Annual Publication 2025 FINAL 05292025 accessible - Flipbook - Page 40
LONG DAY’S JOURNEY
INTO PEDIATRICS
BY ROBIN BIFFINGER
S
ometimes, the longest journeys wind up being
the most rewarding. Born in Saudi Arabia, raised
in Connecticut, and then moved to Las Vegas in
middle school, Chelsea Prollamante, DO, is happy
she has 昀椀nally found her home. “I de昀椀nitely
wanted to stay in Las Vegas pretty early on in my
life,” says Dr. Prollamante, “and I think staying on the West Coast
was a big deal for me, so I’m actually really glad to stay here and
continue my residency training.”
As a third-year resident in the Kirk Kerkorian School of Medicine
at UNLV Department of Pediatrics, Dr. Prollamante says she got
her inspiration to go into medicine from her parents who were
both nurses. “I saw how they were very hardworking, and they
sacri昀椀ced a lot to get to where we were. So, I knew that I wanted
to help people in that sort of way.”
Through medical school, she wanted to try a bit of everything and
thought family medicine might be a good 昀椀t. Then, pediatrics was
one of her last rotations. “Once I did my pediatrics rotation, I was
like, ‘I love the kids. I love how resilient they are and how it doesn’t
seem like work.’” So, the journey continued. Her 昀椀rst choice for a
residency program after completing her undergraduate medical
education at Touro University Nevada was the school of medicine
and she got it. “I knew early on I wanted to stay in Las Vegas, so
this was de昀椀nitely my 昀椀rst choice.”
Dr. Prollamante 昀椀nds adjusting to different rotations to be the
most challenging aspect. “By the time I get used to kind of the
昀氀ow of the day and understanding how to take care of those
speci昀椀c patients, I move on to the next rotation. So, it’s kind of
like starting a new job every month over and over again. But,
it’s exciting because you learn something new and you go into
different subspecialties and you learn a little bit of how that
attending likes to do things … So, it’s challenging, but very, very
rewarding.”
Dr. Prollamante also notes that the help from the o昀케ce of
graduate medical education (GME) has been invaluable to her
as a resident. “Our faculty advisors who make sure that we’re
40 KIRK KERKORIAN SCHOOL OF MEDICINE AT UNLV
meeting all our milestones … and making sure that we have our
Q1 projects done and our scholarly activities … the one-on-one
with advisors has been really good. I reached out to the school of
medicine advisor for education and it was actually Adeste [Adeste
Sipin, MA, director of academic support services in the o昀케ce of
student affairs] who really helped me with getting a schedule for
my boards. This time to have to study for boards, you have to do
your clinical rotations, you have to actually work as a physician. I
couldn’t 昀椀nd the time to work when I should study for boards and
he actually set up a really detailed and very, very nice schedule for
me. And I actually passed [the] boards with his help.”
Dr. Prollamante also 昀椀nds the leadership of the faculty invaluable.
“I think that the faculty and the program is really receptive to a
lot of the changes that we’re trying to make … that’s one of the
reasons why I joined in the 昀椀rst place. The residents’ voices are
always being heard.”
As she plans to go into private practice in Henderson in July, Dr.
Prollamante speaks frankly about the dire need for pediatricians
in a state ranked near the bottom for pediatric care. A 2023 study
from the American Board of Pediatrics showed that Nevada
ranked 49th in the country for its pediatrician-to-child ratio. Where
a ratio of one pediatrician for every 2,000 children is ideal, Nevada
has one pediatrician for every 2,600 kids.
“Our resident clinic sees a lot of underserved patients and a lot of
them utilize the clinics that we do with CCSD [Clark County School
District] … I see that there’s a huge need for general pediatricians
and subspecialists. Some of our patients that we see in the
inpatient setting, we will have to transfer them off to Utah or LA
[Los Angeles], because we don’t have the subspecialties that they
need in town … We also see those patients in rural populations like
Bullhead, Arizona, or even Pahrump [Nevada] … there’s not a lot of
places that deal with kids, especially with chronic conditions in
those rural areas. So, there’s a huge need all across the board.”
Dr. Prollamante says, “That’s why I think it was a big deal for me to
stay in town because I’m hoping to kind of help with that.”
