Fellowship Curriculum
Teaching physicians who have completed specialty training and have chosen to pursue sub-specialty training in Pediatric Critical Care Medicine is an honor and a privilege that all of the UAMS faculty in the Division of Pediatric Critical Care take to heart and perform with great passion. We are committed to educating tomorrow’s leaders today. We strive to be on the cutting edge when it comes to the clinical care and education of physicians. To this end, our faculty and fellows have a PCCM Fellowship Education Committee which continually works to refine and enhance the educational curriculum for physicians training in PCCM at UAMS and ACH.
In August of 2017, the PCCM faculty started taking in-house calls. This provides an attending who is available to answer questions, provide guidance, and assist with a helping hand if needed. The Faculty strives to give adequate supervision while promoting Fellow autonomy. The PCCM curriculum is designed to provide graduated supervision over the 3-year training period.
PCCM Year 1
The first year of PCCM training at UAMS was developed with the purpose of bringing all first-year fellow physicians to an equivalent knowledge and skill level as quickly as is possible and then building their knowledge base over the course of the first year with the goal of developing independent thought and a proactive style of practice. These goals are accomplished through a fellow-centric model of didactic and hands-on teaching that is heavily weighted toward the first half of the year.
- The UAMS PCCM Faculty host a PICU Boot Camp which utilizes Arkansas Children’s hi-fidelity state-of-the-art Simulation Education Center. This training is done with Pediatric Emergency Medicine Fellows from UAMS and other surrounding pediatric programs.
- PICU 101 is an 8-week PCCM Faculty developed curriculum that utilizes the expertise of all available UAMS College of Medicine Faculty to teach content-specific knowledge to help the physician in training quickly and successfully transition from resident to fellow level knowledge and skills
- ECMO Boot Camp is also completed in the early parts of the first-year curriculum and is repeated throughout the physician’s training time at UAMS and ACH
- Clinical experiences during this year of training include:
- 5 months of PICU
- ½ month of Pediatric Anesthesia
- ½ month of Pediatric Deep Sedation Service
- The initiation of a research project completes the first-year course of study
- 6 months of Research
PCCM Year 2
The second year of PCCM training at UAMS is geared toward fellow physicians gaining further confidence in their knowledge of Pediatric Critical Care and how to implement medical plans which will provide therapy to their patients.
- Clinical experiences during this year of training include:
- 3 months of PICU
- 2 months of Pediatric Cardiovascular ICU
- ½ month of Pediatric Deep Sedation
- Further development and initiation of the Fellow Physician’s research project occupies most of the non-clinical time during this year
- 6 ½ months of Research (Electives occur during this time)
PCCM Year 3
Third-year Fellow Physicians in PCCM at UAMS shift their focus from learning how to run rounds to actually running rounds under the supervision of our PCCM Faculty. Further acclimation of knowledge and polishing of previously gained knowledge help prepare the Fellow Physicians for the transition to independent practice in either academic or private PCCM practice.
- Clinical experiences during this year of training include:
- 2 months of PICU
- ½ month of Clinical PICU Pre-tending
- 2 months of Pediatric Cardiovascular ICU
- ½ month of Cardiac Anesthesia
- Research time during this year is largely devoted to continued data collection, data analysis, and submission of a first-authored manuscript reporting the Fellow Physician’s research findings.
- 7 months of Research (Electives occur during this time)