Adoption Medicine Elective

Available to all residents, whether on the Global Pediatrics Track or not

LOCATION

Primarily at 717 Delaware on the East Bank of Campus, with clinic time at the Discovery Clinic on the Riverside Campus.  Residents park in the Yellow Ramp at Riverside, as they would for any Amplatz rotation, and take the shuttle over to the East Bank.

Families going through the adoption process submit medical and social history on waiting children for our review via the web. We reply to them via this same online submission system.  Unless otherwise indicated, you will be doing reviews from 8 – 4:30 every day. Please bring your own laptop each day that reviews are scheduled. If you do not have your own laptop, a loaner or desktop workstation may be available in the Global Pediatrics resident workbay.

Track members using this elective to fulfill the track requirement must complete the full 4 weeks of the elective and complete additional requirements beyond the standard elective requirements.  These additional requirements may include a reflective essay, disease log, and a more indepth case study.  An academic project may be developed in collaboration with the Rotation Directors, Dr. Howard and Dr. Eckerle, to fulfill that Track requirement.

OVERALL STRUCTURE

• Pre-adoption reviews 60%

• Clinic 20% 

• Didactic 15% 

• Case presentation 5%

ADOPTION MEDICINE ELECTIVE OBJECTIVES

• To learn about the general issues of international adoption, including:

  • The history of international adoption, 

  • Who the children are that constitute this population, 

  • Risk factors that many children face prior to adoption, and 

  • How those risk factors impact health status and physical growth

• To learn about the different effects of prior care situations, particularly the special problems associated with long term institutionalization.

• To gain experience in performing pre-adoption medical reviews.

• To become skilled in taking a history of an internationally adopted (IA) child.

• To identify factors associated with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder.

• To learn about cognitive and social emotional development.

• To learn developmental assessment of this population.

• To recognize how the multiple health needs of the IA child are best served through an interdisciplinary model, including therapists, psychologists, nurses, nurse practitioners and physicians working together.

• To gain experience in the medical care of internationally adopted children, including the immediate post-arrival evaluation, as well as the long-term health issues.

• To understand the unique communicable disease and immunization issues present to families going through the adoption process.

• To become familiar with the incidence of medical problems based on demographics: region of world, prevalent child care there, infectious disease, common medical issues, malnutrition.

• To recognize developmental and emotional issues of IA children and learn about appropriate interventions, both during the transition process and long term.

DIDACTICS

• Elective Orientation

• Social Emotional and Cognitive Development

• FAS (Fetal Alcohol Syndrome)

• Sensory Motor Development

• Orphans in Africa

• Adoption Process from the Agency Perspective

• Unusual Diagnoses