MEL 8583: Adolescent Medicine LVHN 15-16

This elective is designed to introduce senior medical students to the field of adolescent medicine. Students will be able to see and care for adolescents, ages 12 to 21 years, in a variety of outpatient settings. Adolescent clinics will afford students the opportunity to provide primary and specialty care to teenagers in a clinic setting, while students can also participate in adolescent health care in school-based clinics, at both high school and college settings.

In Tampa, the experience will be supplemented with time spent at the Healthy Weight Clinic, learning about the care of teens with eating disorders; at the Hillsborough County Health Department and USF HIV clinic, learning about sexually transmitted infections; at various mental health sites, learning about mental health and substance abuse problems in adolescents; and at a variety of other settings, learning about sports medicine.

Objectives

1. Appreciate the unique medical and health needs of the adolescent population.
2. Increase comfort level in communicating with teenagers, performing psychosocial risk interviews using the HEADDSS assessment, and providing preventive health anticipatory guidance for adolescents.
3. Understand the normal sequence of physical growth and psychological development during puberty, and be able to accurately stage sexual development with Tanner staging.
4. Perform a well adolescent physical and take on the role of primary care provider in working with specialists and multi-disciplinary health professionals in order to develop coordinated care plans. Know the elements of health supervision visits for different ages, including indicated screening tests and immunizations.
5. Act as a subspecialist consultant for patients referred by outside primary care providers, and communicate the findings and plan of action back to the PCP.
6. Know how to diagnose and treat common adolescent medical problems, such as acne, dysmenorrhea, menstrual disorders (DUB, amenorrhea, PCOS, etc), breast disorders (fibrocystic breast disease, gynecomastia, etc), scoliosis, male genital disorders (varicocele, hernia, etc), STDs (chlamydia, gonorrhea, etc), pregnancy, obesity, psychological problems (depression, suicidality, eating disorders, substance abuse, etc), and others.
7. Recognize the common problem of poor adherence among adolescents, and encourage adolescents to become more active, responsible health care consumers.
8. Improve communication with parents and families to help them understand normal adolescent development and confidentiality. Help parents facilitate their teens in taking a more active role in their health care.
9. Learn about the importance of and how to assist with a successful transition from pediatric to adult health care for all adolescents and young adults, especially those with chronic medical conditions and special health care needs.

Students will be able to see and care for adolescents and young adults, ages 12 to 25 years. The outpatient adolescent experience will afford students the opportunity to provide specialty care to adolescents in an office setting. The experience will be supplemented with time spent with the dietician, learning about disordered eating patterns and weight management as well as the gynecologist, learning about the unique reproductive care needs of the adolescent.