MENTORING THRU MEDICINE
Dr. Mary Baldauf, Director of the Pediatric Intensive Care at Brookdale is committed to not only treating traumatic injuries in children but to preventing these injuries from happening. She is a strong advocate of violence prevention and her experiences in the PICU have bared her witness to the aftereffects of the violence children have become part of. “We can do better than just taking care of children and healing their wounds. We have to be able to intervene before they are affected by violence.” stated Dr. Baldauf.
The first step was to learn about what was causing the outbreak of violence in the community. After reaching out to her patients, their families and friends to get an answer to this question, she created a Violence Prevention Initiative and began mentoring some of her patients. Her enthusiasm and positive results peeked the interest of several of Brookdale’s Pediatric Residents and other members of the department and they decided to take this initiative further.
They reached out to Big Brothers/ Big Sisters, the most proactive and scientifically studied mentoring program in the Country and a link was established with the local chapter. A site-based mentoring program was initiated at Brookdale with 14 Pediatricians mentoring local highschool students who have demonstrated an interest in the health care field. Each session will begin with a health-related educational topic, and the remainder of the session will be spent getting to know the students, while advising and mentoring them. The students have been given their “Bigs” telephone numbers, pager numbers, e-mail addresses and home addresses availing themselves at any time, if needed.
The first mentoring session was held in Brookdale’s Kahn Auditorium classrooms on April 25th. Sessions will be held bi-weekly in and will also be attended by the Big Brothers/Big Sisters staff as a resource for both the "Bigs" and "Littles" alike. “We had a blast during the first meeting and we are looking forward to the future,” said Dr. Baldauf.
