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KCH EDUCATION
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Pediatric Postgraduate Training Program
The primary goals of the UK Department of Pediatrics are to provide state-of-the-art primary, secondary, and tertiary care for the children of Kentucky, to provide the best possible learning experience for physicians in training as well as medical students, and to expand our pediatric knowledge through basic and clinical research. The aim of the training program is to prepare physicians for a career in either primary care pediatrics or one of the pediatric subspecialties. Over the last several years, approximately 20 percent of our senior residents have elected to pursue subspecialty training in pediatrics in preparation for careers in academic medicine or subspecialty practice in the private sector.
The major interests and responsibilities of the 58 member pediatric faculty are to provide quality patient care, teach residents and medical students and participate in investigative endeavors. In addition to general pediatrics, faculty interests include allergy, psychological medicine, cardiology, critical care, developmental pediatrics, adolescent medicine, endocrinology-metabolism, gastroenterology, genetics-dysmorphology, hematology-oncology, infectious diseases, neonatology, nephrology and pulmonology. Over the past nine years, we have recruited over two dozen new faculty and we plan to recruit additional faculty in general peds, neonatology, nephrology, cardiology, gastroenterology, endocrinology, genetics and genetics-metabolism. In addition, there are faculty in other departments with expertise in pediatric anesthesiology, pediatric emergency medicine, child psychiatry, child neurology, pediatric ophthalmology, pediatric surgery, pediatric neurosurgery, pediatric orthopedic surgery, pediatric cardiothoracic surgery, pediatric dentistry, and pediatric radiology.
The moderate size of the training program fosters close interaction between faculty and housestaff, with considerable one-on-one teaching as well as close professional and social relationships among the housestaff. The training program also has considerable built-in flexibility for dealing with the professional and personal needs of its trainees.
There are approximately 50 housestaff, representing straight pediatrics, combined internal medicine-pediatrics, and combined pediatrics-child psychiatry-adult psychiatry disciplines. Beginning with the resident group entering in July 2002, seven positions in straight pediatrics, six in internal medicine-pediatrics, and two in pediatrics-child psychiatry-adult psychiatry will be offered. The housestaff have traditionally been recruited from medical schools throughout the country.
While the majority of training occurs at the UK Medical Center, a variety
of extramural educational opportunities are available. Two residents each year
participate in a program where three months of their training over a three-year
period occurs in a rural or semi-rural area outside of Lexington, under the
preceptorship of a pediatrician in that area. For some areas, a modest stipend
is provided for housing as well as living and travel expenses. Residents not
participating in this program may still elect to spend time in such an environment.
Numerous research activities are conducted by members of the faculty. Current areas of interest include, but are not limited to: persistent fetal circulation, pulmonary mechanics in neonates and critically ill children, bronchopulmonary dysplasia, growth factors, new therapies in type I diabetes mellitus, transplant immunology, gene therapy for malignancies, the structural and functional maturation of the cardiovascular system, adjustment of children and parents of children with chronic illness, the epidemiology of congenital heart disease, application of newer imaging techniques to clinical cardiology, and gene mapping for various syndromes. Over the years, several residents have participated in these projects under faculty supervision.
Our housestaff have generally performed well on the in-training examinations of the American Board of Pediatrics and the board certification examination upon completion of training.
The UK Department of Pediatrics is continually striving to further improve the quality of its training programs. The Resident Education Committee meets a few times each year. Some of the educational initiatives which have been implemented include alteration of the structure of Morning Report to improve its educational value; development of a well-structured noon conference curriculum; expanding resident educational opportunities in community settings; revision of the resident, faculty and rotation evaluation procedures; institution of subspecialty teaching conferences; and developing learning objectives and resident/faculty expectations for various rotations.
The training program fulfills the requirements established by the American Board of Pediatrics and is fully accredited by the Accreditation Council of Graduate Medical Education.
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