Each third-year medical student spends six weeks on the obstetrics and gynecology service. The time is evenly divided between obstetrics and gynecology. Students are divided into small groups, and their clinical activities are supervised by house staff and faculty.

During obstetrics, students rotate through postpartum and antepartum care of medical complications of pregnancy. Students also provide care in the labor and delivery area of Parkland Memorial Hospital, the triage area of Parkland and the prenatal clinic at Maple Plaza. Under supervision of house staff or certified nurse midwives, students deliver babies of uncomplicated pregnancies. The student also assists in the management of complicated pregnancies during the labor and delivery process and follows the patient postpartum.

During gynecology, the students are divided into small groups and rotate through gynecology clinic and surgeries at Parkland and other hospitals. One afternoon is spent in the Southwestern Center for Minimally Invasive Surgery learning laparoscopic techniques.

In addition to ward and clinical activities, each student spends four to five hours each week in formal conferences with faculty. These conferences are devoted to discussion of patients or clarification of information that the student has encountered elsewhere. Members of the faculty give lectures on the principles of obstetrics and basic gynecology.

The eight-week pediatric rotation is divided into four weeks on the inpatient service at Children’s Medical Center Dallas, two weeks in its outpatient department, one week in a private-practice office and one week in the newborn nursery at Parkland Memorial Hospital.

INPATIENT SERVICE: During the four-week inpatient rotation, students are placed on one of the general pediatric inpatient clinical services at Children’s for two weeks and on one of the four subspecialty services for two weeks. Students are part of the clinical management team under the supervision of a full-time faculty attending physician and an upper-level pediatric resident. The number of patients each student follows is determined by his or her individual educational requirements. Each student is expected to take initial histories, perform initial physical exams, write daily progress notes on his or her assigned patients and be prepared to present them on daily rounds.

OUTPATIENT ROTATION: Students spend two weeks in ambulatory pediatrics, one week in a private practice office and one week in the newborn nursery at Parkland. During the two weeks in ambulatory pediatrics, students spend most mornings in Medical Student Clinic, where they take complete histories and physicals and present to both full-time and volunteer faculty. The remaining time is spent in various pediatric subspecialty clinics and can be directed toward each student’s interest. During the private practice rotation, students spend three days under the supervision of a volunteer faculty member. The remaining days are focused on adolescent medicine and child abuse/child advocacy. During the newborn nursery week, students examine healthy newborns and may attend complicated deliveries.

The course in pediatrics is designed to emphasize normal growth and development and the impact of disease and its treatment on the developing child. Additionally, the prevention of disease and injury, along with the role of the physician as child advocate, is stressed.