3 Year Residency Curriculum
Click here for a PDF of the complete, three year residency curriculum.
Didactics
The Grand Rapids Medical Education & Research Center Pediatric Residency at DeVos Children's Hospital strongly believes in teaching according to an adult learning model which emphasizes collegiality and the sharing of medical knowledge as well as an expectation to remain motivated in the pursuit of medical knowledge. To this end, we offer a wide array of teaching forums from which our residents can learn:
Inpatient
Morning Report
Monday, Wednesday, Friday, 6:45-7:00am. Interns briefly present a patient they have admitted from the previous night on call. A chief resident and Pediatric Clinic Attending are present to lead a focused discussion and help formulate a differential diagnosis and plan.
- Grand Rounds
Tuesday, 8-9am. A wide variety of topics are presented by visiting pediatricians and hospital-affiliated faculty. All housestaff and faculty attend.
- Hospitalist Management Rounds
Daily 10-11:30am. Formal walk rounds are done daily with the floor team and a Pediatric Hospitalist. Patients are presented by the residents with discussion focusing on diagnosis and management decisions.
- Lecture Series
Monday, 12 noon - 4 p.m. Interactive lectures are given on a variety of inpatient and outpatient topics by hospital and community based pediatricians. This is completely protected time for all residents. Lectures are also taped and placed on a password-protected website and available for downloading onto an MP3 player.
Sample Monday Pediatric Lecture Series Schedule
12:00pm: Board Review: Topic Neonatal Respiratory Distress
1:00pm: Management of increased intracranial pressure. Dr. Hackbarth
2:00pm: The Difficult Airway. Dr. Sanfilippo
3:00pm: The Sick Neonate. Dr. DeJong
- Multi-disciplinary Case Presentations
Thursday, 8-9am. A more complex case is presented as in morning report with discussion of differential diagnoses, evaluation, and management. Pediatric subspecialists provide added teaching and input. Housestaff, community-based and hospital-based attendings, and subspecialists attend.
- NICU Teaching Rounds
Monday, Wednesday, Friday, 9:30-11am. 8-10 NICU inpatients are presented by residents to NICU staff (neonatologists, nurses, respiratory therapists). Diagnoses and management are discussed in depth on each patient presented.
- NICU Lecture Series
Tuesday, Thursday, 9:30-11am. Neonatologists present common topics in lecture format. Topics range from ventilator management to care of the sick newborn.
- PICU Teaching Rounds
Daily 9-11am. All PICU inpatients are presented by residents to PICU staff (intensivists, nurses, pharmacists, respiratory therapists). Diagnoses and management are discussed in depth on each patient.
- Radiology Rounds
Friday, 11:30-12pm. The Pediatric floor residents and interns go over patients' imaging studies with the help of a Pediatric Radiologist and Radiology resident. Discussion centers around how to interpret radiographic studies as well as common clinical problems and their imaging modalities of choice.
- Reading Club/Board Review
Weekly one hour session run by chief resident, also with review of board-type PREP questions
- Specialty-focused conferences
Lectures including hematology conference, pediatric oncology tumor board, Child Protection Team meeting, pediatric cardiology/cardiac surgery conference, pediatric morbidity and mortality conference, and fetal ultrasound conference. - Typical Call Schedule on In-Patient Pediatrics, PICU and NICU
- - Call every 4th night (total of 6-8 calls per month)
- - 2 weekends of call (2 call free weekends)
- - One weekend of Saturday only call
- - One weekend of Friday and Sunday call
Outpatient
- Weekly Clinic Reading Assignment
Daily, 12:45-1:30pm. Residents learn about common pediatric outpatient problems and discuss evaluation and treatment. This is an informal and fun series overseen by the clinic attendings.
- Journal Club
Occurs once a month. Topical journal articles are discussed with general pediatricians and subspecialty pediatricians leading the discussion. Residents are expected to attend.
Unique features to the DeVos Children's Hospital Curriculum:
- Advocacy Rotation
Our program offers a unique opportunity to become involved in community education by having each resident spend one month in the Grand Rapids Public Schools. There, they teach students and teachers about public health issues such as substance use, nutrition, health and hygiene, among others. In addition, they can spend time at a WIC office, doing home visits, and in the Asthma Resource Center (a non-profit center that helps coordinate home-based asthma care). A multitude of resources-videos, posters, slide shows, handouts-are available for resident use to make the most out of the experience. A recent addition is a shopping trip to cost compare food products, diapers, and other care needs that we recommend to our clinic families, as well as time to visit the numerous advocacy organizations in town.
- Primary Care Experience
Each resident spends two months working with a community-based pediatrician and functions exclusively with this physician in the outpatient setting. This experience allows residents to feel the pace of pediatric practice as well as to learn the business side of medicine. Residents typically make morning rounds and attend meetings with their attendings, take home call for the practice, and have their own list of patients to see in the practice. Some residents have even gone to the Capitol to help with legislative work during this month.
