Pediatrics Component

Women’s and Children's Health (WCH) is a 12-week integrated clerkship block that is comprised of Pediatrics with Obstetrics and 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.

The Pediatrics 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 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.

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.

Assessment structures ensure direct observation and real time feedback to help students improve over the course of the rotation. The 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 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.

• Apply basic knowledge of growth and development (i.e., physical, physiologic, and psychosocial) from birth through adolescence, to promote health and prevent disease in pediatric patients and their families.
• Learn the clinical knowledge and apply basic science concepts to evaluate and treat common presentations and diagnoses in children and adolescents.
• Use clinical reasoning to synthesize data into a prioritized differential diagnosis and plan.
• Demonstrate behaviors consistent with the highest standards of professionalism and medical ethics in all patient encounters and interactions with colleagues.
• Demonstrate effective communication with patients, families, and all members of the healthcare team.
• Obtain an accurate and appropriately detailed medical history in a logical and organized manner for a given clinical setting.
• Complete an appropriate and accurate hypothesis-driven physical and/or mental status examination
• Deliver an effective oral and written presentation, appropriately tailored for a given clinical setting.
• Recognize whether to obtain and how to interpret common diagnostic studies in pediatrics.
• Demonstrate the unique approach pediatricians take in history taking, physical exam, management, counseling and care coordination of children of different ages and developmental status by utilizing strategies such as play, use of surrogates for data gathering, and family centered rounding.
• Demonstrate sensitivity and responsiveness to diverse patient populations.
• Appreciate how patient health care needs are impacted by social and structural determinants of health.
• Recognize the opportunities and roles of pediatricians in advocating for individual patients and children in society.
• Reflect on the influence of family, community and society on the child in health and disease.
• Utilize effective methods of acquiring and applying evidence-based practices to guide diagnosis and treatment decisions.
• Appreciate the overlapping skills, knowledge, and approach to patient care in pediatrics and obstetrics and gynecology through shared learning activities.