The groups create, implement and evaluate their own projects over the course of three years. Successful projects that have had an impact include handgun safety, support against teen violence, smoking prevention, child nutrition, and water safety. An important aspect of this year is to learn what is normal for each age and to be able to identify when a child falls outside this range. There are four months of inpatient pediatrics. Three months are on general inpatient services where residents care for patients on medical and surgical services, ranging from common primary care problems to complex subspecialty concerns.
Patients range from newborn to adolescent.
Although the ward attending is primarily responsible for the residents' education, the inpatient service offers an opportunity to work closely with community pediatricians, subspecialists and our surgical faculty. Here, residents work closely with an attending on a team that includes a PL-3, specialized nurses and pharmacists. One month is devoted to the Primary Care Skills course to enhance history and physical examination abilities. Each week offers a variety of experiences in outpatient subspecialty settings to fine tune clinical assessment skills. One month of child development provides supervised experiences in a variety of community settings to learn variations in behavior and development and to learn about the diagnosis and management of children with developmental disabilities.