Medical students complete an internship in pediatrics to gain experience working with children in a clinical setting. The internship covers clinical, management, and interpersonal skills, and knowledge related to pediatrics. Topics include preventive care, child development, and professional literature. Interpersonal skills are central to a career in pediatrics.
Medical students looking to work in the field of pediatrics are often required to complete an internship in pediatrics, where they will learn valuable skills and gain important experience working with children in a clinical setting. With an average duration of eight weeks, medical students will participate in a variety of healthcare settings that involve children of all ages. Commonly focused core skills include clinical skills, management skills, interpersonal skills, and acquisition of knowledge related to pediatrics. Students attending medical school often find an internship in pediatrics on campus or at a children’s hospital in a nearby community. Even medical students who will not focus on pediatrics throughout their careers may be required to take pediatrics as part of their curriculum requirements.
During a pediatrics internship, medical students typically learn about a wide range of topics. Preventive care is one such approach, while maintaining health care often includes knowledge of major pediatric illnesses and how to clinically treat them. Child development is another focus topic, ranging from prenatal care to adolescence. Medical students will become familiar with the impact that normal and deviant development has on both children’s health care and the types of treatments medical professionals will provide. Students will also be oriented to the professional literature in pediatrics, particularly how to use this literature effectively when managing treatment programs for children.
The skills that medical students will develop during an internship in pediatrics are essential to providing competent clinical care for children. These skills will include how to accurately collect and record essential data to construct pediatric histories, as well as how to use this information when performing physical exams. The application of basic science and clinical medicine to the pediatric setting is also essential, particularly for planning treatment strategies and developing diagnostic impressions. Interpretation of results for a wide range of laboratory tests, radiographic examinations and other available data is extensively covered during the internship. Most of the time, students spend a lot of time observing and replicating medical procedures to gain first-hand experience.
Interpersonal skills are especially central to a career in pediatrics. Throughout their pediatric internship, medical students will learn and improve communication skills with children, parents, and other members of the health care facility. Furthermore, ethics are part of this important communication process and these considerations are often addressed extensively as they apply to pediatrics.
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