Sorry, you need to enable JavaScript to visit this website.

News

Improving Training to Promote Lifelong Learning

Dr. Pamela Londres confers with Dr. Christian Lawrence.The journey of continuous learning for pediatricians begins during residency, when they are gaining the competencies to provide medical care for children without direct supervision. During these years of training, they are guided by pediatric program directors who, along with other pediatric faculty members, monitor their progress and help them identify and fill gaps in their knowledge and skills.

Thrive at Five

When a young child comes into the primary care center at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital, the medical team reviews vaccination records, checks weight, and screens for dental, vision, and hearing health. As part of the hospital’s Thrive at Five project, the team also checks the child’s speech, literacy, and mental, emotional, and behavioral health. If a child is lagging in any of these areas, the medical team helps the parent or guardian find appropriate resources to prepare the child to succeed in kindergarten.

Portfolio Sponsors Spotlight: Children's National Health System

“This project demonstrates not just that we can develop great QI collaboratives with community-wide stakeholders, but also that we can align the work with the ABP requirements for practitioners to get MOC credit,”

- Dr. Mark Weissman, Chief, Division of General Pediatrics and Community Health

You Have to be Comfortable Being Incredibly Uncomfortable

FELLOW EARNS MOC CREDIT FOR CREATING MEDICAL RESPONSE TO VICTIMS OF DOMESTIC MINOR SEX TRAFFICKING

Approximately one month into her child abuse pediatrics fellowship at Hasbro Children’s Hospital, Dana Kaplan, MD, had a 16-year-old patient in the clinic who had been exchanging sex for money.

“I went to go speak with her, and I didn’t know what to say,” says Dr. Kaplan, who is now Director of Child Abuse and Neglect for the Department of Pediatrics at Staten Island University Hospital. “I didn’t know what was relevant to ask. I didn’t know what was pertinent to provide her medically.”

QI Project Improves Prehospital Protocol Compliance

As a pediatric emergency medicine (PEM) physician, Manish Shah knows that a seizure or a severe allergic reaction can be deadly for children if they are not treated quickly and appropriately. With a grant from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Health Resources and Services Administration’s Emergency Medical Services for Children program, he led the creation of guidelines for treating children during ambulance transport.

That was just the first step, though. He had to find a way to help paramedics understand and implement those new guidelines. 

Behavioral and Mental Health: Gaps and Challenges

Pediatricians are often the first professionals parents turn to when their child needs behavioral or mental health services — because of their trusting doctor-patient relationship or to avoid the perceived stigma of going to a mental health professional. So when Alexis King’s* middle child needed mental health services, she looked for help where Simon* was already receiving care.

New Solutions for Patient Safety

Since 2012, safety interventions are estimated to have spared more than 9,000 children from serious harm caused by medical errors in nearly 130 hospitals across the United States and Canada, reports Children’s Hospitals’ Solutions for Patient Safety (SPS).1

SPS is a collaborative network of children’s hospitals that share a vision to eliminate serious harm among hospitalized children. The interventions also have saved an estimated $148 million in health care costs.1

Emphasizing Learning and Assessment of Knowledge

NEW ASSESSMENT FORMAT TO BECOME DEFAULT OPTION IN 2019 FOLLOWING SUCCESSFUL PILOT

The ABP gave its first examination — administered orally before a panel of three distinguished pediatricians — in June 1934. Since then, just as advances in medicine and technology have improved patient care, testing also has evolved, from oral to paper to computer-based exams.

When to Trust Trainees to Practice on Their Own

Entrustable professional activities (EPAs) describe the routine and essential activities physicians perform in practice and help program directors determine when trainees can be trusted to perform these activities. Although scales (to determine if trainees can work unsupervised) for EPAs had been proposed, they had not been validated — until now. Two new studies, one involving fellows and the other involving general pediatric residents, shed light on the best uses of EPAs. 

CREATING SUPERVISORY SCALES FOR PEDIATRIC FELLOWS

Integrating Behavioral & Mental Health into Your Practice

“It will take years for medical education systems to improve the preparation of pediatricians to prevent and manage behavioral and mental health problems,” Dr. Tayloe says. “But pediatricians do not need to wait until they are formally educated to begin addressing the epidemic now.”

- Dr. David Tayloe, Goldsboro (NC) Pediatrics

Pages