Abstract

Objective: The competence of pediatricians in managing developmental problems depends on the education in this field during their pediatrics residency training. However, even in developed countries, many pediatricians find it difficult to open up and manage developmental issues because of various barriers. In this study it is aimed to evaluate to what extent are developmental issues included in the training and clinical practices of pediatric residents, to identify the barriers encountered, and to develop new strategies in this regard.

Material and Methods: This study was conducted by Developmental Pediatrics between January 1 and March 1, 2020 in a tertiary training hospital. One hundred twenty pediatric residents were given a questionnaire with 10 items, prepared by the study team which included giving place to developmental issues in their clinical practice, the barriers they faced, and related factors.

Results: It was shown that most of the pediatric residents didn’t think they had sufficient information related to child development (86%), didn’t use a developmental screening test (89%), and faced various barriers in early diagnosis and treatment of developmental problems (95%). The time limitation (91%) ranked the first among these obstacles. The frequency of those who reported that they had no information source was 28%. No relationship was found between the duration of residency training and giving place to developmental issues (p = 0.980). While giving place to developmental issues was associated with having information resources (p = 0.001), having information resources was associated with receiving training about child development (p = 0.000).

Conclusion: Giving place to developmental issues was associated with having information resources and resource availability was also associated with receiving education, and many barriers encountered were shown, particularly the time limitation. The health system should be supported with a comprehensive perspective by integrating training about early diagnosis and treatment of developmental problems.

Keywords: Pediatrics training, Developmental problems, Pediatric residents

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Copyright and license

Copyright © 2021 The Author(s). This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited.

How to cite

1.
Çelen Yoldaş T, Şenel S, Abuş H, Yücel H, Özmert E. Identification of the Place of Developmental Issues in the Educational and Clinical Practices of Pediatric Residents and Affecting Factors. Turk J Pediatr Dis [Internet]. 2021 Jan. 22 [cited 2025 Sep. 21];15(1):59-64. Available from: https://turkjpediatrdis.org/article/view/823