Matthew Rios, BS, Serena Wang, MD, Sarah Gustafson, MD,

Objective:

Create a module to introduce first year medical students with key skills needed for taking care of pediatric patients in the inpatient setting with a special focus on learning about family centered rounding (FCR) and navigating the electronic health record (EHR).

Background:

Pediatrics is a field that has unique challenges that require specific skills that are not always taught in preclinical years, including taking a developmental history, interviewing parents, and physical exams on patients of various developmental stages. In inpatient pediatrics, FCR is a best practice where the interdisciplinary care team rounds with the family to devise a plan. This is the first year that rounding and pre-rounding in the EHR has been taught in the first-year curriculum. FCR and navigating the EHR are both important skills that were not previously taught in previous years of our first-year medical student curriculum.

Design:

We redesigned a two-day pediatrics session within the current doctoring course for first year medical students to focus on pediatric inpatient care and FCR. In the first day students took care of a critically ill patient with diabetic ketoacidosis using low-fidelity simulation in small groups. After the simulation students collected data through a simulated EHR of the same patient that showed labs, vitals, and notes of the patient’s progression in the inpatient setting. Students used that information to formulate an assessment and plan for the patient. The following day students participated in FCR where a standardized patient simulated the parent of the patient in the initial simulation. In this simulated FCR, students took on different roles within the interdisciplinary team in pediatrics such as a social worker and nurse educator.

Lessons Learned:

Students appreciated that the simulation tied back to fundamental concepts taught during the endocrinology block. In the future we hope to create more pediatrics-focused sessions.