The Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health's (RCPCH) Diploma in Child Health is intended to recognise a doctor's special knowledge and experience in the medical care of children, and to contribute to their continued professional development. This practical study guide, written by a member of the RCPCH and a senior examiner for the diploma, is essential reading for anyone taking the examination and provide advice and step-by-step guidance to steer postgraduate trainees towards success. Volume 1 covers four of the seven sections or 'stations' that trainees need to complete in preparation for the examination; Communication; Clinical assessment; Focused history and management; Child development. The remaining three stations can be found in The Diploma in Child Health Volume 2, which include; Safe prescribing; Data interpretation; Structured oral. Within each of these stations is a series of scenarios based around a particular condition or situation, which the trainee must 'role play' with a co-worker, student or someone else. However, they can be worked through alone. Each scenario provides the trainee with some information and outlines what they need to do, then supplies some further information to the role player who acts as either a patient or examiner. This may be answers to questions posed to the trainee, information about a patient that the trainee must discover, or simply points that an examiner will be looking for in the exam. Additional information about the condition in question is then supplied. The stations covered in Volume 1 also feature in the entrance exams to become a Member of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health (MRCPCH), and so this Volume will also be valuable to candidates studying for this exam. Audience: Designed to enhance the practice of GPs, GP vocational trainees, staff grade doctors and senior house officers in paediatrics, and trainees in specialities allies to paediatrics.
Anil Garg is a Consultant Paediatrician, Western Sussex Hospitals NHS Trust; Honorary consultant Paediatrician, Brighton Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust; and Associate Clinical Professor, American University of Caribbean, St. Marteen. Neonatology and cardiology are his special expertise. He is a senior examiner for the RCPCH for MRCPCH and DCH and was Principal Regional Examiner for South Eat Thames region, England. He is currently working with Kent, Surrey and Sussex (KSS) Deanery to improve MRCPCH teaching in the region. A very keen educator, he has developed and presented novel teaching and monitoring techniques at national and international meetings. He has noted the difficulties that the trainees face in the clinical part of MRCPCH examination and has developed successful study material to improve clinical skills.
