Pediatric Residency Program

Program
Rotation Schedules
Call Summary
Continuity Clinics
St. Anne's Hospital
Pediatric Divisions

Program Goal

The overarching goal of residency training in pediatrics is to provide educational experiences that prepare residents to provide comprehensive and coordinated care to a broad range of pediatric patients.  Emphasis is placed on developing the competencies and skills needed to practice general pediatrics of high quality in the community. In addition, residents must become sufficiently familiar with the fields of subspecialty pediatrics to enable them to participate as team members in the care of patients with chronic and complex disorders.

The program integrates the American College of Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) competencies into the curriculum:

• Patient care
• Medical knowledge
• Practice-based learning and improvement
• Interpersonal and communication skills
• Professionalism
• Systems-based practice

Our residents Click here to see Floating Hospital for Children's current pediatric house staff.

Our graduates  Click here to see what our residents do post-training at Floating.

Program

PL-I Year

The first year resident will spend extensive time with patients and their families.  Under the supervision of upper level residents and attending physicians, the intern will become proficient in the organization of complete patient care, from taking a history to creating and carrying out a treatment plan.

The first year of residency emphasizes developing information gathering techniques, honing diagnostic skills, assessing clinical situations, formulating differential diagnoses, and creating care plans under the guidance of the attending physician.  The intern functions within a medical team comprised of other residents, students, fellows, and attending physicians.  The faculty and other house staff are all readily accessible for consultation, teaching, and support.

Please see below for example of PL-1 schedule.

PL-2 Year

The second year emphasizes both a more supervisory role, and experience in subspecialty electives.  Assuming increased responsibility for patient care, the junior resident will be involved with supervising interns and medical students as the resident team leader of both the hematology/oncology and St. Anne's Hospital inpatient services.  There are several months set aside for elective rotations, and these provide opportunities to learn about general or subspecialty pediatrics.  The year also provides experience in adolescent medicine, normal newborn care, and emergency transport of the critically ill.  The PL-2 resident also works in the neonatal and pediatric intensive care units, where both leadership and independence are further developed.

Please see below for example of PL-2 schedule.

PL-3 Year

The final year of residency provides the maximum opportunity for patient care and education of residents and medical students under the supervision of Floating attending physician.  The senior resident leads the unit teams and a supervisory role is emphasized throughout the year.  Senior residents also have several months of electives.  These are used differently by each resident, to prepare for individual medical careers, hone clinical judgment and increase knowledge of pediatric subspecialties.  Senior residents work in the pediatric intensive care unit and emergency room and a variety of primary care settings. The resident who completes the program will be competent o practice general pediatrics in the community, or to go on to fellowship training.

Please see below for example of PL-3 schedule.

Rotation Schedules

*  SAR = Senior Admitting Resident (Ward Senior)

Call Summary

PL-1:

5 blocks Emergency Room Evening/Day Shifts (No Overnights) -- approximately 2 shifts/week
2 blocks Medical Inpt at Floating -- each = 3 weeks with 2 calls total, one week Night Float
1 block Medical Inpt at St. Anne's -- q4
2 blocks Hematology-Oncology Inpt -- q4
3 blocks NICU -- q4
3 weeks Vacation plus 1 extra week off at end of year

PL-2:

1 block Elective NO CALL
3 blocks Newborn Nursery (weekend day shifts) -- approx 1-2 calls/week
3 blocks ER Day or Overnight Shifts
2 blocks Hematology-Oncology Inpt -- q4
2 blocks NICU -- one approx q5-6, one divided block of Night Float
1 block Medical Inpt at St. Anne's -- approx q5
1 block PICU -- q3
3 weeks Vacation

PL-3:

2 blocks Elective NO CALL
3 blocks ER Day or Overnight Shifts
1 block Newborn Nursery (weekend day shifts) -- approx 1-2 calls/week
1 block Senior Admitting Resident (Inpt) -- during dayfloat and SAR blocks
1 block Senior Admitting Resident Night Float -- split into two 2-week blocks
1 block PICU -- q3
3 weeks Vacation

