|
How many pediatric residents are in your program?
We accept 13 residents per year for a total of 39. We have two fourth year chiefs.
When did your residency program start?
Our program has been in existence since 1972. We are fully accredited by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME). Our department also sponsors Pediatric Critical Care and Neonatology Fellowships.
How many of your residents pursue a career in primary care versus fellowship training upon graduation?
Historically, approximately 50% of our residents pursue careers in primary care and 50% pursue fellowship training. In the past 5 years all residents who have applied for fellowship received placement at their first or second choice. For those who go on the careers in primary care, there is a 100% job placement. Many of these residents joined groups who admit patients to ALGCH. We also have a growing number of residents pursuing careers in hospitalist medicine.
Where do your residents live?
On average, half of our residents live in Chicago and half live in the Chicago-land suburbs.
What does my schedule look like?
The residency program at Advocate Children's Hospital - Park Ridge believes in having a work-life balance. To help achieve this goal, we have instituted a short-call/long-call system for the interns working on the floor. Short-call days start with morning sign-out at approximately 6 a.m. and ends with a sign-out to the late-call person at 3 p.m. The late-call person then stays until sign-out to the night team at 7 p.m. Every night there are two interns on the night team that work from 7 p.m. until they sign out to the day team at approximately 6 a.m. Interns will work 1 to 2 weeks of night shift at a time for a total of 5 to 6 weeks of nights their first year.
To preserve patient continuity, the floor is divided between two teams, each with their own senior during the day, and one senior overseeing the entire floor at night. Interns rotate between day and night shift within their team, so the patients and their families are able to establish a relationship with one team throughout their stay.
Back to the top
Is your program affiliated with a medical school?
Advocate Children's Hospital has an affiliation with three major medical schools:
- Rosalind Franklin University of Health Sciences - The Chicago Medical School
- University of Illinois at Chicago College of Medicine
- Midwestern University - The Chicago College of Osteopathic Medicine
Medical students from these schools rotate through the Advocate Children's Hospital for both core and elective rotations. Our residents are highly involved in both the formal and informal training of these students. As PL1's, medical students are assigned to your team on the wards. As PL3s you will get the opportunity to do formal instruction of students on the "Teaching Elective". In addition to our major affiliations, medical students from all over the country come to ALGCH for elective rotations during their M4 year of training. If you are a student who is interested in an elective rotation at ALGCH, contact Tara Murphy in the Medical Student Office at Phone 847.723.6479.
ALGCH's pediatric electives and descritpions
What type of pathology will I see at ALGCH?
Over the past 25 years, ALGCH has evolved from a community hospital to a major referral and trauma center for all of Northwest Illinois. We have pediatric subspecialist in virtually all medical and surgical specialties as well as a large general academic pediatric faculty. There are over 3900 deliveries per year and 450 admissions to our 54 bed NICU annually. The Advocate Children’s Hospital has a state of the art Pediatric Intensive Care Unit composed of 15 beds and 900 admissions per year. Our general pediatric floor is composed of 51 beds and serves 3200 families annually.
Despite our evolution into the third busiest children’s hospitals in Illinois, Advocate Children’s Hospital remains true to the community philosophy inherent to our early beginnings. Each patient needs to be evaluated within the context of their family and the community in which they live.
Back to the top
Will all of my weekly continuity clinics be on site?
The resident continuity clinics are all on site at The Yacktman Children's Pavilion, our outpatient center adjacent to the hospital and on the ALGCH campus. We pride ourselves in the broad experience that you will receive in general pediatric clinic and traditionally we exceed the ACGME requirements in this area.
Can I be involved in research?
At ALGCH, we want our graduates to be good consumers of research. Our monthly journal clubs is organized in a fashion that lends itself to a critical appraisal of the literature. In addition, there are several active ongoing research projects in the department which include:
- Assessment of Growth of Infants Fed an Amino Acid-Based Formula
- Inhaled Nitric Oxide for the Prevention of Bronchopulmonary Dysplasia (BPD) in Preterm Infants
- Risk Factors for Fibrosising Colonpathy in U.S. Patients with Cystic Fibrosis Treated with Pancreatic Enzyme Replacement Therapy
- Probiotics in the Hospitalized Patients: Are They Dangerous?
- Endothelin Levels in Children with Diabetic Ketoacidosis
- Utility of Serum Ferritin in the Differential Diagnosis of Hemophagocytic Lymphohistiocytosis
- Evaluation of a New Inhaled Medication for Treatment of Cystic Fibrosis Lung Disease
- Ontogeny of Endothelin Receptors in the Rat Brain, Heart and Kidneys at Different Postnatal Ages
Residents are encouraged to get involved in the many faculty research projects at the Advocate Children's Hospital. For more information on the Center for Pediatric Research, see our website.
How is your program addessing the requirements of the Next Accreditation System?
Pediatrics is one of seven core specialties across the nation that will begin the ACGME Next Accreditation System (NAS) in July 2013. The NAS is a comprehensive redesign of resident evaluation and progression over their three years of pediatric training. Highlights of the NAS include:
- Evaluation of pediatric residents based upon specialty-specific milestones
- A focus on resident improvement and self-study throughout the educational trajectory
- Individuation of the curriculum to meet the career goals of each resident
- An emphasis on patient safety and quality improvement
Program leadership at ALGCH is working to revise program evaluation to comply with the NAS. Starting in July 2013, each PL3 resident will work with a mentor to design 6 educational units to meet their individual career goals. A midsized program such as ours is uniquely positioned to comply with the regulations that will govern the future of graduate medical education.
Back to the top
|
