Residency program

Curriculum

The goal of the VCU Pediatric Residency Program at Children's Hospital of Richmond at VCU is to provide residents with a comprehensive exposure to pediatrics. We believe that our curriculum provides the resident with broad knowledge in primary pediatric care while offering unique exposure to a wide variety of subspecialty services. Our pediatric ED facilities provide state-of-the-art training in advanced management of the pediatric emergency patient.

Residents choose the type and amount of subspecialties that they experience throughout their residency.

Curriculum block chart: Pediatrics

Block (4 weeks)	PGY-1	PGY-2	PGY-3
1	Inpatient wards	Inpatient wards	Inpatient wards
2	Inpatient wards	Inpatient wards/elective	Inpatient wards/elective
3	Inpatient wards	Night shift	Night shift
4	Inpatient hematology/oncology	NICU	NICU
5	Night shift	PICU	PICU
6	Night shift	PICU/elective	Peds ED
7	NICU	Peds ED	Outpatient primary care
8	NICU/outpatient surgery	Outpatient primary care	Outpatient primary care
9	Newborn nursery	Inpatient hematology/oncology	Elective
10	Peds ED	Adolescent medicine	Elective
11	Outpatient primary care	Behavior and development	Elective
12	Evidence based medicine/ child abuse	Elective	Elective
13	Elective	Elective	Elective

In addition, all PGY-2 and PGY-3 residents have half-day community of research experience on their outpatient rotations.

Service	PGY-1		PGY-2		PGY-3
Service	Requirement	Call frequency	Requirement	Call frequency	Requirement	Call frequency
Pediatric Wards	12 weeks (3 blocks)	No call	6 weeks	1 per week	6 weeks	1 per week
Newborn nursery	4 weeks	No call	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a
NICU	6 weeks	No call	4 weeks (5 shifts/week)	5:30 p.m. to 9 a.m. shifts	4 weeks	No call
PICU	n/a	n/a	6 weeks	1 week of nights (5 p.m. to 7 a.m.)	4 weeks	1 week of nights (5 p.m. to 7 a.m.)
Peds ED	4 weeks	17 shifts (12 hour shift)	4 weeks	17 shifts (12 hour shift)	4 weeks	17 shifts (12 hour shift)
Outpatient or Subspecialty	10 weeks	Pull call	18 weeks	Pull call, phone calls (average 4-8/ month)	26 weeks	Pull call, phone calls (average 4-8/ month)
Inpatient Hematology/ Oncology	4 weeks	No call	4 weeks	No call	n/a	n/a
Outpatient or Subspecialty (Call free)	4 weeks	No call	4 weeks	No call	4 weeks	No call
Night shift	8 weeks (5 shifts/ week)	7 p.m. to 9 a.m. shift	4 weeks (5 shifts/ week)	7 p.m. to 9 a.m. shifts	4 weeks (5 shifts/ week)	7 p.m. to 9 a.m. shifts

As indicated above, each resident will be periodically assigned to pull call on specific days during outpatient or subspecialty rotations. The resident assigned to pull call must be available by beeper in the event a colleague becomes ill. PGY-2 and PGY-3 residents are periodically assigned to afterhours phone triage (i.e., telephone calls) for the General Pediatrics Outpatient Clinic. This call is taken from home.