About the Program
Message from the Program Director
Dear Prospective Resident,
The people of our residency program remain our greatest strength. 
Our residents come from 34 medical schools across 18 states and four countries. Together, they form an energetic, engaged, and skillful housestaff. Interns are welcomed into our supportive community, where friendships develop that last long beyond residency. Upper-level residents consistently demonstrate leadership and take an active role in teaching and mentorship. Residents at all levels of training assume responsibility for their patients’ care and develop confidence in clinical decision making while demonstrating professionalism in their personal interactions.
Our approachable teaching faculty prioritize resident education and growth, across all areas of clinical care. Our program is committed to a robust clinical education. Arkansas Children’s Hospital is the primary site for the residency training program. As it is one of the largest pediatric hospitals in the United States and the primary tertiary care center in the state, our housestaff have the opportunity to work with very diverse patient populations with diverse health needs. Residents care for patients with a wide range of medical problems, from foundational pediatric care in our resident-centered Primary Care Clinic and general pediatric wards, to managing those with complex subspecialty care needs. Our program is committed to cultivating a solid education in general pediatrics to become an excellent pediatrician, as well as the foundation to pursue a successful career in a pediatric subspecialty.
We are equally dedicated to supporting education outside of clinical care and promoting academic scholarship. Our residents receive didactic education through morning report, noon conference, subspecialty didactics, and newly introduced academic half-days. We also uniquely offer asynchronous learning opportunities for rotation-specific education and board preparation. In addition to medical knowledge and clinical skills, our resident curriculum explores important topics for the wholehearted pediatrician, including quality improvement, advocacy, DEI, wellness, research, and more.
Thank you for your interest in our pediatric residency program. We look forward to getting to know you virtually and hope to have you join our outstanding team.
Sincerely,
Becca Perin, M.D.
Program Director, Pediatric Residency Program
Assistant Professor, General Pediatrics
Message from Arkansas Children’s President & CEO
Dear Prospective Resident:
Thank you for your interest in the Department of Pediatrics and Arkansas Children’s. I hope you’ll read more about our comprehensive services on our website, but as President and CEO of Arkansas Children’s, I want to personally share with you a little about our history, our future, and most importantly our culture.
For more than 100 years, Arkansas Children’s has provided care to the children of Arkansas and beyond, and today that privilege includes serving more than 700,000 children across the state. In the past seven years, we have evolved from a single site hospital in the middle of the state into the only pediatric health system, with two hospitals, a research institute, a philanthropic foundation, regional clinics and alliances, telemedicine, and statewide outreach programs.
Our mission at Arkansas Children’s is to champion children by making them better today and healthier tomorrow. And we do so by working to fulfill our promise: Unprecedented child health. Defined and delivered. This is really exciting work and our 2020-2025 strategic plan addresses the many ways we are working towards fulfilling that promise.
We have four core values at Arkansas Children’s: safety, teamwork, compassion, and excellence. Everything we do starts with safety – safety for our patients and safety for our staff. We bookend safety with the value of excellence. While we may not be perfect, we can be excellent. Teamwork and compassion place people at the center of what we do. These values are the words that define our behavior and make our employees proud to work here.
I believe if you feel called to be in pediatric healthcare, you will be fulfilled in your work every day at Arkansas Children’s. Our strong partnership with the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) Department of Pediatrics, allows us to offer a tremendous teaching environment so you will complete your residency well-prepared for a successful professional career.
I hope you will consider joining our mission as we take bold steps to grow and advance the future of child health and Arkansas Children’s.
Marcy Doderer, FACHE
President & CEO
Arkansas Children’s
Unparalleled Opportunities
The UAMS Pediatric Training Program is a fully accredited, general pediatrics training program located in a free-standing building at Arkansas Children’s Hospital. We provide a solid foundation in general pediatrics with clinical experiences in all pediatric subspecialties, preparing our residents to enter any area of pediatrics.
Our residents have the best pediatric training thanks to our wonderful and complete patient population, dedicated and innovative faculty who place our resident’s training as a top priority, and fellow residents willing to support the learning of their colleagues.
Whether it is at the bedside, in a conference room, or in our fully-functional simulation center, we are constantly learning and teaching each other for the betterment of our patients, our state, and ourselves.
Mission, Goals and Objectives
The overall goal of our program, in the simplest terms, is to provide residents with the training necessary to be an excellent pediatrician. This seems like a reasonable goal considering that about half of our residents choose a career in general pediatrics. But we also believe that the best pediatric specialists all begin as very good general pediatricians.
A solid understanding of general pediatrics is the basis of all of your future clinical expertise. Regardless of the career path you choose, you will need to be a physician who is able to provide comprehensive, coordinated care to a broad range of pediatric patients whether in a community or academic setting, and whether those patients have acute short term illnesses or chronic and complex diseases.
To achieve this goal, we have different objectives for each year of training. Internship focuses on training in general pediatric care with some experience in the supervision of medical students. The goal of the second and third years of training includes continued training in comprehensive pediatric care, with greater emphasis on pediatric specialty care, greater responsibility for patient care, greater independence in clinical decision making and increasing responsibility in the supervision of junior housestaff and medical students.
Our program is also committed to the importance of the diversity in order to enhance the education of our residents, reduce racial and ethnic health disparities in our state, and provide an environment in which all employees and views are welcomed.
Connect With Us
If you have any questions that we can help you with, please let us know! Here’s how you can reach us:
By Phone:
Please call using either our toll free number 800-858-0375 or 501-364-1874
By Email:
Becca Perin, M.D.
Residency Program Director
Leigh Austin
Residency Program Manager
Katie Jones
Residency Program Administrative Coordinator
