Medicine alumna Laura Socwell didn’t plan to work in pediatric emergency medicine. Now, she’s proud to care for Iowa’s littlest patients.
Story: Celine Robins
Photography: Mark Tauscheck
Published: June 9, 2025
“There is a saying in pediatrics that kids are not just little adults. They’re physiologically different humans,” says Laura Socwell, MD.
As a pediatric emergency medicine physician at Blank Children's Hospital in Des Moines, she's grateful that on even the most challenging days, she can make a patient smile with a sticker and a Popsicle.
'You never know what you are going to get’
Growing up in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Socwell was always drawn to science and math. There were no doctors in her family, but her parents encouraged her to use her passions to help others.
“I went into college thinking medicine or psychology was what I was going to do. I ended up majoring in brain and cognitive science, which was kind of a marrying of both of those things,” she says.
After completing her undergraduate studies at the University of Rochester, Socwell was certain she wanted to pursue a career in neuroscience. But as she experienced different specialties during medical school at the University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine, her certainty began to wane.
“I pretty quickly realized that wasn’t the area for me,” she says. “Then I was stuck, because I was in my third year and I didn’t know what else I wanted to do. That's a terrifying feeling."
The more specialties she tried, the more Socwell found that she loved parts of each one. Emergency medicine gave her the chance to practice “a little bit of everything.”
“I found it very interesting and challenging because you never know what you are going to get,” she says. “Every patient is different. You get to use all these different thought processes and everything you’ve learned.”
She discovered she especially loved caring for kids — a surprise, since she had little experience with them before medical school.
“It’s just so much fun!” she says. “You get to be a kid yourself half the time.”
Socwell realized she didn’t have to choose between her two newfound loves. After residency training at the University of Iowa and a fellowship at Akron Children's Hospital in Ohio, she returned home to start her career in pediatric emergency medicine.
“I’m a Midwesterner at heart,” she says. “I always planned on being in Iowa. My family is here. This is my community.”
Medicine at Iowa
The Roy J. and Lucille A. Carver College of Medicine is a highly ranked medical school where students learn to become accomplished clinicians and top-flight researchers and educators. Students come to Iowa to study medicine in a program that uses case-based learning as the basis of their education.
Caring for Iowa’s littlest patients
Socwell now practices at Blank Children’s Hospital in Des Moines. Blank is one of few hospitals in the country that has a dedicated, 24/7 emergency department for children.
She sees her role as a resource, not a competitor, for other providers across the state. She is happy to consult with providers on pediatric issues. Collaborating with emergency medical services across the state, Socwell lately has been helping ambulances and emergency medicine technicians become more prepared to care for children.
“If we can help the providers as pediatric patients are coming to the hospital, then the hospital experience for the patient will be better, too,” she says.
“I’m a Midwesterner at heart. I always planned on being in Iowa. My family is here. This is my community.”
A child and an adult arriving at the emergency room with the very same symptoms could have completely different diagnoses.
“If someone comes into the ER in respiratory distress, an adult may have COPD [chronic obstructive pulmonary disease] or heart failure. If it’s a kid, it's probably a virus or asthma,” she explains. “If you treated that kid as a little adult, you could potentially do things that are harmful to the kid.”
The extra expertise helps in other ways, too. Pediatric emergency medicine physicians know how to help kids stay still while they get a shot or stitches. Blank's ER also stocks common tools and supplies in smaller sizes. They have specialists available to help explain medical topics in a way that children can understand.
Though there are many tough days, Socwell says the rewards are well worth it.
“Kids are resilient,” she says. “I've seen kids with stories of injuries that should be devastating, and they walk out of the ER with no injuries. It's almost like they didn't know what they were supposed to do.”
