Community Helpers: Doctors

Lesson Plan - Get It!

Audio:

Everyone gets sick within his or her lifetime.

When you are sick, there is a special community helper that can help you feel better.

• Do you know who this special community helper is?

Tell your parent or teacher.

That's right! The community helper that helps you feel better is called a doctor. Doctors take care of sick patients. When you go to the doctor's office or the hospital, you are the doctor's patient.

When you get sick, you either go to a doctor's office or a hospital. Doctors' offices and hospitals are where doctors work. Here they have all of the tools they need to help you feel better.

• Can you think of some tools doctors use?

Share your answer with your parent or teacher.

One tool you may recognize is called a stethoscope. This important tool is used to check your heart rate. The doctor uses this tool to listen to your heart beat.

• Can you see the stethoscope above?
• Has a doctor ever listened to your heart before?
• Did it tickle when he put the stethoscope on your skin?

Another tool a doctor uses is called a thermometer. A doctor uses a thermometer to check your body's temperature. If your temperature is too hot or too cold, you may be sick.

• Can you see the thermometer below?

Show your parent or teacher the thermometer.

Doctors use many other tools, too. They use a tool you have probably used before.

• Have you ever used a flashlight?
• What does a flashlight do?

Share your answer with your parent or teacher. Flashlights shine light into dark places. Doctors use flashlights to look down your throat, look in your ears, and look at your eyes. A flashlight helps a doctor see things that would be hard to see without extra light.

Doctors also use needles or shots to help keep you safe from harmful diseases and other illnesses. Even though shots can hurt and be scary, they are important because they can keep you from getting sick, or give you medicine to make you feel better. After getting a shot, a doctor will give you a cotton ball with tape or a bandage to cover up the spot where the needle went in.

• What are some ways a doctor has helped you?

Share your story with your parent or teacher, then move on to the Got It? section to see what it is like to get a checkup.