Medical Student Electives
The General Pediatrics and Adolescent Health Program is a voluntary option for medical students interested in primary care. Students apply for membership after admission. Students who participate are identified on their transcript at graduation. Students may leave the program at any time if their career goals diverge from primary care.
Each student is paired with a primary care faculty mentor to provide guidance and support during the four years of medical school. There are events throughout the year where mentors and students gather for informal discussions about relevant issues. Topics have included planning for third year and career opportunities.
Elements of the curriculum include:
First Year
Practice 1
All first year medical students participate in this course. The course is designed to teach first year medical students basic clinical skills. During the spring, students are placed preferentially in a clinic with a primary care practitioner.
Third Year
Study Programs
Any research track is allowed. Many students participate in study programs related to primary care issues. Students will receive preferential placement in a primary care office during the required longitudinal clinical experience.
Fourth Year
Clinical Electives
There are numerous electives including Advanced Clerkship in Pediatrics and Advanced Pediatrics as well as opportunities in Family Medicine, Internal Medicine, Geriatric Medicine and others.
Resident Electives
History of Medicine
This rotation offers the opportunity to explore a topic in medical history related to the resident's particular interests. Objectives can be individualized, but typically include (1) learning how to identify historical sources pertinent to a medical topic, (2) increasing one's knowledge regarding the historical background to a pediatric field or subspecialty, (3) completion of a goal such as a senior resident talk. A formal paper or PowerPoint presentation, such as one for a senior resident talk, is also required and along with discussions of the readings provides the basis for evaluation.
Child Abuse and Neglect
The elective in Child Abuse and Neglect is a two- to four-week elective to learn about the field of child abuse/neglect in general and the medical evaluation of child abuse/neglect specifically. The outpatient child abuse medical clinic is housed at theCenter for Child and Family Health where the resident will initially observe parent interviews, diagnostic child interviews and comprehensive physical exams, including colposcope exam of the genital and anal areas. The resident will be supervised in performing five to ten child abuse medical exams. The resident will interact with community social workers and investigators from the Department of Social Services and Law Enforcement. They will also accompany the child abuse physicians to the Tuesday internal multidisciplinary case review conferences and community Child Abuse Multi-agency Review Team (CAMART) meetings. Most residents will be able to observe child abuse professionals testifying in district or superior court. Residents will accompany the on-call child abuse physician during inpatient and ER child abuse consults. Child abuse/neglect articles and educational materials will be reviewed with the residents following the MWF clinics and on Thursdays.
Community Pediatrics
This is a four-week rotation meant for second- or third-year pediatric residents. The goals of the rotation are to expose pediatric residents to opportunities to enhance the health of their community through experiences in community pediatric practices, community health education, home visits and pediatric advocacy. Additionally the rotation is meant to prepare pediatric residents for their role as health advocate for children in their community.
Primary Care
This is a two- to four-week rotation for senior-level residents considering a career in primary care. This elective offers a glimpse at "real life" in primary care, including a significant increase in day-to-day clinical time for the resident, didactic and experiential learning with billing and coding, learning side-by-side with attendings in their own clinics (including academic and private settings), and rotation through subspecialties not usually offered in other settings of the residency curriculum. The rotation can be customized to meet the learning goals of individual residents.
Healthy Lifestyles
This two week elective focuses on the care of children and adolescents with obesity. Residents will learn skills of motivational interviewing, lifestyle counseling, and understand indications for weight loss medication prescribing and referral for bariatric surgery.