Educational Opportunities

Curriculum

The Department of Pediatrics is committed to providing quality educational experiences at all sites you work including all our hospitals, outpatient clinics, conferences and individualized study programs. You will spend time at All Children's Hospital and Tampa General Hospital during all three years of training and have exposure to numerous faculty, fellows, daily conferences, and other daily educational experiences.

Inpatient Experiences

Wards and Rotations | Newborn Nursery | Neonatal Intensive Care Unit | Pediatric Intensive Care Unit | Additional Rotations

Wards and Rotations

ACH ward service consists of 2 general teams, each with 3 interns, 2 seniors, and 4 students. The subspecialty service has 2 interns and one senior. At TGH there is one ward team of 4 senior (PL2 and 3) residents with 4 students. All teams have dedicated attendings.

PL1: Interns spend 3 inpatient ward rotations on the general pediatric service at ACH and 1 on the subspecialty service. The inpatient service is staffed by 14 hospitalists who are available in- house 24/7. Each intern serves as the primary care provider for up to 10 patients. Family centered rounds are the norm for the inpatient service. When on the specialty service, you will care for Allergy/Immunology, GI, Pulmonary and Nephrology patients. Residents receive daily lectures from the specialists during this rotation.

PL-2 and PL3: Residents have greater responsibility during these years. When covering the wards at TGH they work directly with the medical students and are the only physicians in-house caring for the patients at night with attendings available by phone. Residents are responsible for running rounds and teaching students and interns. At ACH, there will be two teams, each with a day and night senior. As the senior, you will run rounds during the day and supervise interns and medical students both during the day and overnight.

An additional role you have is to provide education to medical students. You will be enrolled in our CREST (Competition for Residents Educating Students) program which is a fantasy football type competition. The goal is to empower/encourage residents to teach medical students, to develop education and leadership skills, and to enhance medical student education through increased resident interaction by using competition and incentives.

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Newborn Nursery

The normal newborn experience at TGH consists of a one month rotation in the first year of training at the newborn nursery and post-partum units. The vast majority of the babies "room-in" with their mothers. Under the supervision of the general pediatric faculty and in conjunction with two certified nurse practitioners, interns provide care to healthy newborns as well as those in the transition nursery which has 3 monitored beds and up to 8 nursery beds. The transition nursery provides care for infants requiring closer monitoring and increased care such as double phototherapy, iv medications but not requiring NICU care. Residents also spend time in the delivery room where they attend deliveries of infants unlikely to need NICU care but requiring a physician's attendance.

Two interns along with 4 medical students (students rotate weekly) are assigned to the rotation each month. They have access to multiple resources including comprehensive Newborn Nursery Guidelines and utilize EPIC as the EMR. Overnight coverage is provided by senior residents on NICU and Wards. The nursery interns provide weekend day coverage in the newborn nursery and the NICU. During the rotation, residents learn about a variety of common issues such as normal newborn care, breastfeeding, hyperbilirubinemia, presentation of neonatal infections, anemia, and many more. Residents participate in procedures such as lumbar punctures, circumcisions and blood draws during this rotation.

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Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU)

Residents rotate through both hospitals' level III NICUs during all three years of training. During the first year, the NICU experience occurs at TGH. The TGH experience includes delivery room coverage and provides exposure to a large number of healthy term as well as premature neonates with medical problems. Residents are also exposed to neonates on ECMO. Interns receive increasing number of patients and responsibility during the month. During their first year, residents do not take overnight call or shifts in the NICU. Attendings provide teaching during daily bedside rounds in addition to organized didactics. Fellows and/or faculty are always available for resident supervision. Second and third years provide overnight coverage at TGH NICU.

As a 17-county referral center, the 97-bed ACH NICU allows the resident exposure to critically ill neonates including those with complex congenital heart disease. With 72,000 square feet, it provides private rooms for all infants and their families. Second year residents work closely with faculty and nurse practitioners in this unit and take overnight call with a fellow and attending in house.

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Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU)

The ACH and TGH Pediatric Intensive Care Units (PICUS) are multi-displinary, muti-professional, level III units where critically ill children are treated. Residents have two blocks of PICU during their second year of residency. These rotations occur at either hospital with the goal to expose each resident to both sites. During their rotations, the residents are primarily responsible for the direct care of their patients. All resident duties are supervised by a board-certified critical care attending physician who conducts daily bedside rounds and provides on-going teaching. The TGH PICU has 9 beds and the ACH unit has 28 medical beds. In addition, ACH has a 22 bed Cardiovascular Intensive Care Unit (CVICU). Residents interested in Cardiology or Critical Care medicine can choose an elective in this unit. Second and third year residents will take overnight call in these units during their night float rotations.

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Additional Rotations

You will spend 1 month is the Emergency Department at ACH during each year of your training, You will also have 1 elective month, 1 advocacy month and 2 ambulatory months during your first year. The elective month given during your first year is to assist in career choice. During your second year of training you will have dedicated rotations in adolescent medicine and development. The schedule below shows a typical rotation schedule for each year of training. Or DO residents will have a slightly different schedule incorporating a month of pediatric surgery and outpatient medicine into their first year.

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