Surviving PA School – Pediatric Rotation
The idea of the pediatric rotation gets met with mixed feelings for many students. Plenty of people are flooded with thoughts such as … Will I be good with kids? Will I get sick? How will I memorize the vaccine schedule? Do I have to know all of the milestones? Keep reading to hear my pediatric rotation experience and advice on how to survive yours!
Pediatrics was my first clinical rotation after a long 12 months in the classroom for didactics. My rotation was 5 weeks in an exclusively pediatric office that saw newborn patients to 20 year old patients. With such a wide range of ages, comes a wide range of medical concerns to be proficient in. The office I was rotating in saw a fairly equal distribution of sick visits and annual wellness visits.
Sick visits can be intimidating because you have to take on the role of a detective to discover the cause of what is bothering the child. And more often than not – you have to get the history from the parent because the child is either too young to give an accurate history or too nervous to talk to a new person. My advice is to skip the white coat, if your office will allow it, to prevent intimidating the child. And adding in fun questions unrelated to your history such as which character is on their shirt or what their favorite hobby is will foster a fun and comfortable environment before doing a physical exam.
When it comes time to do your physical exam, always try to save the area of complaint for last. This will increase the chances of you being able to do a thorough and complete exam before potentially causing the child discomfort. Performing a pediatric exam can be challenging and intimidating but like all things, the more you do it, the more comfortable you will become! Additionally, some PA programs have pediatric encounters prior to even starting rotations! If this is something you are interested in, you can find the program’s email address on MYPABOX and reach out to specific programs to ask.
Wellness visits typically take a little longer than sick visits and can be wild cards. It is easy to fall into the trap of thinking that the visits are going to be very straightforward BUT at the end of many visits, the patient or parent has additional complaints. My advice for this is to address the complaint if it can be summarized in less than 3-5 minutes. But if the complaint is complex and will need a full work up, the best thing you can do is tell them that you have to talk to your preceptor and that you will likely have to ask them to come back for a separate visit. This can obviously be frustrating for the patient and family, but the truth is that your office is likely booked for the entire day and does not have the time to give the patient the quality care that they deserve!
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Aside from learning how to be a bedside provider, adjusting to a new office staff and learning a whole new EMR, you will also have to be preparing for your pediatric end of rotation exam. Luckily, you will learn a great deal of information while in the office and will be working with an expert in the field that you can always discuss pediatric topics with. However, outside resources will still be crucial in preparing for the end of rotation exam. MYPABOX has recently launched a study service, STUDYBUDDY, with practice questions and helpful videos that will help solidify confusing concepts. My best studying advice is to start early in your rotation, do a little bit each day (even if it’s just listening to a podcast on your way home) and complete as many practice questions as you can!
BONUS THOUGHTS: Be sure to wash your hands, eat well, sleep plenty and exercise to prevent getting sick from the little germ monsters that kids are!
To learn about more PA school tips and tricks. Check out Surviving PA School – Family Medicine Rotation
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