Pediatric Hospital Medicine Service

The KU Pediatric Hospital Medicine Service is a resident-led teaching team which functions as the primary service for most patients admitted to the pediatric floor, even if several subspecialists are involved. Our referral area extends from the western border of Kansas, across part of Oklahoma and includes the north-central area of the state. These features allow for an impressively broad, diverse patient population representing a wide array of pathology, substantial acuity and complexity. Thanks to program size, residents work directly with subspecialists and there are no fellows "competing" for patient care.

• The team consists of 1-2 senior residents (PGY-2 and a PGY-3), 3-5 junior residents and 2-4 medical students.
• PGY-1 residents are expected to round on a maximum of eight patients per day.
• Residents provide care for the residency clinic, private pediatric and hospitalist service patients, as well as subspecialist patients and consults.
• Every evening, the swing shift attending supports the intern on night shift with clinical care, additional education and focused mentoring.
• The hospitalist team practices family-centered rounds, which include faculty attending(s), residents, nurses, pediatric pharmacist, case manager (social worker) and sometimes, Carl, our therapy dog.
• A hospitalist coordinator is available to aid residents in coordinating outpatient/inpatient care.

Along with taking part in a variety of procedures, residents on sedations are working alongside a pediatric intensivist and managing the sedation of patients. Residents also run a hospital-wide code scenario during this rotation.

PICU

Our residents rotate in the PICU one block in their first year and one block in their second year of residency. Residents may choose additional blocks in the PICU as electives or independent learning blocks.

• PICU team consists of PICU attending, 1-2 residents and medical students.
• PICU is a 15-bed unit.
• Ample experience with ventilators, procedures (central lines, intubations) and two CRRT (continuous renal replacement therapy) machines.
• Patient load is diverse, including medical, trauma, surgical and high-acuity transfers from multiple outlying hospitals.

Acute Care Resident

• Integrated into ambulatory longitudinal experiences.
• The acute care resident is in the clinic Monday-Friday, primarily seeing sick visits.

Night Shift

• A senior-only rotation geared toward advanced levels of independence and supervision of other junior residents.
• Includes the widest range of simultaneous responsibilities for acute hospital-based care.
• With support from pediatric intensivists and hospitalists, the night shift resident gains experience making decisions and functioning with increasing amounts of autonomy.

Emergency Department

Residents work in the dedicated pediatric ED as a team with the child life specialists, a skilled nursing staff and a dedicated pediatric attending.

• Level 1 Trauma Center and has the only pediatric ED in Kansas.
• All shifts are covered during evenings and weekends and include no call responsibilities.
• The pediatric ED provides ample opportunities for the performance of procedures, including splinting, suturing, I&Ds, foreign body removals, LPs, intubations, bladder catheterization and IV starts.
• The rotation may include ambulance ride-alongs.

Ambulatory

The clinic offers multidisciplinary care, including an on-site psychologist who is able to join physicians during office visits, a dietician and social workers. The clinic offers a high level of support for residents, including assistance with referrals, lab visits, imaging and nurse visits.

• Integrated into ambulatory longitudinal experiences.
• Residents have their own personal panel of patients from year 1.
• Residents gain a wealth of experience in continuity clinic, in the care of children with chronic health needs and in acute care.
• Our faculty have several subspecialized clinics that residents rotate through, including obesity, failure to thrive, asthma and the complex medical care clinic.

Community Medicine

• Opportunity to visit agencies providing community services to our patients, including WIC and other agencies tailored to resident interests.
• Experiences consist of child abuse clinic, cystic fibrosis clinic, PT/OT/ST clinics, lactation consults, complex medical care clinic and communication sciences disorders clinic.
• Residents develop skills in advocacy and community engagement through projects and educational programming.

Adolescent Medicine

• Integrated in ambulatory longitudinal experiences with option for IL blocks.
• Experiences in the KU Adolescent Clinic under supervision of two faculty members.
• Experience caring for teens with reproductive and gynecologic concerns, mental illness, gender dysphoria, eating disorders, as well as primary care.
• Opportunities to work in the local Sports Medicine Clinic.
• Opportunities for research and quality improvement initiatives focused on adolescent health.
• Opportunities for longitudinal management of adolescents with multidisciplinary input.

Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics

• Explores a wide range of services and diagnoses that are present in both general pediatrics clinics and developmental behavioral subspecialty clinics.
• Works with the medical team at Heartspring, an inpatient and outpatient school/center for children worldwide with autism, mental retardation and severe behavioral problems. Heartspring focuses on helping special needs children grow and learn to live more independently.
• Understand common behavioral health interventions for pediatric primary care.
• Enhance ability to recognize and appropriately screen, treat and refer common mental health diagnoses.
• Faculty members:
       ♦  Pediatrician with board certification in pediatrics, neurodevelopmental disabilities and developmental-behavioral pediatrics
       ♦  Pediatrician with board certification in pediatrics and developmental-behavioral pediatrics
       ♦  Clinical psychologist and certified eating disorder specialist

Newborn

More babies are delivered at Wesley Medical Center than at any other facility in a 13-state region. The high volume of deliveries at Wesley means that our residents graduate with lots of experience and a high level of competence in caring for newborns. 

• Team consists of 1-2 attending physicians, 1-2 dedicated nurse practitioners, 1-2 medical students and 1-3 residents.
• Initial assessment of term to near-term infants.
• Daily rounding on normal newborns and infants in the special care nursery (a step-down unit from NICU).
• Triaging common postnatal medical problems.
• Ample opportunity for circumcisions.

NICU

Level III NICU.

• 62 beds dedicated to premature and critically ill infants.
• Referral base for 23,000 deliveries across Kansas and surrounding states.
• One of over 360 centers included in the Vermont-Oxford DataBase.
• More than 750 admissions annually.
• Rounding on 6-8 patients one-on-one with a NICU attending.
• NICU attending in-house 24 hours a day.

Electives

Residents select a minimum of four 1-month rotations from the following required pediatric subspecialties:

• Cardiology
• Child Abuse
• Endocrinology/Metabolism
• Gastroenterology
• Genetics
• Hematology/Oncology
• Infectious Disease
• Mental Health
• Nephrology
• Neurology
• Pulmonology

The remaining subspecialty experience may be selected from the remaining subspecialties in the above list and from the following list:

• Academic Medicine
• Child Psychiatry
• Critical Care (PICU)
• Dermatology
• ENT
• Global Health
• Medically Complex Care
• Ophthalmology
• Orthopaedics
• Parenting
• Pediatric Surgery
• Pharmacology
• Plastic Surgery
• Radiology
• Research
• Rheumatology
• Sedations
• Sports Medicine
• Urology