UAMS Pediatrics

Pediatric healthcare has become more than just caring for a sick child in the hospital or clinic. Innovative healthcare delivery systems today are concerned with wellness as well as illness, and are focusing on community health and advocating for improved policies for the larger population.  Therefore, the training of our pediatric residents is not limited to the four walls of our hospitals and clinics, but incorporates educational opportunities out in the community through a variety of rotations.  These individual activities are brought together under the longitudinal Child Advocacy and Community Experiences. 

According to the ACGME guidelines, the educational opportunities shall include a focus on seven broad areas including:

1. Community Pediatrics, Community-oriented Care, and Underserved Populations
2. Culturally effective healthcare
3. The Pediatrician’s role in school health
4. Environmental Toxicology and Bioterrorism
5. Mass casualty and Emergency services
6. Injury and Disease Prevention
7. Health and Child Advocacy

Our Child Advocacy and Community Experience is not so much a specific defined rotation completed at one given time but a specific focus and priority within the overall resident’s general pediatric education.  Rotations such as our Behavior and Development arrange and schedule home visits with families of special needs patients; Adolescent Medicine sets a priority for school based health care; the Continuity Clinic places an important emphasis on Injury and disease prevention within routine well child care; and lastly hospital wide events like lectures, specific conferences, and Mock Disaster Drills are held annually.  Residents have and can choose to complete electives or develop senior projects in one of these seven areas.  In short, the Child Advocacy and Community experience is woven within the residency programs daily function.