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>>Jonathan Powell: My name is Jon Powell and I'm a pediatrician. Kids are great. I feel
like a 41-year-old kid myself and I think that's
part of the reason I really enjoy my job, and I know that the parents of my
patients enjoy the way I do things because I treat them as equals, as odd as
that may sound.
I get along very well with kids.
When I walk into the room, I greet the child and introduce myself to them
first. It personalizes the experience for the kids and they realize that
they're important and that I'm here to see them. I like to involve the
parents in the medical decisions that I'd like to help them make regarding
their children.
I do a lot of teaching in my rooms and I want them to be
aware of things that they need to be worried about, and often times more
importantly in pediatrics, things they don't need to be worried about.
One of my favorite success stories involves a 12-year-old boy who I saw
within 6 months of starting my job. Now, five and a half years later things
are entirely different. When he showed up he was a very pudgy, overweight
young man, and I wound up talking to him and counseling him and his mother about healthy
eating and lifestyle changes that he could make to get him so
he wasn't overweight. Every time I see him now for his yearly sports
physical I have to comment on how impressed I am because he's no longer
overweight. I'm really proud of him and what he has done is going to make a
big difference for the next 50 or 60 years of his life.