Every now and then I’m asked to cover a local solo pediatrics practice for a day or two. As a hospitalist, I have to dust off my primary care cap before I go in. I have to admit, I find it challenging. I deal with sick – sometimes very sick – kids on a daily basis as a hospitalist. While the kids aren’t (usually) as sick in primary care clinic, the pace is unrelenting. I barely have time to think before I have to run and see the next patient double-booked into a 15-minute slot. Fortunately, there is often not a ton of thinking involved, as a primary care pediatrics practice in winter involves a lot of runny noses and earaches. For those patients that require a little more thought than a simple cold, though, the stress level amps up. At least as a hospitalist I can pause between patients to look up an article or refresh my memory about a drug dose. In primary care clinic, I’m backed up 45 minutes and 6 patients if I so much as stop to pee. The challenge, then, becomes one of providing good, thoughtful, compassionate care in a time-limited setting.  Some days I do better than others.  I know I couldn’t do it for a career, but that makes me appreciate all the more those that do.  So to all you overworked, frazzled, brilliant primary care pediatricians out there, I tip my hat to all of you.