The pediatric gastroenterology elective is an opportunity for students to learn to recognize and manage common gastrointestinal disorders in children (ages birth to 22 years) including: abdominal pain, constipation, chronic diarrhea, recurrent vomiting, hematochezia, hematemesis, failure to thrive, abnormal liver function tests, etc.  The majority of the student’s time will be spent in the outpatient GI clinic.  The student will be assigned to evaluate patients with an attending during a clinic session, with increasing independence after he/she demonstrates competency in obtaining the core elements of the history and physical exam.  Through this experience, students will gain familiarity with both the initial work-up as well as the long-term management of patients with both acute and chronic illnesses as mentioned above.  The student will learn the initial approach for new patients as well as long term management of chronic illnesses.  The student will also attend endoscopy session one or two morning a week, and will learn the indications for procedures, exposure to normal and abnormal findings, and post-operative care. When there are pediatric GI inpatient consults, the student will be responsible for evaluating and then presenting the new consultations during daily rounds. The student will follow these patients throughout their admission, writing progress notes, reviewing relevant radiologic imaging and finding related journal articles to augment his/her understanding of each patient’s gastrointestinal disorder. The student will present relevant journal articles during rounds, communicate consultant recommendations to the floor team and reference applicable material learned in their daily progress notes.

Note that this information may change at any time. Please visit the MyBU Student Portal for the most up-to-date course information.