Teaching Conferences

Every morning at 7:30, residents and faculty meet to discuss a case admitted in the previous 24 hours. The chief resident leads a discussion of the differential diagnosis and management decision-making. Often the case remains a mystery, only to be diagnosed after recommendations from morning report are carried out!

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This conference occurs everyday from noon-1 p.m. and serves as the primary didactic teaching forum for the training program. Faculty from the Department of Pediatrics and other clinical departments lead these seminars. Presentations vary from case oriented discussions to more formal lectures. Topics include fundamental concepts in primary care pediatrics, all pediatric subspecialties, child development and behavioral pediatrics, child abuse, child advocacy, managed care and medical finance, medical ethics, and clinical epidemiology.

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Noon conferences for the first 2 months of each academic year are devoted to building a solid foundation in basic patient care concepts as they pertain to general pediatrics and the care of acutely and critically ill children.

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In the fall of each academic year, all residents are required to participate in an intensive course covering the basic principles of evidence-based medicine (EBM). Topics include a review of common methods used in clinical research and biostatistics. In addition, there is a particular emphasis on the practical application of EBM to solve real patient problems and numerous opportunities for each resident to practice an “evidence-based” approach on clinical rotations.

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Every other Friday at noon, the residency director leads a case-based discussion of an interesting patient from the wards, PICU, NICU, or ambulatory setting. This conference serves as the major case review conference for the Department and is attended by residents, medical students, and faculty. The case and pertinent references are distributed the week prior to the conference and advanced preparation is expected. A resident presents the history and physical and then the finer points of the case are discussed in a very collegial atmosphere among residents and faculty. Faculty experts are present providing their expertise to the discussion. The issues may be basic or complex but are always interesting and consistently the most popular and attended conference.

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The goal of journal club is for residents to develop the self-educational skills required for continuing medical education after formal training is complete, and more specifically, to facilitate the formulation of (answerable) clinical questions and increased each resident’s comfort and expertise in using and critically evaluating the primary medical literature.

Three residents are assigned to each journal club with the senior resident functioning as group leader. With the help of a faculty mentor, the group develops a specific question related to a patient problem they have experienced. The group then conducts a thorough literature review and selects approximately 3 high quality original research articles that address the clinical question to aid in clinical decision-making. Articles are then distributed to residents and faculty in advance of the conference to allow for advanced preparation. At the conference, the group then leads a critical discussion of the articles and, hopefully, arrives at an answer to their original question based on the best available evidence from the primary medical literature. This conference is a critical part of the program’s evidence-based medicine curriculum.

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Every Friday morning, faculty, residents, as well as many community physicians gather at UC Davis Medical Center for Pediatric Grand Rounds, where a broad range of topics are presented by local, national, and international experts. This forum serves as a great opportunity to hear the latest from prominent experts in a given field. 

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