Educational Program
Areas of Concentration
Our program is designed to give you a solid foundation in pediatrics from which to enter practice or pursue additional subspecialty training. In 2008, we revised our curriculum to allow more flexibility as residents identify their career focus during the first part of their training, and then develop this focus over the latter portion of training. To help you achieve your goals, we have developed “Areas of Concentration” (AOC), with a choice of experiences for residents who pursue one of these areas. The three AOCs that we have at present are:
- Primary Care – Residents who select this AOC are usually considering general pediatric practice. In addition to working with busy primary care pediatricians, residents will be able to select from electives such as dermatology, musculoskeletal, children with special health care needs, and additional training in common psychiatric and behavior/development issues (these electives are also available to residents with other AOCs).
- Public Health – Residents who select this AOC will have the chance to spend additional time working in the community, developing an area of advocacy, and doing field work at the local or state health department. Residents in this AOC will often do scholarly work in this area as well.
- Research/Subspecialty – Residents who select this AOC are often, but not always, interested in additional fellowship training. They will have one or more research months, will have the chance to develop a more focused elective in their subspecialty of interest, and will select other “supporting” electives (e.g., radiology focusing on the area of interest).
Progressive Responsibilities
Our program is designed to improve your skills and increase your confidence as you progress through the three years of training. One of the strengths of our program is that all residents rotate through all of the core subspecialties of pediatrics. This allows the elective months to be truly tailored to your interests and career goals. In addition, we have developed a comprehensive web-based curriculum that provides rotation-specific orientation, goals and objectives, clinical cases, readings, and self-assessment tools. Goals for each year of training are:
- PL-1 year – Emphasis is on the care of inpatients, while providing exposure to the newborn nursery, ambulatory clinics, and emergency medicine.
- PL-2 year – Residents rotate through all pediatric subspecialties, ensuring a broad-based exposure to common and complex pediatric problems.
- PL-3 year – Designed to enhance leadership and teaching skills as the team leader in a number of settings.
| Ward | Community Pediatrics | NICU | Newborn Nursery | Ward | Elective | NICU | Continuity Clinic Immersion | Ward | Hem-Onc | EM | UW Night Float | Ward |
| Sedation | ||||||||||||
| Continuty Clinic All Year | ||||||||||||
| Hem-Onc | Behavior & Development | Elective | PICU | Adolescent Medicine | Cardiology | Elective | PICU | Nephrology | Elective | Endocrinology | Pulmonary & Allergy |
| Continuty Clinic All Year | |||||||||||
| Elective | Acute Illness | NICU | Elective | Ward | EM | GI | Meriter | Newborn Nursery | UW Night Float | Ward | Elective | Infectious Disease |
| Elective | ||||||||||||
| Continuty Clinic All Year | ||||||||||||
Electives
Residents have the option to choose from a wide variety of elective opportunities. Some of the electives we currently offer include: Anesthesiology, Child Abuse, Children with Special Health Care Needs, Dermatology, Diabetes Camp, Ethics, Heme-Onc Clinics, International Electives, Musculoskeletal Medicine, Obesity, Perinatal Medicine, Primary Care Pediatrics, Public Health, and Research.
Conferences
| Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AM | Morning Report | Problem Conference | Grand Rounds | Morning Report | |
| PM | Core Curriculum Conference | Conference Series | Core Curriculum Conference | Conference Series | Resident Meeting |
To complement our clinical experiences, our residents attend a series of educational conferences. In addition to the traditional noon core conferences, morning report, and grand rounds, we also have several conferences designed to enhance resident skills and knowledge in a number of areas. These include:
- Ethics – This monthly conference is led by Dr. Norm Fost, Director of the UW Program of Medical Ethics and internationally-recognized expert in medical ethics. Cases and questions are posted in advance, and the conference provides time for in-depth discussion of relevant ethical principles.
- Evidence-Based Medicine – The EBM series is led by Dr. Frohna, our program director, whose passion is evidence-based medicine. In addition to didactic and small group sessions designed to build skills in accessing and assessing the evidence, we have an EBM journal club approximately once a month.
- Injury Prevention – Dr. Gwen McIntosh, one of our general pediatricians, directs this series of talks which focus on preventing injury in pediatrics. Advocacy issues are often included.
- Professionalism – This series of conferences includes small group discussions about a variety of topics related to professionalism and leadership. Using videos and vignette discussion, the goal is to build a common culture of professionalism within the Department of Pediatrics.
- Quality Improvement – During the adolescent month, residents will work with the University Health Services physicians to assess an aspect of practice and explore ways that the care provided can be improved. The residents present their results to their colleagues during a noon conference.
- Resident as Teacher – This monthly series prepares residents for their important teaching roles.
- Senior Talks – Each month, a PL-3 resident presents a talk on a topic of his/her choosing. This is a great chance to practice the teaching skills that are taught in the program.
Resident Input into the Program
We take pride in our ability to respond quickly and effectively to resident suggestions and comments so that the program can be continuously improved. Residents in our program are very active in shaping the direction of our program. We have a weekly Resident Meeting which allows the program directors and chief resident to keep up with issues that are important to the residents, keeps our residents informed and involved in the issues that affect them, and provides a forum for a discussion of stressors that are common to any residency program. This is often the place where new initiatives are first discussed.
Residents also participate in our Residency Advisory Committee (RAC). The RAC is composed of faculty directors for each rotation, the program directors and chief residents, along with residents from each class. The committee reviews the curriculum and addresses other important issues in the residency program.
Our program also holds an annual resident and faculty retreat to review key aspects of the program. During this retreat we focus on two to three important topics selected jointly by residents and faculty. This is where we developed the increased flexibility that we now have in our schedule and where we identified strategies to enhance the subspecialty experiences during the second year. Many of our most significant and innovative changes in the residency program have come out of these retreats.