gms | German Medical Science

The earliest mention of child specific medical problems appears in the Hippocratic Corpus in the 5^th century BC. There was among the early physicians a realisation that children are different. The Swedish physician Nils Roisen von Rosenstein is regarded as founder of modern paediatrics as a speciality. The next step from this is to realise that teaching of paediatrics needs to be done separately and by people who have a good understanding of paediatrics. There are many different types of paediatric practice seen worldwide. There are the primary care paediatricians in USA who cater for affluent children with their own particular problems. There are the general practitioners in the Australian outback who may have to stabilise a sick child before a long transfer to hospital or the general practitioners in Asia who may have to deal with children who get unusual infections. All this requires training. At Iheed we have developed a course in paediatrics designed mainly for primary care doctors designed to cover most of these different types of practice. We also have quite a number of doctors on the course who work in emergency rooms. It is not designed for specialist training. The course now comprises of 3 blocks of 9 lectures delivered via Zoom by an experienced tutor. The tutor is either a retired paediatrician or a paediatrician in active clinical practice. All through the course the importance of good practice in child protection is emphasised. The doctor is acting in the best interests of the child, not the parents. This is best summed up in the Children’s Act of the United Kingdom. THE INTERESTS OF THE CHILD ARE PARAMOUNT. The course then attempts to cover all the aspects of paediatrics which are relevant to doctors in primary care. The proper administration of IV fluids is taught in case a doctor has to stabilise a sick child before transfer to hospital. Teaching by Zoom allows the teaching to be delivered to many different countries. There are some limitations such as good demonstration of clinical signs. I have found Youtube helpful in overcoming this.