alert for emergency.
Other things she can help with are newborns and C-sections. Dr. Navarrete takes two vacation periods per year. one being in April and the other in October. She also may take weekends off depending on how busy she is. To conclude the interview she goes on to explain that even though costly, the career of pediatrics is promising. Having good grades benefitted her and gave her a scholarship from the government. Dr. Navarrete believes that the most interesting project was beginning her clinic but even though it was difficult the kids made it worth while.