It’s June, and the third-year students at St. Louis University School of Medicine are getting out of anatomy labs and lecture halls and into their first clinical rotations with patients.
The doctors in training can be easily identified by their short, white coats and stethoscopes around their necks.
Earlier this month, when those students listened intently to their first grand rounds presentation of the new academic year, it was telling that the topic was toxic stress and children.
It was presented by SLU Associate Professor Kenneth Haller, head of the Missouri Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics. It was held at Cardinal Glennon Children’s Hospital, where the effects of toxic stress on children can be seen firsthand: asthma, obesity, child abuse, hyperactivity and depression — all associated with chronic levels of household stress.
“This is their first rotation,” said Haller of the students. “It really challenges them to figure out, what are you going to do with this public health problem?”
SLU neonatologist Dr. William Keenan went so far as to say the presentation was “the most important grand rounds we’ve had this year, probably this decade.”
[For more of this story, written by Nancy Cambria, go to http://www.stltoday.com/news/l...27-1c90cc11c280.html]
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