Pediatric Critical Care Medicine Fellowship

The Pediatric Critical Care Medicine Fellowship at Yale University School of Medicine has been in existence for over 30 years with the steadfast commitment of providing trainees with high quality, comprehensive training in preparation for academic careers in Pediatric Critical Care Medicine. Graduates from this program are in academic positions as clinicians, educators, investigators, and administrative physicians. The Pediatric Critical Care Fellowship Program at Yale aims to:

1. Provide a comprehensive curriculum to enable trainees to care for the diverse patients admitted to the PICU
2. Develop competency in quality safety science, medical education, and research with the goal of advancing the field
3. Train fellows for careers in academic medicine

With the field of Pediatric Critical Care Medicine in evolution, our program recognizes that individual candidates may have different career goals in academic medicine. Our curricula can be adjusted to meet the needs of the individual. In addition, our Division, in collaboration with the Department of Pediatrics and Yale School of Medicine offers extensive opportunities for many types of scholarship.

Our Pediatric Critical Care Fellowship Program at Yale is to designed to deliver a training program that achieves the specific career goals of each trainee under the mentorship of senior clinical and research faculty. Our overall fellowship’s goal is to train the next generations of leaders in academic pediatric critical care medicine.

We recognize that opportunities are not equally available and strive to diversify our trainees and training experiences to include those who identify as underrepresented in medicine. We aim to provide an inclusive and collegial training environment with representation of all individuals, regardless of race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, and physical ability. For more information, please visit our Office of Diversity and Inclusion website.

The Yale-New Haven Children's Hospital is a multi-specialty primary and tertiary care facility serving infants and children throughout Southern New England. Clinical services available at Yale include a Level I Trauma Center, solid organ and bone marrow transplant programs, an ECMO program and all pediatric and surgical subspecialties.

The Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) is currently a 21-bed unit with about 1200 admissions per year and serves as the focal point for clinical training. The PICU is a multidisciplinary facility with active programs in all aspects of pediatric medicine and surgery. The majority of the clinical training is provided during the first year of fellowship. The clinical commitments during the second and third years of fellowship are reduced so fellows have ample time for pursuit of academic development and research. As fellows progress through the program they are expected to take on an increasingly active role in supervising patient care and unit administration. In addition, they receive concentrated clinical experience in anesthesiology, cardiology, and sedation. Fellows also participate in a regional transport service and referral program. The Pediatric Critical Care Fellowship Program is fully accredited by the ACGME.

Our Pediatric Cardiac Intensive Care Unit (PCICU) shares physical space with our PICU and currently utilizes 6 beds. We care for a range of medical and post-operative cardiac surgical patients in this unit with capability for ECMO, advanced cardiac monitoring and support of other cardiac mechanical assist devices (e.g. VADs, pacemakers).

The educational program for fellows is comprised of clinical, didactic and simulation sessions with use of the, flipped classroom model and incorporation of team based learning.

Fellows' clinical training is provided through close interaction with faculty during clinical rounds and at the bedside. There are weekly rounds during which all pediatric critical care faculty and fellows participate in in-depth discussions of cases presented by the on-service fellows.

Didactic sessions are provided by the critical care faculty as well as those from other divisions with relevant practice areas to pediatric critical care during an academic half day each week. The purpose of these sessions are to help fellows develop critical thinking skills necessary for all critical care physicians and follow an established curriculum based on topics and concepts that are relevant to clinical practice and board exams. During these academic half days, fellows facilitate journal clubs, patient safety reviews, and case conferences with faculty present. First year fellows also participate in a regional pediatric critical care fellows’ bootcamp program in the first month of their training.

Fellows are provided with additional education directed at enhancing scientific writing skills, grant preparation, how to best present scientific information, statistical analysis, peer review and ethical scientific conduct through a research and scholarship curriculum that also includes fellows from other pediatric fellowship programs at Yale.

Monthly simulation sessions are targeted to fellow level learning objectives and are held in the simulation unit of The Yale New Haven SYN:APSE center.

Those trainees who wish to have additional time for the development of a particular area of interest in clinical practice, clinical research, or laboratory-based research may have the opportunity for an additional year of training in that area. Fellows will also be provided with the opportunity to enter into clinical elective months in either the medical or surgical subspecialties during their 2nd or 3rd years. These opportunities require extensive planning.

Yale Pediatrics offers four unique scholarly pathways to provide additional training and structure for fellows interested in pursuing specific areas of scholarly focus. These pathway tracks are optional and do not eliminate the need to participate in core departmental fellow conferences but are meant to supplement and broaden exposure to a particular topic of interest.

The pathways include:

1. Investigation (clinical, translational, and laboratory-based research)
2. Quality Improvement and Safety Science
3. Medical Education
4. Global Health

Each pathway consists of several categories of activities which fellows are required to select and complete. Some of the categories include common core requirements which are similar across all pathways, pathway-specific education and coursework, pathway-specific experiences, networking or community practice, and research or scholarly activities.

Although scholarly activities begin during the first year, most fellows will enroll in a pathway in their second year of fellowship training to allow for two years to complete their experiences and scholarship in their pathway(s). Fellows are permitted to enroll in more than one pathway if their scholarly activities are relevant (for example, combining global health with quality improvement/patient safety, medical education, or investigation). Fellows should work with their mentors to select the pathway and activities that will be most beneficial when considering their individual career goals and aspirations. Physicians entering fellowship with advanced degrees or additional training may be eligible to opt out of some of the requirements.

Fellows in their second and third years of fellowship are also eligible to apply for our hospital-wide “Fellows as Medical Educators” certificate program. This is a 2-year program that is geared towards those fellows who wish to further develop their teaching, feedback, and educational design skills and learn more about academic careers as clinician-educators.

The Clinical Ethics Fellowship provides 8 months of didactics and training in leading clinical ethics consultations, organizational ethics consultations, and ethics committee meetings, as well as clinical ethics teaching and scholarship. The fellowship prepares trainees to build and lead ethics consultation services and hospital ethics committees. Fellows are eligible to sit for the American Society for Bioethics and Humanities’ examination for the Healthcare Ethics Consultant-Certified (HEC-C) credential. Fellows in Pediatric Critical Care Medicine can apply to complete the Ethics Fellowship during the second or third year of their training.

Trainees will be selected from applicants with M.D. or M.D./Ph.D. degrees who have interests in any of a number of disciplines related to intensive care. All interested applicants should submit an application through ERAS. Applications must include a personal statement, three letters of reference and USMLE scores. Applications will be reviewed when complete. All applicants that are competitive for positions will have a personal interview between August and October. The Yale Pediatric Critical Care Medicine Program participates in the National Residency Matching Program. Yale University School of Medicine is an Equal Opportunity Employer.

Address inquiries to:

Lisa A. DelSignore, MD
lisa.delsignore@yale.edu
333 Cedar Street, P.O. Box 208064
New Haven, CT 06520-8064
Phone: 203-785-4651