Critical Care Core Clerkship

Catalog description

VISITING: Closed to visitors. TYPE OF CLERKSHIP: Required. DESCRIPTION: During this rotation, students provide care for critically ill children at Packard Children's Hospital. The rotation consists of a 4-week block in the NICU or the PICU. The Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) is a busy 36-bed academic unit that teaches students to recognize and care for critically ill children. The patients are comprised of medical, surgical, and trauma patients from within LPCH or by referral from other hospitals throughout Northern California. The medical admissions cover a broad range of disease processes and the surgical patients represent diverse pathologies from general and sub-specialty focused procedures. Students will learn the pathophysiology of critical illness in children, understand the many monitoring devices used in the ICU, and become familiar with the various treatment modalities available for organ failure ranging from mechanical ventilation to ECMO. The basic differences in both pathophysiology and management of critically ill children as compared to adults should also become apparent. The Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) offers an intensive experience in the management of premature and acutely ill term neonates admitted from the delivery room, community physicians' offices, and an active referral service that draws from throughout Northern and mid-coastal California. The rotation emphasizes delivery room experience and newborn resuscitation skills, daily management of common newborn problems, and the special follow-up needs of NICU graduates. Exposure to advanced therapies including mechanical ventilation, extracorporeal membrane oxygenation, nitric oxide therapy, and hypothermia occurs routinely. An active maternal-fetal medicine service, pediatric surgery, and various pediatric subspecialty services support the NICU. Education in both units will occur…