Curriculum
The curriculum in the KU Medical School-Wichita Pediatric Residency Program meets standards established by the American Board of Pediatrics and the Residency Review Committee of the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education. Our program is small enough to be flexible in scheduling electives to accommodate individual interests and educational needs.
- Three-year curriculum
- Rotations
- Call schedule
- Conference and didactic schedule
- Pediatric clinic
- Research and Mentoring
- Current resident links
Curriculum For Three-year Pediatric Residency Program
PL-1 |
3 months |
Inpatient Service |
|
1 month |
Normal Newborn |
|
1 month |
Ambulatory |
|
1 month |
Emergency Department |
|
1 month |
NICU |
|
1 month |
PICU |
|
4 months |
Subspecialty Electives (*) |
|
|
|
PL-2 |
2 months |
Inpatient Service |
|
1 month |
Community Medicine |
|
1 month |
Adolescent Medicine |
|
1 month |
Behavioral/Development |
|
1-2 months |
Newborn Supervising |
|
1 month |
NICU |
|
1 month |
PICU |
|
2 months |
Acute Care Resident/Night Float |
|
1-2 months |
Subspecialty Electives (*) |
|
|
|
PL-3 |
2-3 months |
Inpatient Supervising (IPSR) |
|
1 month |
Newborn Supervising |
|
1 month |
NICU |
|
1 month |
PICU (optional) |
|
2 months |
Acute Care Resident/Night Float |
|
1 month |
Emergency Dept. |
|
3-4 months |
Subspecialty Electives (*) |
Notes:
5 months of Intensive Care training is required, 3 months of which must be NICU with one month in each year and 2 months of PICU.
Pediatric Subspecialty: Four (4) one month rotations from the following list: Allergy/Immunology, Cardiology, Endocrinology/Metabolism, Gastroenterology, Hematology/Oncology, Neurology, Infectious Disease, Nephrology, and/or Pulmonology.
Rotations
Inpatient Service
The inpatient team consists of 1-2 hospitalist attendings, a supervising PGY-3 resident, a PGY-2 resident, 3-4 PGY-1 residents (Pediatrics or Family Medicine), and medical students. The inpatient supervising resident (IPSR) is responsible for overseeing the entire team and all patient care. Bedside teaching rounds occur daily on the pediatric inpatient floor, and residents are exposed to a wide variety of clinical pathology. Residents provide care for patients from the residency clinic, private pediatric patients, hospitalist service patients, and subspecialist patients. The team also receives step-down PICU patients transferred to the general pediatric floor. Residents participate in the full spectrum of patient care from admission to discharge, including communication with the family regarding patient care and education, seeking consultative resources, following-up on studies, labs, and the patient’s clinical condition, and arranging for dismissal home and outpatient follow-up.
Pediatric Sedations
Conscious sedation and deep monitored sedation is often required for pediatric patients undergoing outpatient procedures. The sedation team is comprised of a pediatric intensivist, resident, and sedation nurses. Responsibilities include obtaining initial history and physical, determining appropriate sedation medications, starting IVs, administering medications, and recovering patients after their procedures, all under the supervision of the team.
PICU
The resident will participate directly in the care of the patients in the 12-bed PICU as well as supervise rotating residents and medical students. The resident will be expected to know the patients thoroughly and to provide a comprehensive daily ICU “systems” note. Residents learn to manage primary critical care service admissions, and participate in management of patients on surgical and trauma services under the direction of a team of pediatric intensivists. Most residents spend 2-3 months in the PICU over the course of their residency.
Night Float/ACR
Night float is structured in 2 week blocks during 2 months in each of the PGY-2 and PGY-3 years of training (1 total month each year). The NF resident works with the ED staff and admitting physicians to triage patients effectively and directly supervise the care of patients on the inpatient service overnight. The NF resident will assist the junior resident in assessing new patients and acute changes in existing patients, formulating a differential diagnosis, and planning for diagnostic studies and therapeutic options. The NF resident is also responsible for neonatal special care admissions, and PICU admissions overnight. This requires communicating with attendings and intensivists who are not in-house overnight. The rotation allows second and third year residents the greatest level of autonomy in admitting and managing patients.
