Program Structure
Pediatric Wards | Subspecialty Months | Emergency Medicine | PICU | NICU | Well Baby Nursery | Concerned Parent
Residents participate in patient care on four general ward teams during their first year: the Anderson, Green, Osborn and Veasy Teams. Each consists of a third year senior resident and two first year pediatric residents. The focus is to provide excellent care to both general and sub-specialty patients.
The second year marks the beginning of supervisory responsibilities for our residents. During the second year, residents supervise a unique medical student team, the Glasgow team, consisting of one PGY-2 and four third year medical students. Opportunities for teaching and autonomy in patient care abound. Additional ward experience during the second year occur on the hematology-oncology ward service, under the supervision of the hematology-oncology staff, the gastroenterology team, and as the supervising resident on family medicine ward teams.
During the third year, residents gain experience as a supervisor on the general ward teams with pediatric residents, as well as supervising the visiting family medicine resident team. The Division of Inpatient Medicine has excellent pediatricians who serve as full time hospitalists and attend on all ward teams during the year. The hospitalists are committed to teaching, providing excellent patient care and establishing progressively more independent patient care responsibilities for our residents during their training.
Subspecialty Months and Ambulatory Pediatric Clinics
During the PGY-1 year, four months are spent in onsite subspecialty rotations in cardiology, pulmonary/allergy, neurology and infectious diseases. The primary objective of these rotations is educate the resident in the evaluation and outpatient management of these subspecialty patients, there are also experiences in inpatient consultation services for each. An additional month is spent in the ambulatory general pediatric clinic, Clinic 6, at the University of Utah where residents see general pediatric patients under the supervision of faculty in the Division of General Pediatrics. This month gives the resident exposure to many common general pediatric problems and also an opportunity to critically examine a clinical question, with the goal of presenting at the evidence-based journal club conference.
During the PGY-2 year, residents spend subspecialty months in gastroenterology, nephrology and endocrinology. Residents have the flexibility of pursuing electives of their choice during this year.
The PGY-3 year has more elective opportunities for residents while additional subspecialty months are spent on the genetics/rheumatology, behavior and development and adolescent medicine services.
Pediatric Emergency Medicine
The Pediatric Emergency Department (ED) at PCMC is a busy unit with more than 40,000 visits annually. Residents play an integral role in the management of patients in the ED, and the educational experience is invaluable. Residents spend one month in the ED during the PL-1 year, two months during the PL-2 year and a final month and a half during the PL-3 year. With exposure to patients with trauma, complex medical problems and primary care concerns, the ED continues to be one of the most valuable rotations for our residents.
Pediatric Intensive Care
The Pediatric Intensive Care Unit at Primary Children's Medical Center (PCMC) is a busy unit supporting medical, surgical and cardiac patients. The unit is staffed with critical care fellows and full time critical care attendings 24 hour a day and provides residents a superb opportunity for performing procedures, resuscitating the critically ill child and managing complicated medical patients as well as post-operative patients with a variety of problems. Residents spend one month in the PL-2 and PL-3 years in the PICU.
Neonatal Intensive Care
The PCMC Newborn Intensive Care Unit, with an exclusively out-born patient base, draws infants from throughout the Intermountain West. The patients have a remarkable diversity of metabolic, infectious, neurologic, respiratory and surgical conditions. Like the PICU, the NICU has a faculty attending in-house 24 hours/day, along with a cadre of neonatal nurse practitioners. The University of Utah NICU specializes in the management of very low birth weight infants as well as those with the aforementioned problems. Both units provide intense and satisfying experiences for the residents. Residents spend one month each in the UNICU during the PL-1 year, in the UNICU or PNICU during the PL-3 years and one month in the PNICU during the PL-2 year.
Well Baby Nursery
The well baby nursery at the University of Utah is a busy rotation where residents learn the principles of neonatal resuscitations, normal newborn care as well as how to identify and care for acutely ill neonates. Under the supervision of faculty of the Division of General Pediatrics, residents spend one month in the PL-1 year and one month in the PL-2 year as a supervisor.
Concerned Parent
Concerned parent call is an opportunity for residents to handle phone calls from the parents of patients followed in the resident continuity clinics. This experience enables residents to interact with parents and make decisions regarding the management of simple or complex health problems.
Residents manage their continuilty patients through concerned parent call.
