Pediatrics

This is a four-week rotation which follows the medical school calendar. It is offered every block of the academic year starting with the second one. Up to three students can be accommodated in each block. Electives are served on the School Age & Adolescent Unit (7-2), the Infant & Toddler Unit (7-3), and the ROLR Unit (7-4/7-W) at the Children�s Hospital of Yale-New Haven Hospital. The Pediatric Emergency Department offers a four-week elective, but this experience does not take the place of a elective on the inpatient units for those seeking a department chair letter of recommendation. The deadline for submitting a request for a Pediatric elective is April 1st. The schedule will be finalized and announced by April 14th. When you request a elective in Pediatrics and are assigned a date, you are making a commitment to the Department of Pediatrics and you are expected to fulfill this commitment. For those who have taken significant time away from clinical medicine, it is strongly recommended that you complete at least one clinical elective prior to beginning your elective.

This elective is four weeks and will encompass all aspects of Pediatric Cardiology. The student will be expected to make daily inpatient rounds in the PICU, NICU and inpatient floors with the Pediatric Cardiology attending, fellow and Nurse Practitioner. Observation in the Pediatric Cardiology catheterization laboratory and Pediatric cardiothoracic operating room will be encouraged. The student will also be expected to attend the afternoon outpatient Pediatric Cardiology clinics. Students are expected to attend all scheduled Pediatric Cardiology conferences.

This elective will provide an extensive exposure to various aspects of pediatric endocrinology with an emphasis on problems of growth, sexual thyroid disorders, diabetes (type 1 and 2) and obesity. The student will participate in the daily Pediatric Endocrinology Clinics, as well as the inpatient service, concentrated at the Children's Clinical Research Center. The rotation includes participation in weekly Pediatric Endocrinology conference as well as one conference held jointly with the Medical Endocrinology Service.

This elective provides a wide variety of experience in the diagnosis and management of malignant diseases and hematologic problems of infancy and childhood. The student functions as part of the inpatient service team, and participates in the outpatient clinic 3-4 mornings each week. Weekly conferences include the multidisciplinary Pediatric Tumor Conference, Hemostatsis Rounds (jointly with Medical Hematology), a Fellows conference, and weekly Pediatric Hematology/ Oncology patient management rounds.

Students will participate in pediatric infectious disease rounds by presenting the case study of an inpatient that they have examined to a group of faculty and fellows. Emphasis will be placed on the correlation of the clinical problem and its practical management with principles of infectious epidemiology and clinical microbiology (bacteriology and virology). Consulting rounds are held daily. Teaching rounds in Diagnostic Microbiology are held four times per week at 11:00 A.M. Weekly divisional rounds will last approximately two hours and are held on Thursday afternoons. Students also attend the Pediatric AIDS Clinic.

Senior medical students will have an opportunity to participate as a member of both the intensive and sub-acute care teams (two weeks on each team). During the elective, students are directly responsible for the care of their assigned patients under the supervision of pediatric residents, neonatal fellows, and attending neonatologists. A core curriculum composed of interactive talks on the major neonatal topics is presented two to three times a week, as well as daily radiology rounds and monthly morbidity and mortality conference.

During the elective, students are exposed to a wide variety of activities in the section of Respiratory Medicine. These include the evaluation and treatment of infants and children with acute and chronic respiratory diseases such as: asthma, cystic fibrosis, bronchopulmonary dysplasia, bronchiolitis, pneumonia, aspiration syndromes and obstructive sleep disorders. The emphasis is on learning how to assess respiratory dysfunction by physical exam and laboratory testing. The basics of mechanical ventilation will be reviewed. Students will have the opportunity to rotate through both the inpatient and outpatient services, Pulmonary Function Laboratory and Children's Sleep Center. Students are expected to participate in seminars, journal club and patient rounds.