- Ken-O-Sha Developmental Center
Residents spend one month at Ken-O-Sha developmental center as part of the curriculum to learn about developmental and behavioral assessment. The Ken-O-Sha system is part of the Grand Rapids Public School System and aids in the evaluation and education of children with developmental delays. Residents participate in the assessment of children with mild speech delays to those with severe mental and physical impairments, allowing a broad range of clinical experience. During their month, residents spend time in the classroom helping with play and evaluation, observe therapists and psychologists in their assessments, and make home visits with therapists and teachers.
Sample floor week for a pediatric intern
Monday
6:45am: Morning Report - 8 year old with pulmonary abscess
10:30am: Team walking rounds visiting each patient.
12:00pm - 4:00pm: Weekly Pediatric lecture Series
Tuesday
8:00am: Grand Rounds - Common Orthopedic Problems in Children; Some simple, some serious. Brian Hotchkiss, M.D. HDVCH, Grand Rapids, MI
10:30am: Team walking rounds visiting each patient
Wednesday
6:45am: Morning Report - 2 month female with new onset nephritic syndrome
10:30am: Team walking rounds visiting each patient
1:00pm: Attending Teaching Rounds: Upper Airway Infections/Disorders
Thursday
8:00am: Multidisciplinary Conference - 3 yoa male with atypical Kawasaki Disease. Pediatric infectious disease specialist and pediatric cardiologist lead in case discussion.
10:30am: Team walking rounds visiting each patient
Friday
10:00am: Team walking rounds visiting each patient
11:30am: Pediatric Radiology Rounds
Elective Opportunities
As part of our residency requirements, we do two months of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology, one month of Pediatric Surgery, one month of Adolescent Medicine and one month of Ken-O-Sha (working with special needs kids in a special education setting and counting as our behavioral/developmental month).
We have a number of elective experiences, eg, Pediatric Cardiology, Pediatric Nephrology, Pediatric Endocrinology, Pediatric Neurology, Pediatric Pulmonology, Pediatric Gastroenterology, Pediatric Allergy & Immunology, Pediatric Genetics, Pediatric Dermatology, Pediatric Rheumatology, Child Psychology, Pediatric Radiology, Pediatric ENT, Pediatric Infectious Diseases, and Pediatric Urology. In addition, we offer the following less common pediatric electives:
Pediatric Ophthalmology
DeVos Children's Hospital Pediatric Residency Program allows for an ophthalmology elective. During that month (or two weeks), a resident works with a pediatric ophthalmologist to gain extensive experience in the diagnosis and treatment of pediatric eye disorders. The resident also obtains the necessary skills in performing an extensive pediatric ophthalmological exam. Working with a pediatric ophthalmologist who also specializes in eye movement disorders and loves to teach, you spend most of your time in the office, but you also have the opportunity to assist in the operating room.
Child Protection
This rotation consists of working with the Child Protection Team, which is made up of physicians with special knowledge of child abuse/neglect, and social workers who all work together to evaluate possibly abused children. On this elective, you get a variety of experiences, including the Children's Assessment Center (specifically for evaluating possible sexual abuse), St John's Home (for children who have been abused and have failed foster care placement), and Kent County Prosecutor's Office and Victim/Witness program (seeing the legal aspects, and actually getting to sit in on court cases).
Sports Medicine
Time on this rotation is spent in a clinic setting with orthopedic surgeons who specialize in sports medicine. The resident also has the opportunity to visit the operating room.
If you have other interests, the program is very flexible in arranging electives.
Academic Project & Research Opportunities
Pediatric residents at DeVos Children's Hospital complete an Academic Project during their three years here. The goal of this requirement is to learn more about the process of research, including development of a research question; collection and analysis of data; performance of a literature search; and presentation of the results to a formal gathering of peers (eg, Pediatric Grand Rounds, Research Day here, or regional or national meetings). Our residents work closely with faculty mentors to accomplish this goal. Other resources, such as statisticians, are available at the Grand Rapids Medical Education and Research Center for Health Professions (Education & Research Center) located nearby. The nature of the project is not limited to a single type and may include clinical research, bench research, meta-analysis, or any unique research that satisfies the objectives. Data collection and processing, media production, and travel expenses for presentation at state or national meetings is supported, as needed, by the residency program. Residents are encouraged to submit their research for possible publication in pediatric journals.
Many of our faculty are very involved in clinical research, most notably those in the divisions of Hematology/Oncology, Genetics, Neonatology, Critical Care Medicine, Cardiology and General Pediatrics. In addition to working with our clinical pediatric faculty, you have the opportunity to explore the possibility of working with basic scientists at the Van Andel Institute.
Residents develop a research project during their training and have the opportunity to present it at numerous scientific meetings. Some have been submitted for publication. Examples of resident research projects.
More information regarding research can be found at www.grmerc.net/research.html.