[Planning and execution of a course in puericulture in an ambulatory service]

With a population of which 42.6% is under 14 years old, Brazil is especially in need of general practitioners with a good gourding in pediatrics. The fourth year of premedical training at the Botucatu Medical School at São Paulo, Brazil, includes a course in child care designed to help fill this need by giving the students their first contact with the problems of children. The course lasts 12 weeks and is given in the pediatric outpatient ward of the School's teaching hospital; its purpose is to accustom the student to dealing with members of the families of young patients while learning important aspects of clinical care at the early stages of his training, and using, in his contacts with patients, a vocabulary that the latter can understand. The course is designed to given the student not only theoretical knowledge, but also training for future practice, under the constant guidance of their instructors. A weekly evaluation of the progress of the course, in which the students participate, yields information for the ongoing improvement of the program, which has been conducted for almost ten years.