Electives

As members of unit teams, residents continually play an integral part in the care of subspecialty patients.  In addition, during the second and third years of training, residents have the opportunity to elect several pediatric subspecialty rotations.  Design of the elective blocks is quite flexible.  Electives may also be arranged with Boston-area private pediatricians, in other Boston-area institutions, or with neighborhood health center physicians.  Each junior resident has one elective block without call, 2 elective blocks with call, and 2 blocks of elective half-days (half-day adolescent clinic with half-day of elective).  Senior residents have two blocks of elective without call, allowing for out-of-town electives and international experience.

Continuity Clinics

An integral part of residency education occurs in the Continuity Clinic.  Here the housestaff gains extensive experience in long-term primary care.  Clinic sites include the General Pediatrics Clinic at Floating Hospital, neighborhood health centers in diverse communities in Boston, and private practices within the greater metropolitan area.  Each resident attends his or her clinic weekly throughout the three years of residency.

Each clinic is precepted by attending physicians who arrange weekly primary care conferences.  Speakers include faculty, guests, and residents themselves.  House officers see their patients with direct backup from preceptors and other clinic staff.  Preceptors are fully available to discuss such aspects of patient care as health care, philosophy, and social issues.

Incoming interns are asked to state their preference for continuity site placement, and every effort is made to give interns the site of their choice.

St. Anne's Hospital

St. Anne's is a community-based hospital with a 32-bed pediatric unit serving Fall River, MA, and surrounding communities.  As the area's only inpatient pediatric unit, it provides residents the unique opportunity to manage a wide variety of primary care problems.  It also provides the PL-2 an early supervisory role as ward junior, supervising both the PL-1 and two Tufts medical students. Along with our residents, the hospital is staffed by community-based pediatricians who are associate staff members of Floating Hospital. Teaching is done by these community pediatricians in conjunction with full-time Floating faculty, who hold subspecialty clinics at St. Anne's.

St. Anne's is also the site of Floating's new satellite pediatric hematology and oncology center.  The first-of-its-kind partnership in southeastern Massachusetts enables area children to receive outpatient cancer and hematology services close to home.  The affiliation utilizes Saint Anne’s community-based services, including its emergency services, local doctors’ offices, laboratory and imaging services, counseling and trained oncology nursing, in conjunction with Floating Hospital Children’s Cancer Center’s advanced therapies and expert caregivers.  The first phase of the new collaborative effort is a one-day-a-week, comprehensive clinic that offers diagnostic and laboratory services, weekly chemotherapy treatments, one-day transfusions, radiologic studies and follow-up appointments.  Residents at St. Anne's will oversee the treatment on the wards and will receive weekly lectures from Floating hem-onc attendings.

Pediatric Divisions

All pediatric divisions have full-time attending physicians, in addition to fellows in neonatology, gastroenterology, neurology, and rheumatology -- on call for consultation whenever needed.  In addition, many other hospital departments provide pediatric specialty services and play an integral part in providing optimal patient care.  Pediatric subspecialty training is an important part of Floating's residency program.

Department of Pediatrics

• Adolescent Medicine
• Cardiology
• Child Development
• Critical Care
• Dentistry
• Dermatology
• Developmental-Behavioral Pediatrics
• Endocrinology
• Gastroenterology-Nutrition
• General Pediatrics
• Genetics
• Gynecology (Pediatric and Adolescent)
• Hematology/Oncology
• Infectious Diseases
• Metabolism
• Nephrology
• Neurology
• Newborn Medicine
• Ophthalmology
• Otolaryngology
• Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation
• Psychiatry
• Pulmonology-Allergy
• Radiology
• Rheumatology
• Urology

Pediatric Surgical Services

• Anesthesia
• Cardiothoracic Surgery
• Gastroenterology
• Neonatal Surgery
• Neurosurgery
• Ophthalmology
• Orthopedics
• Otolaryngology
• Pediatric Surgery
• Pediatric Trauma
• Plastic Surgery
• Urology