Nationwide Children’s Hospital was first founded in 1892 and while there is no one founder, the hospital was instead founded and staffed by six members and seven other employees. Their clients are consist of mainly children, as it is a children’s hospital, but also consist of older adults who are apart of the heart center and do not have long to live. Due to Nationwide Children’s vigorous research, their clientele researches farther than the younger ones.
Nationwide Children’s Hospital is ranked nationally as #7 2017-2018 U.S. News Best Children’s Hospitals Honor Roll and #10 in Children’s Specialties. These are both very high achievements and different departments also hold high ranks nationally as well. This hospital has expanded immensely over the past couple of decades, with many Urgent Cares and separate buildings popping up around Columbus, Ohio from Nationwide Children’s Hospital. The hospital itself has expanded immensely and now takes up most of downtown Columbus. The company consists of 1,100 medical staff and over 9,200 employees in Columbus alone. Nationwide, with over 100 Children’s Hospitals nationwide. There are a variety of jobs, ranging from the medical jobs to engineering jobs to transportation. It takes many people, with a variety of jobs, in order to properly run a leading hospital. You need engineering jobs to fix broken medical equipment, bus drivers to run transportation routes for patients, people to support the staff, and many, many other jobs. The top person of Nationwide Children’s Hospital is Dr. Steve Allen, who is the CEO of Nationwide Children’s Hospital. There are 13 main people in charge who hold the highest jobs in the hospital, ranging from Chief Nursing Officer to Chief Marketing Officer. However, it takes everyone in the hospital doing their jobs in order for it to run smoothly.
The bottom line is this: Nationwide Children’s Hospital has its original purpose unchanged, but rather evolving in the way they treats patients. The sole purpose is to help ill kids who are suffering with various diseases, regardless ability to pay. Over the many years, Nationwide Children’s Hospital has been one of the leading hospitals in research and clinical trials. It has helped children around the world to help cure their diseases or at least help them in some way possibly. Nationwide Children’s Hospital not only provides healthcare to those in need but also serves as one of the top hospitals for research. Patients and their families travel from around the world to go through clinical trials and receive various testing to try to cure diseases and cancers.
1st Semester
Dr. Marc S. Leder
Dr. Marc S. Leder is a pediatric doctor who currently works at Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, Ohio. When in high school, Dr. Leder knew he wanted to work with kids when he was older. He helped grow this love of working with children by participating in being a camp counselor. He was never sure of what he wanted to do for his future career, but was eventually pushed to go into the medical field by his parents after his grandfather had been a physician.
He recalls never really having role models growing up and in school, but rather fueled by his own self motivation. Once on the medical field path, Dr. Leder states it is hard to get off of once one goes through all of the schooling. The educational requirements to become a pediatric doctor are obtaining a high school diploma, completing 4 years of undergraduate college, 4 years of medical school, 3 years of residency, and 2 years of fellowship (now 3 years). This totals up to 14 years of additional schooling to currently become a doctor. Dr. Leder believes the skills and qualities a person must have in order to be a successful pediatric doctor is a good sense of humor, great communication skills, the ability to build trust and confidence quickly, and being a problem-solver. One must also be driven and want to do their best in order to provide the best care possible.
The main responsibilities of a pediatric doctor include taking care of patients, patient care, and mentoring young physicians and staff. Dr. Leder focuses mostly on providing the best patient care and teaching young staff the ins and outs to being the best physician one can be. He states the cons to being a pediatric doctor are that the field is extremely competitive and because there is a lot of schooling involved, delayed satisfaction often occurs. Dr. Leder mentioned that he had to see his friends buy houses and get married years before he could, but that it was all worth it in the end. Becoming a doctor is a long path and is constantly evolving. However, the pros to becoming a pediatric doctor is that it is great job security and enables one to provide for their family and home. It also brings the opportunity to travel (all places need doctors), to have a nice status in the community, to meet community leaders, and the honor to save children’s lives on a daily basis.
Dr. Leder explained how the biggest changes to the medical field today is how the focus is turning from the medicine aspect to more on the business aspect. Quality is assumed, and efficiency is now the main focus. His advice for young professionals with an interest in a medical career is to gain exposure at an early stage. One can do this by volunteering at a local hospital, mentoring a professional, and/or talking with medical field professionals. Dr. Leder recommended that there must be a level of maturity and it helps immensely if one has a mentor in the medical field. A mentor helps a younger person to think through decisions and not make rash decisions based off not enough life experiences.
Dr. Leder mentioned that even though he loves his job, he sometimes still has the feeling of “What am I going to be when I grow up?”!
2nd Semester
Pharmacy Department
Second semester, I wanted to gain experience in a variety of pharmacy specialties- therefore I did not have one designated mentor at Nationwide Children's Hospital at Main Campus. I bounced around many departments- Cardiology, Oncology, NICU, Blue Pharmacy, Emergency Department, etc. This helped me gain a broad perspective on each specialty! Every person I mentored with was so kind. I thank them for welcoming me with open arms!