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Medical specialties

Paediatrics Diploma

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A decision-focused diploma in general paediatrics: how to recognise the seriously ill child, manage fever, breathing problems, infection and dehydration safely, and care for newborns, infants and children with long-term conditions, developmental and mental health needs, and safeguarding concerns.

Twenty-five weekly sessions across five modules take you from the acutely unwell child, through newborns, infants and development, common long-term conditions, and neurology, mental health and safeguarding, to prolonged fever, the heart, blood disorders and children with complex needs, taught live by practising specialists you can question. Teaching is anchored on current guidance from the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), the British Thoracic Society and the European specialty societies, with US differences flagged where they change practice.

Course director
To be announced
Format
25 live weekly sessions on Zoom, in 5 modules
Dates
Confirmed when enrolment opens

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A newborn baby's hand gripping an adult's finger in the palmar grasp reflex, shown in black and white.
Image: newborn's hand gripping a finger by Rlunaro via Wikimedia Commons, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Who it is for

Senior trainees, fellows and early-career consultants in paediatrics, and GPs and emergency doctors who look after children, worldwide.

The programme

25 one-hour sessions in 5 modules, each with its learning objectives. This is the draft programme: the course director reviews and refines it before enrolment opens, so session titles may change.

Module 1 · Sessions 1 to 5The acutely unwell child

  1. 1. Recognising the seriously ill child

    • Assess an acutely unwell child using a structured airway, breathing, circulation, disability and exposure approach
    • Use early warning scores and parental concern to escalate care
    • Recognise suspected sepsis and start treatment in line with NICE NG254
    • Hand over a deteriorating child clearly to senior colleagues

  2. 2. Fever in young children and febrile infants

    • Assess a feverish child under five using the NICE traffic light system
    • Manage a febrile infant under three months, including when to perform a lumbar puncture
    • Diagnose and treat urinary tract infection in children, following NICE NG224
    • Give safety-netting advice that parents can act on

  3. 3. Bronchiolitis, croup and preschool wheeze

    • Diagnose bronchiolitis and avoid treatments that do not help
    • Decide when a child with bronchiolitis needs admission, oxygen or feeding support
    • Assess croup severity and treat it with steroids and nebulised adrenaline
    • Distinguish viral wheeze from asthma in preschool children

  4. 4. Meningitis, encephalitis and seizures in children

    • Recognise meningococcal disease and give antibiotics without delay
    • Manage simple and complex febrile seizures
    • Treat convulsive status epilepticus in a child using a timed protocol
    • Decide when a child with fever and altered consciousness needs a lumbar puncture or imaging

  5. 5. Gastroenteritis, dehydration and intravenous fluids

    • Assess dehydration in a child with diarrhoea and vomiting
    • Rehydrate with oral or nasogastric fluids wherever possible
    • Prescribe intravenous fluids safely, including sodium content and monitoring, following NICE NG29
    • Recognise and correct dangerous sodium disorders
Module 2 · Sessions 6 to 10Newborns, infants and development

  1. 6. The newborn: examination and jaundice

    • Perform a structured newborn examination and recognise findings that need referral
    • Manage neonatal jaundice using treatment threshold graphs
    • Investigate prolonged jaundice to exclude biliary atresia
    • Explain how US thresholds for treating jaundice differ from UK guidance

  2. 7. The unwell neonate and neonatal infection

    • Identify newborns at risk of early-onset infection and start antibiotics when indicated
    • Decide when antibiotics can be stopped safely, following NICE NG195
    • Recognise duct-dependent congenital heart disease in a collapsed neonate
    • Stabilise an unwell neonate before transfer

  3. 8. Infant feeding, reflux and cow's milk allergy

    • Support breastfeeding and assess feeding problems
    • Distinguish normal regurgitation from gastro-oesophageal reflux disease
    • Diagnose cow's milk protein allergy and choose the right formula
    • Reassure parents about infant colic and avoid unnecessary medicines

  4. 9. Faltering growth

    • Plot and interpret growth charts using thresholds for concern
    • Assess feeding and intake as the first step in faltering growth
    • Choose investigations only when the history or examination points to a cause
    • Recognise when faltering growth raises safeguarding concerns

  5. 10. Child development and developmental concerns

    • Assess development across motor, language, social and cognitive domains
    • Identify developmental red flags that need prompt referral
    • Recognise early signs of cerebral palsy, following NICE NG62
    • Coordinate referral for hearing, vision and multidisciplinary assessment
Module 3 · Sessions 11 to 15Common long-term conditions

  1. 11. Asthma in children and young people

    • Diagnose asthma in children using objective tests where possible
    • Step treatment up and down, including maintenance and reliever therapy
    • Manage acute asthma in a child through to escalation
    • Identify children at risk of a life-threatening attack

