Policy & Position Statements
As an initiative spearheaded by residency-trained emergency physicians who themselves deliver emergency care to children, The PEPNETWORK is uniquely positioned to both identify specific deficiencies in pediatric proficiency within our specialty, as well as devise educational solutions for them. The PEPNETWORK is grounded in the philosophy that emergency medicine physicians are a unique set of life-long learners who also require a unique curriculum and learning opportunities geared to their needs.
It is primarily a revision of the current approach to emergency medicine pediatric education and tailoring the educational format and material to fit the needs of emergency medicine residents and graduates practicing in the community that will ultimately provide the most rapid growth in pediatric proficiency for our residents and for practicing emergency physicians seeking self-improvement through continuing education opportunities.
While the PEPNETWORK initiative embraces evidence-based medicine as the solid foundation of clinical practice, the fact remains that as a young budding subspecialty, research into many areas of emergency pediatrics is just beginning. As a result, much of emergency pediatrics is still experience – based. Since most emergency physicians who practice in community hospital emergency departments encounter far fewer children than adults in their practice, these physicians are in need of opportunities to acquire the knowledge and ‘tips’ that can only be gleaned from clinical experience. The PEPNETWORK includes national leaders in the subspecialty of Pediatric Emergency Medicine who are dedicated educators and who freely share their experience from caring for large volumes of sick children, and fill in the “information gap” so we can deliver practice protocols and algorithms that uniquely incorporate reliable experience-based tips into evidence-based practice for all emergency physicians who deliver pediatric care.