Emergency Department
Wesley Medical Center is a Level 1 Trauma Center and has the only Pediatric ED in Kansas. Residents gain knowledge and skills essential to the pediatrician during the 1 month ED rotation in their PGY-1 and PGY-3 years. Residents work weekday evening shifts (7 hours) and weekend full day shifts (12 hours) under the supervision of a pediatric emergency medicine physician. The resident is expected to obtain histories, examine patients, and participate in the assessment and plan. The Pediatric ED provides ample opportunities for the performance of procedures. There is no overnight call while on this rotation.
Ambulatory
This is a 1 month rotation during the PGY-1 year. A solid understanding of outpatient pediatrics is essential to the pediatrician in general practice who will need knowledge and skills in core concepts of health supervision, patient and parent education, anticipatory guidance, telephone medicine, prenatal consultations, and recognition and management of child abuse and neglect. Residents are also expected to complete an educational project for patients or physicians during this rotation.
Community, Adolescent Medicine, Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics
This rotation is part of a 3 month block rotation including developmental and behavioral pediatrics, adolescent medicine, and community pediatrics to be completed during the second year of residency. Teaching and supervision is provided by a pediatric neurodevelopmental and behavioral specialist and a pediatric clinical psychologist through office visits and at Heartspring, a boarding school and outpatient center for children with autism, mental retardation, and multiple disorders, and at Rainbows United, a developmental preschool for children with disabilities. During the adolescent portion of the rotation the resident participates in adolescent clinic and visits multiple sites including the Health Department STD clinic, Wichita Children’s Home, Juvenile Detention Facility, and Judge Riddell’s Boy’s Ranch. Additional opportunities include adolescent orthopedics, and sexual abuse exams and case reviews.
Normal Newborn
Three months of normal newborn are completed over the course of the residency. The first month is completed as a PGY-1, and the latter two months are completed as a supervising senior resident on the service during the PGY-2 or PGY-3 years. The senior resident will take all calls on assigned newborn babies, and respond to concerns from delivery room nurses, post-partum care nurses, and delivering physicians. The senior resident assists the junior resident in performing initial evaluations, and making assessments regarding proper triage and management. Newborns on this service include those on the post-partum floors, and in the neonatal special care unit. Elective circumcisions are performed, and parent information and education is provided by residents prior to dismissal home. Daily rounds include didactic and bedside teaching, and are made with an attending physician.
NICU
The Wesley Level III Perinatal Center offers a full complement of neonatal and obstetric services. The Neonatal Intensive Care Unit and the Special Care Nursery have 62 beds dedicated to premature and critically ill infants. The Perinatal Center is a referral base for 23,000 deliveries across Kansas and surrounding states. NICU physicians respond to more than 750 admissions annually. The NICU is one of over 360 centers included in the Vermont-Oxford DataBase. Patient outcomes at the Wesley NICU consistently rank in the top third compared to other centers. The neonatologists are actively involved in a number of clinical research projects.
As a pediatric resident in the University of Kansas School of Medicine-Wichita program, you will rotate through the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit during each year of the residency. The level of responsibility in patient management will be based on the resident’s skills and knowledge. A neonatologist is always immediately available for consultation and patient care review. Residents will take call approximately 7x during the month under the supervision of an in-house neonatologist.
Electives
Residents select a minimum of four one-month rotations from the following pediatric subspecialties:
- Allergy/Immunology
- Cardiology
- Endocrinology/Metabolism
- Gastroenterology
- Hematology/Oncology
- Infectious Disease
- Nephrology
- Neurology
- Pulmonology
The remaining subspecialty experience may be selected from the remaining subspecialties in the above list and from the following list:
- Child Psychiatry
- Critical Care (PICU)
- Dermatology
- Diabetes
- Human Lactation and Breast-feeding Clinical Applications
- Ophthalmology
- Orthopedics
- Otolaryngology
- Pediatric Surgery
- Pharmacology
- Radiology
- Research
- Rheumatology
Call schedule
Call schedule during the PGY-1 year is approximately 4-6x/month. Call during the PGY-2 and PGY-3 years includes 4 weeks of night float per year and weekend call 1-3x/month during the remainder of the year. NICU call is 7x/month each year. Weekday call is from 5pm to 7am (14 hours), and weekend call is from 7am to 7am (24 hours). A junior (PGY-1) and a senior (PGY-2 or PGY-3) resident are always present in-house during these hours and are responsible for all admissions during this period. Call duties include admitting new patients, cross-covering all existing pediatric and normal newborn patients, and triaging parent phone calls. Individual call rooms and meals are provided during all call shifts.
