Clinical Training by Year

Following ACGME and American Board of Pediatrics graduation requirements, our residents complete a variety of inpatient, subspeciality, and ambulatory experiences. The core elective requirements, including Primary Care, Developmental/ Behavioral Pediatrics, Community Pediatrics and Child Advocacy, and Adolescent Medicine, are typically completed early in residency. This leaves the remaining time in residency dedicated to individualized learning experiences.

In addition to scheduled clinical time, our program also has unique graduation requirements, including journal club presentations, a patient safety presentation, and a quality improvement improvement project.

Immersion Scheduling (X+Y or 4+2)

Our program implemented immersion scheduling five years ago. Unlike a typical 4-week (“month-to-month”) schedule, residents have their time split into a 4+2 system:

• 4-Week

  • Continuous clinical time.

  • This can include — inpatient ward teams, consult services, outpatient electives, NICU, PICU, Emergency Medicine, etc.

• 2-Week

  • Continuity clinic and vacations are integrated with clinical time.

  • This can include — outpatient electives (primary care, developmental pediatrics, community medicine, subspeciality clinic such as gastroenterology, etc.), research, individualized learning plans, etc.

The immersion schedule is very conducive to resident wellness— it ensures that a resident never has back-to-back inpatient months, resident inpatient ward duties are distinct from time spent in continuity clinic (more continuity), and flexible vacation time. Exceptions to the schedule may be made depending on individual resident requests and accelerated requirements, but overall this structure is maintained throughout residency. 

Clinical Time & Continuity Clinic

Residents can complete an elective as one, continuous 4-week (“colored”) block OR three, 2-week (“white”) blocks with integrated continuity clinic time. You can see how time is split between an elective and continuity clinic during these 2-week blocks below, where a resident will have 1.5 days of continuity clinic integrated in each week.

On “white” blocks, residents also have “administrative time” on Friday afternoons (some refer to this time as “wellness half-days”). This is protected time for residents to complete administrative tasks, such as closing chart notes/ encounters, working on projects and presentations, personal appointments (e.g., medical, veterinary, automobile), or other personal wellness. Many residents like to use this time to jump-start their weekend.

Vacation

Residents have 3 weeks of vacation (15 work days) each year that may be taken as either 3 x 1-week blocks OR 1 x 2 week block + 1 x 1 week block. All vacations are taken during “white” blocks. Residents receive an additional one week of vacation for the winter holidays (in Module 7 - not shown above).