Residency Program

Educational Experience

Individualized Learning Plan (ILP)

The Program shares American Academy of Pediatrics' vision that early career experiences with goal setting will set the stage for the life-long learning expected of pediatricians. At the start of each academic year, residents complete an Individualized Learning Plan. Through this exercise, residents self-critique their strengths and weaknesses and set learning goals for the year, including at least a basic plan for how to meet them. The Program Director and Advisors will review each ILP and give feedback on the goals as well as other suggestions to help the resident successfully meet their goals. At the end of the year, residents will reexamine their ILP and comment about their progress toward meeting their goals.

Faculty Advisor/Mentors

Each resident will be assigned a faculty advisor or mentor, usually a General Pediatrician or Behavioral-Developmental Pediatrician. If over the course of residency the resident chooses to switch advisors or add a specialty advisor, such changes are permitted with the approval of the Program Director. Residents are encouraged to use a number of faculty advisors depending on their interests and career goals.

The advisor meets with the resident at least bi-annually to review the resident's progress and evaluations. At the fall meeting, the advisor will review the resident's performance on the In-Training Exam in order to assist with the development of a boards study plan. Advisors will also participate in regularly scheduled Resident Reviews after which time they are expected to touch base with their advisees to discuss the resident's review. Besides formal meetings, advisors are also available to discuss any issues or concerns that arise of either a professional or personal nature.

A primary goal of our academic advising Program is to assist residents in the development of meaningful educational plans that are compatible with professional and personal goals. Academic advising should be viewed as a continuous process of self-reflection, feedback, and improvement. Such advising is only the beginning of the life long learning and improvement process physicians do over the course of their careers.

Conferences

Core Curriculum

• Scheduled 3 days per week
• Topics are selected from the Nelson's Essentials of Pediatrics, Faculty survey, In-Training Examination results, and American Academy of Pediatrics PREP Content Specifications
• Topics are presented in a case-based format whenever possible
• Board review questions will be incorporated as often as possible
• Residents ask questions and participate in topic discussions

Grand Attending Rounds

• Scheduled weekly
• Forum for case presentation
• A resident will often review the case, collect all pertinent data, and organize the material into a well constructed, complete, and concise oral and written case presentation
• A faculty member will then guide the discussion, flow, and/or emphasis of the conference

Morning Teaching Conference

• Scheduled 4 days per week
• For inpatient residents on Floor team, PICU, NICU, and FTN as well as residents assigned to outpatient rotations at KU

Pediatric Grand Rounds

• Scheduled weekly
• Presentations by faculty and guest speakers on current pediatric topics of interest

Ethics Conference

• Scheduled monthly
• To expose the pediatric residents, faculty, and interested others to ethical questions impacting our field as well as generate lively debate
• The goal is not necessarily to resolve the question; how we approach these ethical concerns and attempt to make our own decisions is equally important

Journal Club

• Scheduled monthly
• Provides a solid exercise in scholarship and critical thinking regarding the current literature in clinical pediatrics
• A PL1 resident chooses a main article from a current peer-reviewed journal
• The presenting resident describes the problem, summarizes competing schools of thought and the immediately relevant background literature, summarizes the main paper, and states an opinion
• The Faculty Advisor and any guest experts comment on the paper and the problem in general
• The discussion is then opened to the floor

Morbidity And Mortality Conference

• Scheduled monthly
• Previous month's mortality statistics are presented, when available
• A PGY2 resident presents a summary of a selected case and discusses aspects of pathophysiology related to the case
• Provides quality review of pediatric cases in an educational, peer reviewed setting in order to address system-based issues

Senior Residents' Conference

• Scheduled monthly
• A PGY3 resident lays out, closely examines, and evaluates the historical and current approaches to a clinical problem or interesting topic
• The presentation should resemble a Pediatric Grand Rounds