Medical Student Education

Third Year Clerkships - Pediatrics

The eight week Pediatric clerkship will be based at East Tennessee Children's Hospital (ETCH) except for a one week rotation in the nurseries at the UT Medical Center (UTMC) and a one-week rotation in a pediatric nephrology subspecialty clinic also at UTMC. ETCH is a private 152-bed pediatric medical center serving 16 counties in East Tennessee and counties in southwest Virginia, southeast Kentucky, and western North Carolina. ETCH is the sole provider of inpatient services for general pediatrics in Knoxville. The pediatric clerkship is divided into a four week inpatient rotation and a four week experience in ambulatory and subspecialty clinics.

Inpatient Rotation

Students will be assigned to an on-service hospitalist team leader for the inpatient service unit. Students will accompany assigned hospitalist for daily morning rounds and for assignment of new patients. Students will be responsible to continuously follow a minimum of two patients and a maximum of four patients during the inpatient rotation such that, upon discharge of their patient(s), they will pick up new patients to maintain this ration. Students will review the patient and hospital course prior to rounds with the hospitalist and will then present the patient during morning rounds. Students will evaluate new patients and prepare written SOAP history, physical exam and differential diagnosis to the attending for critique and feedback. Each student will be observed for pediatric history taking and examination skills and will receive feedback of his/her performance

Outpatient Rotations

Students will attend one full-week of half day clinics in the following pediatric subspecialties: allergy-immunology; cardiology; endocrinology; gastroenterology; hematology-oncology; infectious disease; neurology; pulmonology; emergency medicine; and nephrology. Each student will present at least two new patients to their attending in the outpatient clinics. One full week of half-days will also be in the PICU. The curriculum didactic conferences will be equivalent to those for the UTHSC campus. In addition, students will be expected to attend regularly scheduled ETCH attending and staff teaching conferences (i.e. Grand Rounds, Multidisciplinary Tumor Board and Surgery Grand Rounds). During the four week inpatient assignment students will be able to attend regular Family Medicine noon conferences held at the UT Graduate School of Medicine campus (a 10 minute drive). The one week nursery rotation will be held at UT Medical Center under the supervision of neonatologists, Dr. Keri Lattimore and Dr. Thomas Meadows. During the rotation, students will have learning experience for one week primarily in the normal newborn nursery. Students will be assigned at least two normal newborn infants to achieve the learning objectives. Students will be on call once during this rotation ending at 9:00pm.

Goals and Objectives

The goals and objectives will correspond to those for the Pediatric Clerkship at UTHSC. Details can be found on the UTHSC Pediatric Clerkship website.

Call

Students on inpatient rotation at ETCH will be on call two (2) week days from 4:45pm to 9:30pm and one Saturday weekend call from 8:00am to 1:00pm. There will be no overnight call during the clerkship experience. During the nursery rotation, students will be on call once with call ending at 9:00pm. Security personnel at both UTMC and ETCH will be available to escort students to their vehicles at the end of the call as desired.

Evaluation & Exam

Each student will meet with the clerkship director at the end of the 4th week and again before the NBME shelf exam for ongoing evaluation and overall clerkship feedback. If clerkship director is unavailable, feedback evaluations will be performed by one of the core teaching hospitalist. NBME web-based shelf exams will be administered the last day of the rotation. Grading is based on the same guidelines as used at the UTHSC campus.

Clerkship Faculty

Joseph Peeden, MD, Clerkship Director
Jeanann Pardue, MD, Clinical Assistant Professor 
B. Paul Jones, MD, Clinical Assistant Professor