In Pediatric Gastroenterology (or GI) clinic, you will see patients with a host of gastrointestinal, pancreatic, liver, and nutrition issues. This episode will discuss specific questions that you will want to cover in your history and the elements of a complete GI exam - which is a lot more than just an abdominal exam!

Peds GI clinic covers a host of gastrointestinal, pancreatic, liver and nutrition issues

-3yr fellowship after peds residency 

Before Clinic 

• Review what types of patients you will be seeing. It may be a mix of lots of issues, or just a liver transplant clinic. This will tell you what type of prep you should do (conditions to read up on, medications to review, etc) before the day of clinic.
• On the day of clinic, review expectations with the attending, fellow or resident physician. Do they want you to see patient independently and write notes, just shadow or somewhere inbetween. Review what questions they always want asked, what exams you should do alone vs with your whole team. Setting expectations before you start will set you up for success! 
• Questions: Pain, the PQRST mnemonic is helpful to better understand the pain
  • Provoked the pain
  • Quality of the pain
  • Radiating
  • Severity 
• Specific questions to ask in Peds GI: 
  • Does pain wakes the patient at night? 
  • how much school or other activities the Patient has missed because of symptoms? 
  • Does defecation or passage of gas alleviates pain? 
  • Any specific dietary changes already tried?
• Poop! understand the:
  • Quality of the stool
  • Size and caliber of the bowel movement (Use Bristol stool scale)
• GERD vs EoE  
• A complete GI exam– a lot more than the abdomen!

About the Speakers:

Host: Rachel Moon, MD – Rachel Moon, MD is the Harrison Distinguished Professor of Pediatrics at UVA Health Children's. She is an internationally recognized researcher in sudden unexpected infant death and chairs the AAP Task Force on SIDS. She is also the Chief of General Pediatrics at UVA.

Host: Jeremy Middleton, MD – Jeremy Middleton, MD is an Associate Professor of Pediatrics and Pediatric Gastroenterologist at UVA Health. He serves as the Pediatrics Clerkship Director and has expertise in children with intestinal failure and aerodigestive disorders.

Host: Shakun Gupta, MD – Shakun Gupta, MD is an Associate Professor of Pediatrics and Associate Clerkship Director at the University of Virginia. She completed her residency at Lurie Children's Hospital/Northwestern and joined UVA in 2014, where she practices general pediatrics and pediatric hospital medicine.

Clerkship Ready: Pediatrics is a podcast aimed at medical students doing their clinical clerkship in Pediatrics. The views expressed are the speakers' own and do not constitute medical advice.