Length of Clerkship: 8 weeks (4 weeks inpatient and 4 weeks divided between outpatient/ER/nursery/clinics)
Call: Q4 during inpatient weeks only
Lectures: Wednesday afternoons (until about 4 or 5 pm) for all students, including a graded weekly CLIPP case (online case-based learing tool using the problem-oriented system)
Rush: Morning report every morning at 8A, except Tuesday which is Grand Rounds; lunch lecture everyday at 12N
CCH: 8 AM conference, noon conference, others vary;
Combined Grandrounds: Rush, County, and UIC at Hecton Auditorium.
Presentations: Generally 1 or 2 10-20 min. presentations for your inpatient team at both sites. Plus a group presentation (you and an assigned partner) debating a current clinical controversy in pediatrics. The debate is done in front of the course directors and fellow students.
Miniboard: Practice test (COMSEP) given a couple weeks before miniboard (does not count toward your grade); know pediatric infections and general developmental milestones well for the miniboard.
Pocket Contents: A card of pediatric normal values, handbook (see Books below), calculator (a must), otoscope (if you have one), Sanford Guide, pocket pharmacopeia, stickers/things that light up/toys to distract an anxious child. Many students use clipboards on this rotation.
Helpful Hints: Do your heart and lung exams on kids first, because they can start crying at any time! Save the ears for last if at all possible. Try to keep little kids with mom or dad for as much of the exam as possible. Put a sticker on your name badge and carry around a penlight or bubbles to distract kids while you examine them. RELAX – kids can pick up if you are nervous and will get nervous themselves, thus making everyone’s experience a difficult one.
Pediatrics Suggested Reading:
Handbooks:
Clinical Handbook of Pediatrics, ISBN 0781736498. This is a good book for students. It is divided by clinical problems and for each problem includes differential diagnosis list with discussion, lab studies, diagnostic modalities, treatment, and suggested readings. It also has a pediatric med table, surgical and syndromic glossaries, normal lab values, and general topics like physical exam, immunizations and developmental surveillance.
Harriet Lane, ISBN 0323014860. Considered a solid source in pediatrics, it contains information on current protocols, treatments, and procedures. You will certainly need this if you are planning a residency in Pediatrics, although buying one as a M3 is purely optional. As a student, there are many copies on the wards you can use. However, if you buy one you also get the PDA version which has good calculators and a drug guide which you can always use for rotations other than Pediatrics.
Textbooks:
Nelson’s Essentials of Pediatrics, ISBN 0721694063. This is one of the well-respected sources in pediatrics. It is a very good source for looking up information on patients, for Dr. Boyd’s weekly case assignments, and for reading certain chapters that are known to be high yield on the mini-board. Good tables and charts, well organized and easy to read. (You can get this for free from the Rush Library Site if you don’t want to pay for your own copy; just remember that you need a proxy to access the material from off Campus).
Study Guides/Question books:
Blueprints in Pediatrics, ISBN 1405103337. Many students use this as their textbook, because it has high-yield information for the clerkship and the mini-board. Compared to other books from the Blueprints series, most agree that this is one of the better ones. You can definitely pass the mini-board on this alone, but relying solely on this book only “scratches the surface” of peds.
First Aid – Pediatric Clerkship, ISBN0071364242. Many students use this as their textbook, especially those who dislike Blueprints. As usual, this is in outline form, but quite complete in the topics addressed, including things like “basics of echocardiography” and “Interpretation of pediatric chest x-rays”. .
Pre-Test Pediatrics, ISBN 007139872. Many students agree that this Pre-Test is very good. The clinical vignettes are similar to the mini-board. It’s thick, however, so give yourself enough time to get through it. Chapters on Care of the Newborn, Cardiology, Respiratory, and GI seemed to be particularly useful for the rotation.
Appleton and Lange’s Review of Pediatrics, ISBN 0838500579. This is a question and answer book. Some students use this book instead of Pre-Test because it has a reputation for being one of the best from this series. Like other books from this series, the questions are not in long vignettes, but there are many, many questions to challenge your ever-expanding knowledge base.