Teaching well child care

Despite recommendations that the emphasis of the well child visit be on behavior and development, some studies indicate that pediatricians continue to spend a relatively small percentage of each well baby visit on these subjects. One factor contributing to the discrepancy between current recommendations and practice may be the way we teach residents to perform this task. In this study, we investigated and evaluated current methods for teaching well child care. Our data indicate that the content of well child care is being taught, but that problems with teaching setting, methods and frequency of supervision, and lack of formal evaluation may be among the factors which contribute to our continued inability to change the focus of well child visits.