Conference and didactic schedule
Conference |
Frequency |
Months |
Morning Teaching Conference |
Daily (M-F) |
July– June |
Adolescent Conf (Joint with Family Medicine) |
Monthly |
Sept – Nov, Feb – June |
Ambulatory Care* |
Monthly |
Sept.—June |
All Residents Meeting |
Monthly |
July-June |
Core Curriculum Lecture* |
Weekly |
Sept. – June |
Critical Care / Radiology / Pharmacy |
Monthly |
Sept. – June |
Ethics Conference |
Bi-Monthly |
Oct, Dec, Feb, Apr, & June |
Evidence Based Medicine |
Monthly |
Sept. – June |
Faculty and Residents Meeting |
Monthly |
Sept - June |
Grand Rounds |
Weekly– 4/mo |
Sept. – June |
Internal Medicine / Pediatric Combined Conference* |
Monthly |
Sept. – June |
M&M / Case Presentations |
Monthly |
Sept. – June |
Nelson’s Study |
Monthly |
Sept. – June |
Neonatology * |
Monthly |
Sept. – June |
Nephrology |
Monthly |
Sept. - June |
PREP Review |
2/Month |
Sept - June |
Research Conference |
Bi-Monthly |
Sept, Nov, Jan, Mar, & May |
Residency Committee |
Monthly |
July – June |
Sub-Specialty |
Monthly |
Sept – June |
Urgent - Emergent |
Daily |
July – August |
(*) Indicates RRC Core Curriculum Activities
In addition to case presentation and discussions in morning reports, daily noon conferences are scheduled to cover subspecialty topics in Behavioral/Development and Adolescent Medicine, Ambulatory topics, and Community Grand Rounds. The residents participate in presenting Morbidity and Mortality case reviews monthly. Other didactic sessions are scheduled with smaller groups in NICU, PICU, and other subspecialty rotations.
Pediatric clinic and continuity care experience
The primary outpatient department of the pediatric program is the Wesley Pediatric Clinic where patient care is provided primarily by the residents. Our philosophy is that the resident's educational experience should include comprehensive and longitudinal care for their patients and families. To attain that goal the continuity and acute care clinic is set up to mimic a group pediatric practice. Residents will continue to follow and build relationships with the same patients throughout the three-year residency, and eventually develop primary responsibility for more than 150 patients. Each resident acts as an independent pediatrician working along with his/her colleagues in the group. Full-time faculty members are present for supervision and consultation. Nursing staff provides assistance with phone calls and patient triage. Each resident spends two one-half day sessions per week in the outpatient clinic. This is time protected from other duties and admissions so that your efforts can be focused on the office practice. The total number of patient visits to the Wesley Pediatric Clinic in 2007 was 24,769.
Research and Mentoring
Each pediatric resident is required to pursue either a scientific investigative activity or a case-based scholarly project during their training, culminating in an oral presentation and a prepared manuscript prior to graduation. Research is encouraged and supported by the department and the institution. Most of the research performed in our department is clinically based and directly relevant to the care of patients we see on a daily basis. It serves at least two purposes - one to benefit the children of Kansas by improving access to care and the quality of that health care; the other to provide residents with the experience needed to initiate research projects, collect data, interpret results and understand clinical relevance. Research may be an intervention, a comparative assessment or an intense case study. Each resident is guided by the Research Coordinator and by a previously identified Research Mentor (selected by each resident). Other experiences are through contacts and educational programs provided by the Department of Research and invited educators.
Each new resident also selects an advisor who meets at least quarterly with the resident to discuss any problems. The advisor provides feedback to resident on evaluations, interprets and devises a plan to correct deficiencies detected on the Pediatric In-training Examination, and assists the resident in selecting an elective program suited to her/his needs, and that meets the requirements for graduation. The advisor meets with the Residency Committee to discuss any major academic or personal problems requiring action, and meets with the resident following the Semi-Annual Evaluation Meeting to provide feedback.
Residents are encouraged to join both residency and hospital-wide committees to become active leaders within the health care community.
Links for current residents
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