Acute and Emergency Paediatrics

Recommended Prerequisites

To have completed the Year 4 of MIM: the student should have acquired knowledge in Anatomy, Physiology and Pathophysiology, Microbiology and Pharmacology.

Teaching Methods

In addition to theoretical teaching, practical and interactive approaches will be used, including:
- intercative clinical case presentations with images illustrating common acute infections
- obsevation of children with acute infections in the ES
- training in techniques and practical procedures, and active exercises to learn algorithms and protocols for management of paediatric emergencies using simulation models.
Each group should ideally have a maximum of 15 students.

Learning Outcomes

Paediatric Emergency Service (ES) are places where first observation of the seriously ill child takes place and where rapid and appropriate action are essential. Many presenting children have acute infections, which are very common in this age group and are responsible for high antibiotic prescription rates contributing the well-known increase in resistance. This is a major global problem, the target of multiple efforts by WHO, CDC, ECDC, DGS.
This course is designed to train students how to approach frequent acute infections and severe illness in the previously healthy child in the ES setting.
LEARNING OUTCOMES:
- development of skills in the diagnosis and guidance of frequent infections in children, with particular emphasis on the appropriate use of antibiotics
- development of skills and performance training in the identification and orientation of serious medical conditions in children, with particular emphasis in resuscitation
- taking clinical decisions based on evidence.

Work Placement(s)

No

Syllabus

- Common infections in paediatric emergency services: clinical manifestations and diagnosis
- General principles of antibiotic use in acute paediatric infections
- Interactive clinical cases using images
- Observation of children with acute infections in the paediatric ES
- Recognition of the seriously ill child (eg sepsis and /or meningitis, shock, severe dehydration)
- Initial approach of the critically ill child: concepts on basic support and advanced life support
- Training techniques and procedures of basic and advanced life support, with simulation models

Head Lecturer(s)

Fernanda Maria Pereira Rodrigues

Assessment Methods

Assessment
Mini Tests: 30.0%
Other: 70.0%

Bibliography

1. Principles and Practice of Pediatric Infectious Diseases, 4th Edition. Sarah S. Long, Larry K. Pickering and Charles G. Prober
2. Feigin and Cherry's Textbook of Pediatric Infectious Diseases, 7th Edition. James Cherry, Gail J. Demmler-Harrison, Sheldon L. Kaplan, William J. Steinbach and Peter Hotez
3. Normas de Orientação Clínica da DGS: Otite média aguda, amigdalite aguda, pneumonia, infecção urinária
4. Biarent D, Bingham R, Eich C, López-Herce J, Maconochie I, Rodríguez-Núñez A, Rajka T, Zideman D. European Resuscitation Council Guidelines for Resuscitation 2005. Section 6. Paediatric life support. Resuscitation. 2010; 81(10):1364–88
5. American Academy of Pediatrics, American College of Emergency Physicians. APLS: The Pediatric Emergency Medicine Resource. Jones & Bartlett Learning, 2012
6. Fleisher G R, Ludwig S. Textbook of Pediatric Emergency Medicine. 6th ed. Philadelphia, Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.