Perceived must see pediatric conditions vs. actual clinical exposure during an undergraduate pediatrics clerkship.
- 1College of Medicine and Health Sciences, United Arab Emirates University, AlAin, United Arab Emirates.
Abstract
Background
Undergraduate pediatric rotations aim to provide authentic exposure to core conditions. Programs often publish "must-see" lists, but student and doctor perceived priorities may not reflect real-world case-mix. We compared student/doctor perceived must-see topics with the diagnoses and presentations they actually encountered.Methods
Cross-sectional comparison of a perception dataset (49 participants: 39 medical students and 10 doctors; 81 presentation-illness pairs, mean ± SEM on a 1-5 scale) and an electronic logbook of clinical encounters. Free-text logbook fields were normalized, segmented, and classified as presentations or diagnoses by the authors and were not independently reviewed. We computed documented diagnosis and presentation frequencies, mapped survey pairs to observed labels, and examined alignment using Spearman's rank correlation coefficient. Mapping coverage and discrepant priority-exposure patterns were summarized descriptively.Results
The logbook comprised 5,179 encounters. After normalization and mapping, 63% (51/81) of survey pairs had at least one documented match. Spearman's rank correlations were ρ = 0.713 for diagnosis pairs (n = 15, p = 0.003, 95% CI = 0.32-0.90) and ρ = 0.087 for presentation pairs (n = 11, p = 0.800, 95% CI = -0.54-0.65). Respiratory and gastrointestinal conditions were prominent in both datasets. No mapped logbook entry was found for innocent/pathologic heart murmur, but this may reflect limited exposure, documentation omission, or mapping/capture error rather than confirmed absence. Hydronephrosis was documented 12 times despite a perceived rank of 70.Conclusions
The logbook documented frequent exposure to several common core conditions that students and doctors valued, while some high-priority items had few or no mapped entries. Because absence from a free-text logbook is not proof of no clinical exposure, structured chief-complaint and final-diagnosis fields, mapping validation, targeted simulation/virtual cases, and data-informed scheduling may improve both documentation and equitable curricular coverage.
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BibTeX
@article{ahbabi2026perceived,
title = {{Perceived must see pediatric conditions vs. actual clinical exposure during an undergraduate pediatrics clerkship.}},
author = {Hamed Al Ahbabi and Omar Tafech and Hassan Ballas and Mohammed Al-Zaabi and Mohammed Al-Blooshi and Ahmed Alsuwaidi and Elhadi H Aburawi and S Ayhan Çalışkan and Awad Al Essa and Imran Zafar and Sami Shaban and Mohi Eldin Magzoub},
journal = {Frontiers in medicine},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.3389/fmed.2026.1876315},
url = {https://europepmc.org/article/MED/42908573},
note = {CC BY},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Perceived must see pediatric conditions vs. actual clinical exposure during an undergraduate pediatrics clerkship.
AU - Hamed Al Ahbabi
AU - Omar Tafech
AU - Hassan Ballas
AU - Mohammed Al-Zaabi
AU - Mohammed Al-Blooshi
AU - Ahmed Alsuwaidi
AU - Elhadi H Aburawi
AU - S Ayhan Çalışkan
AU - Awad Al Essa
AU - Imran Zafar
AU - Sami Shaban
AU - Mohi Eldin Magzoub
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/07
JO - Frontiers in medicine
DO - 10.3389/fmed.2026.1876315
UR - https://europepmc.org/article/MED/42908573
AB - Background Undergraduate pediatric rotations aim to provide authentic exposure to core conditions. Programs often publish "must-see" lists, but student and doctor perceived priorities may not reflect real-world case-mix. We compared student/doctor perceived must-see topics with the diagnoses and presentations they actually encountered.Methods Cross-sectional comparison of a perception dataset (49 participants: 39 medical students and 10 doctors; 81 presentation-illness pairs, mean ± SEM on a 1-5 scale) and an electronic logbook of clinical encounters. Free-text logbook fields were normalized, segmented, and classified as presentations or diagnoses by the authors and were not independently reviewed. We computed documented diagnosis and presentation frequencies, mapped survey pairs to observed labels, and examined alignment using Spearman's rank correlation coefficient. Mapping coverage and discrepant priority-exposure patterns were summarized descriptively.Results The logbook comprised 5,179 encounters. After normalization and mapping, 63% (51/81) of survey pairs had at least one documented match. Spearman's rank correlations were ρ = 0.713 for diagnosis pairs (n = 15, p = 0.003, 95% CI = 0.32-0.90) and ρ = 0.087 for presentation pairs (n = 11, p = 0.800, 95% CI = -0.54-0.65). Respiratory and gastrointestinal conditions were prominent in both datasets. No mapped logbook entry was found for innocent/pathologic heart murmur, but this may reflect limited exposure, documentation omission, or mapping/capture error rather than confirmed absence. Hydronephrosis was documented 12 times despite a perceived rank of 70.Conclusions The logbook documented frequent exposure to several common core conditions that students and doctors valued, while some high-priority items had few or no mapped entries. Because absence from a free-text logbook is not proof of no clinical exposure, structured chief-complaint and final-diagnosis fields, mapping validation, targeted simulation/virtual cases, and data-informed scheduling may improve both documentation and equitable curricular coverage.
SN - 2296-858X
ER -