November 3, 2008
Today's pediatrician faces many more challenges than the old family
doctors who cared for earlier generations of youngsters. But are
future pediatricians getting the training they need to meet the
demands of the changing world of medicine, as well as the needs of
their patients?
Beyond new technology, treatments and vaccines, more children than ever before are requiring care for chronic diseases and more families also are seeking pediatricians who have expertise in specialty areas such as sports medicine and mental health.
Although medical training has been adapted to educate trainees about new diseases and therapies, the fundamentals of the training process in pediatrics have remained relatively unchanged during the past decade.
Four studies led by the Child Health Evaluation and Research (CHEAR) Unit at the University of Michigan C.S. Mott Children's Hospital finds recently trained pediatricians and pediatricians-in-training agreed that a one-size-fits-all approach to education in pediatrics might no longer be the right course of action. The studies are set to appear in November Pediatrics supplement.
Many physicians-in-training who took part in the studies noted a desire for more instruction in mental health, outpatient specialty care, oral health, sports medicine and developmental-behavior health. Few, however, felt they needed additional training in patient safety, patient communication and coordination of care for children with complex illnesses, despite studies that have pointed to the contrary.
"We need to make sure that we are educating physicians in the new millennium in a way that is not only responsible, but also responsive to the changing needs of medicine and our patients and their parents," said lead author of the studies Gary L. Freed, M.D., MPH, chief of the Division of General Pediatrics and director of the CHEAR Unit at Mott. "In order to meet those needs, there must be a balance in the workforce between general pediatricians and specialty pediatricians who focus their careers on a specific disease. But to ensure that happens, we first need to understand what makes people want to go into pediatrics and how they select particular training programs."
Already, the American Board of Pediatrics is working with other pediatric organizations across to the country to launch a new medical training program. This project will allow medical education sites to experiment with new training structures to adequately prepare future physicians to care for patients and their families as the field of pediatrics evolves.
