What Is Pediatrics?
Welcome to Pediatrics, a field you might think is markedly different from other medical fields during the major clinical year. Much of what you learn during this clerkship, however, will be applicable during the rest of your clinical experience. Aspects of the learning experience that have relevance for development of your general skills that are expressed uniquely in pediatrics include:
- Level of illness Assessment of a sick child can be challenging:
does the child require immediate attention such as hospitalization or
can the child be treated as an outpatient? In this rotation, you will
have the opportunity to perform such assessments. You will learn key
principles and criteria through your reading, day-to-day work, computer
cases and conferences.
- Differential diagnosis Half of this rotation is spent in the
outpatient department, providing you the opportunity to generate your
own differential diagnoses (as opposed to having patients already labeled
and packaged with a diagnosis). For example, when a patient complains
of a headache, you will generate a list of possibilities and a rationale
supporting the most likely diagnosis, be it tension headache or brain
tumor. You will learn the principles behind coming to a working diagnosis.
- Development and families Many of the concepts you've learned
during your pre-clinical years require special consideration because
of patient age and developmental status. You will learn to use the principles
embodied in several developmental models during your interactions with
patients. In addition, pediatric cases require you as clinician to work
closely with the child's caregiver(s), not only as you gather patient
history and examination findings, but also as you prescribe or enact
treatment.
- Specialty focus Pediatrics tends to be dominated by three specialties: infectious disease, cardiovascular and pulmonary. Take advantage of this opportunity to learn these fields well.
