During my final year of residency, I was asked to help brainstorm topics that would be useful to include in a nighttime curriculum for pediatric interns during their night float rotation. One topic immediately came to mind: pediatric stroke and other neurologic emergencies.
This choice was motivated by one of the more memorable night calls that I had experienced during my intern year.
At 3:30 a.m., I received a call from a nurse reporting that one of my patients, a 15-year-old male with lupus, was complaining of a sudden inability to move his right arm. It was early enough in my intern year that I was still unsure of the correct dose of acetaminophen, much less the appropriate management of a suspected stroke. As I went to his room to assess him, I tried to recall the cortical homunculus, the different vascular territories of the brain, and whether aspirin could be safely given as an anticoagulant to a teenager.
In November Pediatrics in Review, Drs. Miya E. Bernson-Leung and Michael J. Rivkin offer “Stroke in Neonates and Children,” an excellent review of the evaluation and management of suspected pediatric stroke. With it, the journal has added a new way for readers to access content: teaching slides
These slides offer a succinct summary of the article’s primary teaching points. Whether you are the intern who wants a quick review of a subject before going to
assess a patient, or you are someone who regularly uses PIR review articles as a teaching aide, these slides are the perfect resource, offering easy access to PIR content on the go.The teaching slides can be downloaded from the Stroke article’s “Supplemental” tab. In the print edition of the journal, a link for the article and teaching slides appears at the end of the article PDF.
Teaching slides also are available for many PIR articles, including Pediatric Asthma in a Nutshell, Eating Disorders in Children and Adolescents, Patient Safety and Quality Improvement, Upper Airway Obstruction, and, coming in December, Enteroviruses and Refeeding Syndrome.
As for my teenage patient, I was able (with close guidance from the on-call neurologist) to initiate an appropriate workup, and ultimately he did quite well. I am sure that if I ever find myself in a similar situation in the future, I will be grateful for this new way to review PIR material at the point of care.