  2. 12. Allergy and anaphylaxis

    • Take an allergy-focused history and choose the right tests
    • Recognise anaphylaxis and give intramuscular adrenaline promptly
    • Train families to use adrenaline auto-injectors and an allergy action plan
    • Advise families on introducing allergenic foods to infants

  3. 13. Eczema and common skin problems

    • Assess eczema severity and its impact on the child and family
    • Build a stepped treatment plan with emollients and topical corticosteroids
    • Recognise eczema herpeticum and infected eczema that need urgent treatment
    • Identify rashes that suggest serious illness

  4. 14. Type 1 diabetes and diabetic ketoacidosis

    • Diagnose type 1 diabetes in a child and arrange same-day specialist assessment
    • Manage diabetic ketoacidosis safely, including fluids and the risk of cerebral oedema
    • Explain insulin regimens and diabetes technology to families
    • Support adolescents with diabetes through risk-taking and transition

  5. 15. Constipation, abdominal pain and coeliac disease

    • Treat functional constipation with adequate laxative doses and a maintenance plan
    • Identify red flags that suggest an organic cause of constipation or abdominal pain
    • Diagnose coeliac disease, including when a biopsy can be avoided
    • Manage recurrent functional abdominal pain together with the family
Module 4 · Sessions 16 to 20Neurology, mental health and safeguarding

  1. 16. Epilepsy and paroxysmal events in children

    • Distinguish epileptic seizures from common non-epileptic events in children
    • Recognise common childhood epilepsy syndromes
    • Choose antiseizure treatment, applying current valproate restrictions
    • Write an individual care plan for a child with epilepsy at school

  2. 17. Autism and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder

    • Recognise features of autism and refer for assessment
    • Assess attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and its common coexisting conditions
    • Monitor medicines for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder safely
    • Support families and schools with practical adjustments

  3. 18. Adolescent mental health: self-harm and eating disorders

    • Assess a young person after self-harm, including risk and safety planning
    • Recognise depression in young people and choose first-line treatment
    • Identify medical instability in a young person with an eating disorder
    • Hold a confidential consultation with an adolescent

  4. 19. Headache and other neurological symptoms in children

    • Identify headache features that need urgent imaging
    • Recognise the early symptoms of a brain tumour
    • Manage migraine in children and adolescents
    • Assess acute ataxia and acute weakness in a child

  5. 20. Safeguarding: recognising and responding to maltreatment

    • Recognise features that should raise concern about maltreatment, following NICE CG89
    • Assess bruising in a non-mobile infant
    • Share concerns and document them in line with child protection procedures
    • Write a clear factual report for social care
Module 5 · Sessions 21 to 25Special areas and paediatric practice

  1. 21. Prolonged fever and Kawasaki disease

    • Investigate a child with prolonged fever in a structured way
    • Diagnose complete and incomplete Kawasaki disease
    • Treat Kawasaki disease with immunoglobulin and aspirin in time to protect the coronary arteries
    • Arrange cardiac follow-up after Kawasaki disease

  2. 22. Murmurs, chest pain and syncope in children

    • Distinguish innocent from pathological heart murmurs
    • Identify red flags in a child with exertional syncope or chest pain
    • Interpret a paediatric electrocardiogram for common abnormalities
    • Decide which children need referral to paediatric cardiology

  3. 23. Anaemia, bruising and cancer red flags

    • Investigate and treat iron deficiency anaemia in children
    • Manage acute complications of sickle cell disease
    • Assess a child with bruising or petechiae, including immune thrombocytopenia
    • Recognise symptoms that need a suspected cancer referral, following NICE NG12

  4. 24. Children with complex needs and transition to adult care

    • Coordinate care for a child with medical complexity across services
    • Plan emergency care for a child who depends on medical technology
    • Start palliative care conversations with families of children with life-limiting conditions
    • Plan transition to adult services, following NICE NG43

  5. 25. Complex case decisions and running a paediatric service

    • Apply the course to complex cases in a panel discussion
    • Design a paediatric ambulatory care pathway that reduces unnecessary admissions
    • Give safe telephone advice to primary care colleagues
    • Build a personal plan for continuing development in paediatrics

What the diploma includes

  • 25 live sessions on Zoom, one evening a week, with recordings for the weeks you miss.
  • Practising specialists teaching live, so you can put your questions to them.
  • Weekly MCQs and a final written assessment.
  • A digital certificate carrying your final classification.

Lead or teach the Paediatrics Diploma

We are looking for a course director and faculty from the specialty. Sessions are one hour in the UK evening, live on Zoom, and paid.

Apply to teach