Helping students deal with this difficult reality is an important part of her teaching and mentoring activities. “From a clinical viewpoint, I help my students understand how to evaluate patients and look for red flags suggesting abuse or neglect,” she says. “However, it also is important for them to consider abuse in terms of different problems.”
Dr. Ottolini teaches her students “not to be closed-minded and not to be prejudiced concerning patients’ socieoeconomic status. They need to understand that abuse and neglect don’t just happen to poor children.”
From a personal standpoint, “we really need to focus on caring for children and not focus on who’s to blame. We want to work in a therapeutic relationship with parents as well as the child,” explains Dr. Ottolini. “It is not for us to figure out who is responsible for the abuse or neglect but to care for the child and work with the parent who is there. It is our job to make it clear to the police when abuse has occurred. Then we make sure that the situation to which the child is being sent when he or she leaves the hospital is reasonable and safe.”
A Happy Hospitalist
Dr. Ottolini rushes down the hall to see a patient as two residents hurry to keep up with her. They pepper her with questions as they walk, and she answers between glances at the chart in front of her. The smile on her face makes it clear that she is enjoying every minute of her “busy, crazy day.” TH
Joanne Kaldy writes regularly for The Hospitalist.