to the pediatric core rotation

What was the pediatric core like?

Finally, the rotation I have been waiting for, my pediatric core rotation and it was just as amazing of an experience as I had imagined. Peds core was a 6 week rotation with 3 weeks in an outpatient pediatric clinic, 1 week in the neonatal ICU, and 2 weeks on inpatient pediatrics.

Peds clinic offered a diverse experience. I saw a variety of ages from newborns to teens who were about to graduate from the pediatric office. I had the opportunity to be hands-on and independent in my history and physicals- lots of sports physicals, school physicals, and newborn exams. I also was able to practice writing notes. There were children with different pathologies and ailments both acute and chronic. The best part was learning little tricks and hints that my attending had picked up in her years of practice.

I adored the NICU and felt like I learned so much in the short time I was there. We split up the babies between the students and presented them during rounds with the attending, which were probably the most intense rounds I have experienced in my third year (high school math skills, where ya at?). Of course my favorite part were the babies themselves, I loved helping with feeds and just rocking them throughout the day. They are so small, but so incredibly tough.

During inpatient peds we had two jobs- do the physical exams on all the newborns and take care of any children admitted to the hospital. A physical exam on a newborn is, not surprisingly, very different from a children’s or adult’s physical. It is one of the first exams the newborn will get and it can help identify any anomalies early. On inpatient we saw children with asthma exacerbations, pneumonias, appendicitis, psychologic presentations like conversion disorder and infants with jaundice. It was interesting to learn more about interacting with children and with their parents.

How we studied for the pediatric shelf.

We learned from our last 6 week rotation to start studying right away (be gone procrastination!!!). We started week one with Online Med Ed and tried to complete and take notes on all the pediatric videos. I thought this was a good way to compartmentalize pediatric conditions which I hadn’t really learned about much before. It was like a blast from the past with step 1 knowledge. I really wished I had time to re-read some of First Aid for Step 1, especially the sections for genetics, glycogen storage diseases, MSK and ortho, etc. Some of those facts came up often in the Q banks so I do plan on re-reading First Aid over my winter break.

I also tried to do as many UWorld pediatric questions as I could, these were similar to the shelf. I took notes on all the questions whether I got them wrong or right. I never did this before, but I felt like it helped integrate the knowledge from Online Med Ed to the question stem. I felt like the key to getting the answers right on this exam was being able to contrast between similar presentations. For example, kids with a limp- if you can remember the key differences you can answer the question correctly.

I also watched the Emma Holliday Pediatrics YouTube video twice over with the powerpoint notes. I feel like that always brings things together for me, its like a great overview of the entire rotation in 2 hours.

I purchased and took two out of four of the NBME practice exams online and took them on timed. Denzel and I reviewed the answers together afterwards and researched the answers we were not sure about. There were a few that we could not find an explanation from and we asked our attending to look over them for us, I found this very helpful.

The test itself was challenging as usual. It was a mix between easy questions and confusing questions. I feel like for the most part I was able to work through the questions, but there was definitely some that I felt were worded strange. In NBME fashion, there were a few questions on stuff that was not covered in my study material.

After the exam, we took a celebratory trip to Traverse City to refresh ourselves for our next rotation: OBGYN! I think it is important to take a break between rotations to relax and reset. It is also a good weekend to take care of the household and plan for the next rotation.