A day in the life of a doctor at Levine Children’s Hospital

Ever wonder what it’s like to be a doctor at Levine Children’s Hospital?

Dr. Jessica Clarke-Pounder let us have a look inside her world as a neonatologist (we’re already impressed) working in Levine’s Neonatal Intensive Care Nursery.

When she’s not working, she lives in South Charlotte with her husband, Ian, two boys, Matthew (7) and Henry (5), and their two senior “and slightly obese” cats.

Here’s what her typical day looks like, from start to finish:

6:40 a.m. – Wake up, get kids and myself up and dressed. Manage bedhead. Ian feeds the boys breakfast and gets them ready to get in the car.

7:10 a.m. – Leave for school/work.

7:30 a.m. – School drop-off.

7:45 a.m. – Arrive at work. Get sign-out from the doctor who was on call overnight.

7:50 a.m. – Coffee + X-ray review.

8:00 a.m. – Morning huddle with the Neonatal Intensive Care Nursery (NICN) team. This includes doctors, pediatric residents, neonatal nurse practitioners, nurses, a social worker and a family navigator. We discuss overnight events as well as needs for the day.

8:15-9:15 a.m. – Teaching time for the pediatric residents – field trip to a labor and delivery room! We discuss how to prepare and set up for the delivery of a premature or sick infant.

9:20 a.m.– Assist my partner with a sick baby in his nursery.

9:45 a.m. – Walk into my nursery. Meet the parents of a baby born prematurely at 25 weeks who is just a few days old. Talk to the family and examine their baby.

10:00-11:15 a.m. – Rounds in my assigned nursery with the nurse practitioners, nursing, and respiratory staff on 11 critically ill infants. Family is at the bedside for 5 of the babies, and those parents are included in rounds and updates.

Noon – Lunch! We can’t leave the hospital for lunch, so I’m very thankful we have a lounge with (mostly decent) food.

12:30 p.m. – Review notes from rounds as well as labs, vitals, X-rays and ultrasounds. Call radiology to discuss a case. Write daily progress notes for each baby in the electronic medical record.

2:00 p.m. – Sign out to the doctor on call for overnight. We discuss each baby’s condition and things to watch for overnight. There is a neonatologist in the hospital 24/7 to take care of the babies.

2:15 p.m. – Family meeting – I meet with the family of an infant who has been in the NICN for almost a month to discuss his progress as well as expectations for the coming weeks. Our NICN family navigator and social worker attend the meeting as well and take notes to help the family.

2:45 p.m. – Consume vital afternoon cup of coffee, complete billing for the day.

3:00 p.m. – Walk through the nursery, check on babies, follow-up with nurses and nurse practitioners, and talk to families.

4:00 p.m. – Help a nurse with a procedure.

4:15 p.m. – Review pediatric resident evaluations and accomplishments for committee meeting tomorrow.

4:50 p.m. – Leave the hospital.

5:10 p.m. – Pick up the boys from after school care. Enjoy Christmas lights on the way home and listen to our favorite Christmas music radio station 🙂

5:40 p.m. – Home. Change into comfy clothes. Ian has dinner prepped and almost ready.

5:45 p.m. – Empty school folders. Decide which papers to keep and which to hide in the recycling bin.

6:00 p.m. – Dinner. Attempt to get children to eat vegetables. This may or may not involve ketchup.

6:30 p.m. – Spelling homework for Matthew. Henry insists on having a “spelling test” too so we make one up for him.

7:00 p.m. – Begin bedtime routine. It’s December, so we get to read from our Advent storybook and light the Advent wreath.

7:15 p.m. – Bath, more books (plus the fat cat who always joins us for reading), bedtime. Hubby cleans up the kitchen and makes lunches for tomorrow.

7:45 p.m. – Matthew gets another chapter of “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” out of my husband while I put Henry to bed.

7:50 p.m. – Henry: “Mommy, will you sleep with me?” Always.

8:00 p.m. – I sign into the hospital network at home and finish signing off on progress notes for the day.

8:15 p.m. – Shower and pajamas.

9:00 p.m. – Relax finally with a cup of hot tea and a show. Soon enough a fat orange cat finds my lap to curl up.

11:00 p.m. – Check on sleeping angels and give more kisses. Fall into bed and read till my eyes get tired. Then sleep and recharge to do it all again tomorrow.

Connect with Levine Children’s Hospital

Website
Volunteer
Donate
Instagram
Facebook
Twitter

(This content was co-created with Atrium Health.)