Valley Children’s Pediatric Residency Educational Conferences
The Valley Children’s Residency Program has a robust and diverse educational curriculum focused on developing the clinical and interpersonal skills required to practice medicine. Our Pediatric Resident Conferences are protected educational conference time for residents. The faculty cover the clinical services during this time.
Morning Report
Morning Report takes place Tuesday to Thursday at 7:30 am. Morning report is led by the senior resident and intern on the ward rotation. It is focused on emphasizing clinical reasoning abilities, management of common pediatric diseases as well as challenging cases. General pediatricians, hospitalists and specialists attend this conference and give their opinion and management and differential diagnosis. On Mondays, we hold an Intern Morning Report in order to guide interns on cases relevant for them.
Academic Half Day
The Academic Half Day (AHD) is a resident-focused 18-month rotating curriculum that provides learners with protected time for education, exploration and camaraderie with peers in a safe learning environment. The curriculum is based largely upon the General Pediatric content domains specified by the American Board of Pediatrics. In addition, the Program provides sessions focused on the ACGME CLER (Clinical Learning Environment Review) Pathways to Excellence, as we recognize the importance of the clinical learning environment that supports the well-being and success of students, residents and faculty. Subspecialty and interprofessional instruction is provided through several modalities including case-based discussion, board review, game-based sessions and interactive, hands on-simulation. Residents learn how to apply evidence-based medicine principles through Journal Club, and also have the opportunity to hone their teaching skills in a low-stakes, supportive environment as moderators – under the guidance of primary care faculty – of the primary care curriculum.
Schwartz Rounds
Schwartz Center Rounds is held every month from 12:30 to 1:30 p.m. at Valley Children’s Hospital. Each session will begin with a brief 10 to 15 minute presentation by a panel of two to three clinicians from different disciplines involved in the care of the patient, followed by a facilitator led open discussion.
Career Development Workshops
The Resident Career Development Workshops includes a number of sessions to guide residents on building their Curriculum vitae, choosing their career paths, including how to apply to fellowships and jobs, how to negotiate contracts and financial planning.
Morbidity and Mortality Conferences
Valley Children's Healthcare is dedicated to patient safety. Learning how to analytically review cases is an invaluable skill for resident physicians. The process enables one to improve patient safety and quality of care. Our hope is to foster an environment of learning through shared investigation of cases that residents themselves select to discuss during morbidity and mortality conferences. These conferences are to review and discuss medical errors in a safe educational environment as this is a resident run and driven forum.
Case Conference
Case conference serves as the major case review conference for the Department and is attended by residents, medical students and faculty. A senior resident presents the history and physical and then the finer points of the case are discussed in a very collegial atmosphere among residents and faculty. Faculty experts are present providing their expertise to the discussion.
Simulation Program
Valley Children’s has an active Interprofessional Education Simulation Program. The program includes all members of our pediatric healthcare team, physicians, residents, pharmacists, nurses, respiratory care practitioners and others. The program uses high fidelity mannequins and task trainers to simulate common medical procedures, complex medical conditions and life-threatening emergencies, even the rarest of possibilities. This allows our teams to gain experience and have a learning curve on our mannequins and not someone’s child.
Simulation is integrated throughout residency and there is time devoted specifically to working with the simulators and task trainers during all three years of residency. A few elements of our curriculum in which simulation is featured are as follows:
- Simulation Orientation Bootcamp
- Task Trainer Mondays
- ED Simulation Bootcamp
- Interprofessional Emergency Medical Response Resuscitation Training
- Code Blue Leadership Training
- NICU Simulation
- NICU task trainers
- Mega codes – preparing for mass casualties and natural disasters
READY (Resident Engagement and Debrief For You) Sessions
These are small group debriefing sessions lead by a specially trained team of social workers and spiritual support staff provided to encourage resident wellness.
Pediatric Board Review Course
Residents have an ongoing on-site pediatric board review class monthly during their Academic Half Day. Residents go through board prep questions under the guidance of faculty, who provide test-taking pearls and subspecialty expertise to help prepare residents for their pediatric board examinations. Residents may also use their educational allowance to attend an additional board review course during their residency.
EBM Journal Clubs
Senior residents are assigned to lead a Journal Club session. The residents select an article that covers the concept to be discussed for that session. Each resident is assigned a faculty advisor who assists in the preparation of the Journal Club presentation. The resident teaches the concept and how it relates to the article at Journal Club, and facilitates the discussion of how/why the evidence presented should support a change in one’s clinical practice. Each senior resident is required to lead Journal Club at least once during residency.