Medical Students

Welcome to Pediatrics!

We feel that our department’s unique contribution to your education will consist of a constellation of experiences that include an introduction to children, their uniqueness in life, their special medical problems, the techniques necessary to obtain data from them, and a beginning insight into growth and development as biologic and medical phenomena, both normal and abnormal.

Our faculty will provide you with an educational and stimulating environment in which you begin to learn the fundamentals of Pediatrics. We recognize that you cannot “learn” Pediatrics in your 6-week clerkship but you will be exposed to children in whatever area of medicine you choose for your career. During the clerkship, you can learn certain basic principles, approaches and facts that will develop as a foundation for continued learning in this discipline. The third year will allow you to start putting into use the basic principles you have acquired over the last few years and begin the exploration of the practice of medicine. The clerkship has been designed with these objectives in mind.

We only ask you to display an eagerness to learn and conduct yourself as a professional. On our part, we will put forth considerable effort to have you succeed in your achievement.

Our expectations of you are:

  1. We expect you to expend considerable effort towards your own learning by pursuing the responsibilities assigned to you. These include patient care duties, attendance at all assigned conferences, and all clerkship assignments as outlined in the clerkship syllabus.

  2. We expect you to demonstrate an enthusiasm for the study of medicine and Pediatrics. The Department of Pediatrics will provide the opportunity, the supervision, and the guidance--you must provide the enthusiasm.

  3. We expect all students, faculty and trainees to demonstrate professional integrity and follow the Univeristy of Arizona Policy Regarding Professionalism and Reporting Misconduct for Faculty and Learners at the University of Arizona College of Medicine

  4. We expect you to acquire increased abilities in several areas:

    • Pediatric Data Collection:

      Obtaining a history and performing a physical examination in children from newborns to adolescents requires interactions with the child as well as the parent or caretaker. This will require a sensitive attitude and depending on the age of the child and their degree of illness, very different techniques and skills. We expect you to reach a level of competence and comfort with these skills.

    • Self-directed learning:

      We expect that you will learn new information, improve and modify old information, and integrate the two. We expect that you will behave as adult learners and will read independently. Rounds, conferences, conversations, and meetings can augment, amplify, help to explain and develop concepts, but only personal effort in reading will provide you with a solid foundation. Reading and data acquisition are more meaningful when put in the context of a patient. See as much as you can! Be each other’s teacher and share and demonstrate to each other the interesting physical findings and patients.

  5. We expect your performance to be at least at the passing level. Your evaluation will be based on a number of items:

    • At the end of the clerkship you will take the NBME Pediatric Subject Examination.

    • Evaluations: You will be evaluated by your faculty attendings, preceptors and house officers in the ACGME core competencies of Medical Knowledge, Patient Care, Systems Based Practice, Interpersonal and Communication Skills, Practice Based Learning, and Professionalism.

Learning is both fun and hard work. Children are fun and challenging, so enjoy yourself and work hard. We hope to share with you the excitement that is inherent to Pediatrics. In the end, you are the beneficiary of your education and your future patients will be the ultimate benefactors.

Department Head
Professor
Pediatric Gastroenterology and Nutrition
PANDA Endowed Director, Steele Children’s Research Center
Physician-in-Chief, Diamond Children's
Horace W. Steele Endowed Chair in Pediatric Research
Alan and Janice Levin Family Endowed Professor of Pediatrics
Medical Director, Clinical and Translational Sciences Research Center

Associate Professor
Associate Program Director, Pediatric Residency Program
Director, Pediatric Clerkship Program
Division Chief, Pediatric Infectious Diseases

Senior Program Coordinator