Wesley Kidscast presented by Wesley Children's Hospital

In this episode, Dr. Monica Quinn and Dr. Robert Wittler discuss all things botulism in the pediatric patient.    While botulism is a rare occurrence, it is still seen and needs to be recognized promptly so appropriate intervention can be given with the botulism immune globulin.   Dr. Quinn and Dr. Wittler provide us with important tips on how to recognize  symptoms of botulism and how manage the symptoms once a diagnosis has been made or even suspected. 

We are back!  After a short pause in recording, we return with an important episode on pediatric asthma.   Our guest for this podcast episode is Dr. Sathyaprasad, pediatric pulmonologist.  She gives us important tips on managing pediatric asthma patients including education on SMART therapy. 

In our latest episode, we speak to Tonia Kennedy, a respiratory therapist with over 25 years of experience.   She discusses the various modes of oxygen delivery and respiratory support that we can provide to pediatric patients.   

Your 3 year old pediatric patient needs an MRI but how in the world are they ever going to hold still????  Have no fear--the pediatric sedation team is here!   Dr. Nisha Agasthya and host Dr. Monica Quinn are featured in this episode of Wesley Kidscast discussing the topic of pediatric sedation. 

How is sedation different from anesthesia?  What medications are used?  Is sedation safe?  How do you prepare your patient and their families for sedation?  All these questions and more will be answered in this episode. 

How much grief do you take on in a given day as a healthcare provider?  We often times watch families grieve over the death of a loved one, or a patient grieve over learning of a new diagnosis, but how often do we as healthcare providers, take the time to acknowledge the grief and loss that we can experience.  It can be the loss of a patient we have known forever, or just for one day.  It can be the constant thoughts of "what if I had done this?" or "what if I missed something?".   Each one of us experiences grief through our career and coping with it or even acknowledging it is not something we are always taught to do.    Some might even consider it taboo to talk about.   

This episode welcomes Dr. Melissa Ortiz who is an emergency medicine physician at Wesley Medical Center and a certified peer support specialist, to discuss provider grief and steps we can take to acknowledge and process it.  

Dr. Melissa Hopper, friend of Wesley Kidscast and certified eating disorder specialist, joins us today to discuss pediatric eating disorders with a main focus on anorexia.   She identifies ways pediatric providers can screen for and identify anorexia, as well as some common treatment options. 

For resources on eating disorders please email Erin at [email protected]

Acetaminophen is a common medication that is easily accessible.  It can get overused and overdosed which can lead to toxic levels causing severe abdominal symptoms and hepatotoxicity.  Half of these toxic ingestions however are actually unintentional.    Acetaminophen toxicity is responsible for 56,000 emergency room visits, 2,6000 hospitalizations and 500 deaths a year.    Todays episode of Kidscast discusses the pathophysiology and management of Acetaminophen toxicity with clinical pharmacist Lela Hernandez.

How do we as providers make bad news "less awful" for patients and their families?  As healthcare providers our goal is to heal and fix our patients yet sometimes, despite our best efforts, we simply cannot.  This episode of Kidscast, invites chaplain Amy Claaussen to discuss the topic of pediatric end of life and provides us with some guidance on approaching this discussion.  What should we say?  What should we definitely not say?  How do we help families and each other cope and endure in the face of a poor prognosis or an unexpected death? 

In this episode we bring back one of our favorites, Dr. Robert Wittler, as we discuss some infectious diseases that  are making an appearance in our state.   Join us as we discuss Parechovirus and Monkeypox and how they affect our pediatric patients.   We will talk about trends both locally and throughout the state, how to identify, manage and test for these diseases.

As healthcare workers, we take care of others but do we always take care of ourselves?  Burnout is a real and concerning problem among those who work in healthcare and was exacerbated by the COVID pandemic.   It is such a concern that the US Surgeon General has put out an advisory which highlights an urgent need to address the burnout crisis across the country.  This episode of KidsCast features Dr. Melissa Hopper, a clinical psychologist, to discuss this topic and offer a better understanding of burnout through her own experiences along with providing insight on how to bring the joy back to medicine.