Pediatric Clerkship

Goals:

In addition to gaining exposure to and understanding of the unique pathophysiology behind common pediatric diagnoses, each student will also come to understand the normal neurodevelopment achieved during childhood and adolescence.  Students will also learn to appreciate the unique relationship between pediatric patients, their families and their physicians.

Structure:

Our 4-week clerkship is a combination of inpatient, general practice, and subspecialty experiences.  Each student has an average of 30 half days of clinic experience over the course of the 4 weeks.  We assign each student to a small team of physicians who assess student performance and provide feedback.  All physician teams are assigned to students at random and schedules are set up based on physician clinical schedules.

Evaluation:

Our students’ clinical skills and professionalism are evaluated at least weekly by their faculty preceptors.  At the end of the clerkship, the Clerkship Director reviews all performance evaluations and written patient documentation that have been submitted for each student to create the summative evaluations.

At the end of the clerkship, each student will also participate in two standardized patient cases known as the CCX exam.  20 minutes will be spent with the standardized patient and 60 minutes completing the exam in a computerized data base.  Each student is required to provide a justification for each differential diagnosis created during the case; referred to as a Diagnostic Justification (DxJ).  These exams are reviewed and scored by the nurse educator based on criteria established by the clerkship director. 

Meet our team:


Sheref Unal, MD – Clerkship Director 
Kelly Pickrell, MSN, RN – Nurse Educator 
Keela Gibbs – Clerkship Coordinator

Contact us:

Pediatric Clerkship Office: 217-545-8980 

Clerkship Coordinator: Keela Gibbs 

Resources:

Visiting Students: