Pediatrics Clerkship Component
The Women’s and Children's Health (WCH) Clerkship is a 12-week integrated clerkship block that is comprised of Pediatrics with Obstetrics & Gynecology (OB/GYN). The combination of these two disciplines allows students to experience and appreciate the continuum in health between women and children. Students experience this interconnectedness through their clinical encounters, integrated didactics, and a combined postcede at the end of the integrated clerkship block.
General description
The Pediatric Clerkship component is a 6-week immersive clinical rotation structured to give clerkship students a breadth of experience in caring for children in partnership with their caregivers. During this 6-week clerkship component, the students are assigned to an inpatient team, a specialty service, a pediatric ICU, an emergency department, and the newborn nursery. From these varied care settings and patient populations, students develop the knowledge, skills, and an understanding of the approach of pediatricians to the health care of children and adolescents across the spectrum of age and disease to effectively diagnose and care for common and complex pediatric illnesses. In addition, students understand the influence of family, community, and society on the child in health and disease.
Pedagogy
During their clinical rotations, students work as fully integrated members of multidisciplinary care teams. Preceptors include interns, senior residents, and attendings. Students are expected to take on a level of responsibility for patient care commensurate with their training and ability. In addition to the team-based learning, clerkship student-specific didactics include interactive core lectures, SIM sessions, ICU physiology rounds, and self-directed online learning modules, all of which promote deeper learning and understanding through literature review, advocacy opportunities and the consideration of relevant health disparities impacting their patients.
Assessments
Assessment structures ensure direct observation and real time feedback to help students improve over the course of the rotation. The clerkship component utilizes entrustable professional activity (EPA) based assessments of physical exam, documenting a clinical encounter in the patient record, and providing an oral presentation of a clinical encounter for each student. These EPA assessments allow students to gauge their preparedness for autonomous practice. Processes are in place for students to receive and document mid-rotation feedback. At the conclusion of the Pediatrics clerkship component, students take a medical knowledge exam as an open-book, team-based learning experience. All assessments are formative and used to equip the students with information about areas of relative strengths and weakness and not to determine final grade.
Learning objectives
- Acquisition of basic knowledge of growth and development (physical, physiologic and psychosocial) and of its clinical application from birth through adolescence.
- Acquisition of the knowledge necessary for the diagnosis and initial management of common pediatric acute and chronic illnesses.
- An understanding of the approach of pediatricians to the health care of children and adolescents.
- An understanding of the influence of family, community and society on the child in health and disease.
- Development of communication skills that will facilitate the clinical interaction with children, adolescents and their families and thus ensure that complete, accurate data are obtained.
- Development of competency in the physical examination of newborns, infants, children and adolescents.
- Development of clinical problem-solving skills.
- Development of the attitudes and professional behaviors appropriate for clinical practice.
Required experiences
Students must do the following checklist items | Minimum no. of times | Type of patient |
---|---|---|
Evaluate/help manage patient with failure to thrive | 1 | real, Aquifer |
Evaluate/help manage patient with obesity | 1 | real, PIR* |
Learn about breast vs formula feeding | 1 | real, PIR* |
Evaluate/help manage patient with delayed or possible delay in language | 2 | real, Aquifer |
Evaluate/help manage patient gross motor delay/cerebral palsy | 1 | real, PIR* |
Evaluate/help manage patient with fine motor delay | 1 | real, PIR* |
Evaluate/help manage patient with social & emotional difficulty/autism | 2 | real, PIR* |
Complete a medical encounter with an adolescent patient | 2 | real, PIR*, Aquifer |
Evaluate/help manage a patient with an eating disorder | 1 | real, PIR* |
Evaluate/counsel a patient or family regarding poor school performance / learning disabilities / ADHD | 1 | real, PIR* |
Evaluate/help manage a patient with pharyngitis | 1 | real, PIR* |
Evaluate/help manage a patient with croup | 1 | real, PIR* |
Evaluate/help manage a patient with common cold / URI | 1 | real, Aquifer |
Evaluate/help manage a patient with otitis media | 1 | real, PIR* |
Evaluate/help manage a patient with chronic cough | 1 | real, Aquifer |
Evaluate/help manage a patient with bronchiolitis | 3 | real, PIR* |
Evaluate/help manage a patient with pneumonia | 1 | real, PIR* |
Evaluate/help manage a patient with asthma | 3 | real, PIR* |
Evaluate/help manage a patient with gastroenteritis | 2 | real, Aquifer |
Evaluate/help manage a patient with abdominal pain | 2 | real, Aquifer |
Evaluate/help manage a patient with thrush | 1 | real, PIR* |
Evaluate/help manage a patient with jaundice | 1 | real, Aquifer |
Evaluate/help manage a patient with concussion / closed head injury | 1 | real, PIR* |
Evaluate/help manage a patient with cystic fibrosis | 1 | real, PIR* |
Evaluate/help manage a patient with headaches | 1 | real, Aquifer |
Evaluate/help manage a patient with seizure | 1 | real, Aquifer |
Evaluate/help manage a patient suspected of child abuse / neglect | 1 | real, PIR* |
Evaluate/help manage a patient with a rash | 1 | real, Aquifer |
Evaluate/help manage a patient with newborn respiratory distress | 1 | real, Aquifer |
Evaluate/help manage a patient with DKA | 1 | real, PIR*, Aquifer |
Evaluate/help manage a patient with a BRUE | 1 | real, PIR* |
Evaluate/help manage a patient with altered mental status | 1 | real, Aquifer |
Evaluate/help manage a baby with a fever | 2 | real, Aquifer |
Evaluate/help manage a patient with Sickle Cell Disease | 1 | real, Aquifer |
Completion of EPA 1 (Gather a History and Perform a Physical examination) with preceptor | 2 | real |
Completion of EPA 5 (Document a Clinical Encounter in the Patient Record) with preceptor | 2 | real |
Completion of EPA 6 (Provide an Oral Presentation of a Clinical Encounter) with preceptor | 1 | real |
*PIR = Peds In Review article