Good Parenting during a Pandemic
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/ Categories: WELLNESS, 2021

Good Parenting during a Pandemic

There are so many important things we do as parents to help our children become happy and healthy adults. Vaccinating your child fits right in with the other crucial lessons you are teaching them every day.

Prepare them for emergencies. Whenever you insist your child to put on their seat belt or review your family’s fire evacuation plan, you are helping to prepare your child to survive a worst-case scenario. We can’t protect our kids from everything, but we can prepare them. Vaccines give your child the best preparation for fighting COVID and could help them avoid long-term consequences.

Show them how to evaluate information. You teach your child to evaluate two different products at the grocery store, because you want them to know a good value when they see it. It may involve numbers, calculations, and expert reviews, but you know it is an important skill. The data and expert reviews supporting vaccination are overwhelming. There are so many benefits, practically no drawbacks, and they are free. You can’t get a better value than that!

Encourage self-discipline. Brushing your teeth twice a day, doing your homework, practicing your sport or instrument. We insist that our children do these things, because we know that a small investment in time and effort now will pay off in the long run and that they will be healthier and happier as a result. The same goes for getting them vaccinated. It’s a little bit of effort now that increases the likelihood of their health and success later.

Teach them to be kind and considerate. You encourage your children to say please and thank you, so that they come to understand the value of others. Vaccinating teaches the same concept in a different way. You vaccinate so that you are less likely to pass the virus to others and because you care about your community.

The single action of vaccinating your child is good for their health and the health of everyone they encounter starting as soon as the shot is given. It also teaches them important lessons that they will carry throughout their lives.

Meghan Gunn, MD, is a pediatrician with Southwestern Vermont Medical Center Pediatrics, part of Southwestern Vermont Health Care, in Bennington.

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Six Questions with General Surgeon Gina Diaz, MD

Both outpatient surgical procedures and those requiring an overnight stay are once again being offered at SVMC. General Surgeon Gina Diaz, MD, answers six questions about resuming surgical procedures safely.

1. How does it feel to be able to, once again, offer all of the procedures you had in the past?

As a surgeon, I like to do surgeries. So, to be honest, it feels wonderful get back to the work I enjoy. From late March through the beginning of May, we were still performing emergency surgeries, so everyone who needed a surgery was able to receive one during that time. But it's good to be back to a mix of scheduled and emergency procedures.

 

2. What types of procedures you perform?

My mentor during training sub-specialized in colon and rectal surgeries, and he passed that expertise and interest on to me. But I decided not to sub-specialize, because I also enjoy doing gall bladders, ulcer surgery, hernias, and the removal of skin lesions, cysts, and melanomas. Dr. Charles Salem and I work as a team on breast cancer surgeries. As a group, we provide thyroid and parathyroid and endocrine surgeries. And I provide colonoscopies. I grew up playing video games, which have a lot in common with colonoscopies, I think.

 

3. What do you like most about your job?

Surgery allows you to fix a problem for a patient right then and there. You don't have to wait 6 months for the problem to get better. You can make a problem go away. It’s very rewarding in that way.

 

4. In general, what additional precautions have been put in place to ensure that care is safe?

As surgeons, our precautionary measures have always been among the most advanced. We have always washed and sanitized many, many times a day. We were accustomed to wearing masks and shields, long before COVID-19. We implemented all of the recommendations from our industry, state, and national health institutions and review them consistently.

The whole team takes and reports their temperature daily. If patients are at risk of COVID-19, we wear N95 masks and can convert the operating room into a negative-pressure room. All of these precautions ensure that we don’t transmit infections to patients and they don't transmit them to us. I feel really good about the precautions that we have put in place.

 

5. What would you like to share with people who postponed care because of COVID-19?

I would share that it is safe to come to the hospital, see your providers, and have surgeries done. Adequate precautions are in place, and they are not going anywhere. We, as a group, feel it's safe. We encourage patients who are apprehensive to ask a lot of questions. We want them to be as comfortable as we are about having their procedure done.

 

6. How do you feel about providing care during this time?

I feel comfortable and safe providing care at this time. The new precautions we have put in place really protect both patients and staff, and the quality of care we provide is as high as ever. 

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