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Medical Student & Resident Education

The Division of Pediatric Emergency Medicine provides educational opportunities for medical students and residents in addition to our fully accredited fellowship program. The faculty are also involved in teaching pediatric advanced life support (PALS) and advanced trauma life support (ATLS) and operating the simulation lab.

Medical Students

The Emergency Medicine faculty and fellows are very active in providing didactic education to UT Southwestern medical students. Medical students rotate in the Pediatric Emergency Department as part of their Pediatric clerkship. Many return during their fourth-year for a Pediatric Emergency Medicine clerkship, providing an in-depth exposure to Pediatric Emergency Medicine through recognition, evaluation, and management of the acutely ill and injured child.

Residents

Major internal educational activities include didactic lectures to the General Pediatric, Family Medicine, and Emergency Medicine residents. Training in the emergency department is often sought by residents from other pediatric training programs in Texas and Oklahoma.

Conditions seen by PL1 and PL2 residents include dyslexia, myelomeningocele, autism, ADHD, Down syndrome, anxiety, toileting issues, learning problems, and other developmental/behavioral concerns. Residents also participate in programs such as Child Life, Early Childhood Intervention, Speech, Occupational, Physical, and Recreational therapies. Second- and third-year residents have access to Developmental-Behavioral Pediatrics and ADHD electives tailored to their individual interests.

The objectives of the clinical experience in the pediatric emergency department are to:

  • Recognize, evaluate, and manage the acutely ill and injured pediatric patients
  • Master technical skills including venous access, venipuncture, lumbar puncture, laceration repair, splinting, and bladder catheterization
  • Evaluate and manage common pediatric complaints and disease processes
  • Acquire and maintain efficiency and prioritization required to care for multiple patients simultaneously

Requirements for this course include:

  • Core competencies: common complaints, disease processes, and technical skills
  • Monthly patient lists: chief complaint and diagnosis
  • Noon and monthly emergency room conferences and grand rounds

Education opportunities include:

  • Group check-out rounds
  • Semi-weekly Pediatric Emergency Medicine Conferences
  • Joint semi-weekly Pediatric Emergency Medicine/Radiology Rounds
  • Mock codes
  • Pediatric Emergency Medicine Fellows’ Conferences are open to the residents