Department of Pediatrics
USF Health · College of Medicine

Curriculum & Requirements

All fellows participating in the USF GAP fellowship will be expected to complete all the requirements leading to a Masters Degree. Fellows in the Primary Care Track complete a Masters degree in Public Health (MPH) at the USF College of Public Health. Academic Hospitalist Track fellows will complete a Masters of Medical Sciences Degree (MSc) in Clinical Research provided through the Scholars I Patient-Oriented Research (SPOR) program, a NIH K-30 award. In addition to the required Masters Degree course work, trainees will have a set of didactic lectures and online self-study modules in areas that are key to career development and scholarship. Fellows are mentored in every step of their training by career mentors and a research/scholarship mentors. Their training and research are anticipated to lead to research presentation at national meetings, peer-reviewed publication, and grantsmanship.

The fellows will function as junior faculty, participate in weekly journal clubs as well as residents morning reports and didactic lectures. They are expected to participate in Research Conferences at participating institutions both as presenters and attendees. Fellows have the opportunity to teach residents and medical students in the context of clinical work (inpatient/outpatient) as well as didactic lectures. They are also required to deliver one Grand Round in their last year of fellowship. Specific courses and didactic experiences will be tailored based on the residents' research project focus area.

General Program Design

Training Year Research Clinical Vacation/
Conference Time
1 ~ 29-33 weeks ~ 15-19 weeks 4 weeks

MPH/MSc Course Work

2 ~ 29-31 weeks ~ 17-19 weeks 4 weeks

MPH/MSc Course Work

Affiliated Institutions

  • Tampa General Hospital (TGH) is a 1,000-bed metropolitan hospital, which has 181 beds and cribs dedicated for pediatrics. More than 25 pediatric specialties are part of the Children's Medical Center, which features a multi-specialty unit, a pediatric intensive care center, a neonatal intensive care unit with ECMO technology, dialysis and renal transplant units, newborn and special care nurseries, and regional trauma and burn centers that serve both children and adults.

  • All Children's Hospital (ACH) is the primary site for the hospitalist fellow. The hospital is a new 9 story building with 259 beds including a 28-bed Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU), Pediatric Heart Center, with 22-Bed Cardiovascular Intensive Care Unit (CVICU), 97-bed NICU, 28-bed Emergency Center,28-bed cancer center.

  • Sarasota Memorial Hospital (SMH)), located in Sarasota, Florida serves as the community-based hospitalist experience. The pediatric unit consists of 26 beds and is staffed 24 hours per day by pediatric hospitalists. The team of pediatric specialists and generalists have a special partnership with ACH.

    Curriculum

    Clinical Care

    Role as a Supervised Fellow

    Activities (direct pt. care w/call) Year 1 Year 2
    PICU (inc. transport) 4 weeks
    ACH ER (inc. quick kid) 14 shifts 7 shifts
    ACH Daytime Hospitalist (inc. admits, consults, sedation) 2 weeks
    Elective 2 weeks 2 weeks
    Hospitalist at Sarasota Memorial 2 weeks

    Role as Co-attending

    Activities (supervisory clinical teaching with call) Year 1 Year 2
    ACH Inpatient (teaching co-attending) 6 weeks 8 weeks
    ACH Nighttime Hospitalist 7 shifts 10 shifts
    New born nursery at TGH 2 weeks 2 weeks

    Education Activities

    The scholarship development lecture series includes a series of educational topics not covered in other course work.

  • Adult learning theory
  • Teaching how to Teach
  • Evaluation and Feedback
  • Dealing with the Problem Learner
  • Evidence-Based Medicine
  • Preparing for Presentation - How to do a Presentation or Poster
  • Professionalism
  • Practice Management

    Activity Year 1 Year 2
    MSc Courses X X
    Scholarship Development Series Q mo Q mo
    Journal Club 4/yr 4/yr
    Resident Noon Conference 1/yr 1/yr
    Bedside Teaching X X
    Research Conference X
    USF Research Day X
    USF Pediatric Fellows Forum X
    Grand Rounds 1/yr 1/yr

    MSc Degree - NIH K 30 Scholars in Patient-Oriented Research Program

    Summer Year 1 - 3 weeks of all-day classes in July

  • Ethical & Regulatory Aspects of Clinical Research (3)
  • Cultural & Diversity Issues in Clinical Research (2)
  • Basic Principles of Patient-Oriented Research (1)

    • Fall Year 1 - Full Semester on-line courses

  • Biostatistics (web-based - 3)
  • Epidemiology (web-based - 3) Option: May be offered in class another semester

    Spring Year 1 - 2 weeks of half-day classes mid-Spring with 1 week break

  • Fundamentals of Translational Research (1)
  • Scientific Communication (2)

    Summer Year 2

  • Grantsmanship I (1)

    Mid-May to Mid-July

  • Design & Conduct of Clinical Trails (3)
  • Grantsmanship II (1)

    Spring

  • Grantsmanship III

    Ongoing - Meets monthly on Wednesday 3-5 pm, plus mentor meetings

  • Clinical and Tranlational Mentored Research

    Every other year - 10 sessions of 90 minutes each

  • Colloquium on Building a Successful Academic Career (1)

    Research Activities

    Projects are done in conjunction with the MSc program and project mentor.

    Year 1
  • Literature review
  • Develop question and plan
  • IRB Submission
  • Data Collection

    Year 2

  • Data Collection
  • Data Analysis
  • Dissemination (abstract or manuscript submission; presentation)
  • Develop/Plan grant application

    Administration/Advocacy/Leadership

  • Serving on hospital committees (education, other)
  • QA/QI project
  • Business of Medicine
  • Involvement with national organization (AAP, APA, FPS, SHM)
  • Local advocacy initiatives including legislative