• medical education
• medical journalism

One of the great joys of working with children is that very few—in fact I’d guess nearly none—of my patients have read the same textbooks and journals as me. This means that they don’t feel particularly bound to present or have their conditions behave in the way that I, as an erudite and learned person of many years of experience, might expect. Children laugh at me, and on more levels than one. They look with contempt on my years of learning and experience, and, with a mischievous look, they prick my pomposity by doing things their own way. As a career, working with children is exhausting and refreshing at the same time; we don’t get to become bored. We do, however, develop coping strategies. One of the important …