1st Year: What to Expect

Begin to Develop The Skills You’ll Need

In the first year of our residency program, you’ll begin to develop the skills necessary to become competent pediatricians. With an emphasis on general inpatient and outpatient pediatrics, neonatology, well-baby care, and emergency medicine, during the first year, you’ll:

• rotate through the medical/surgical units, general pediatrics clinics, and newborn nurseries, as well as gain training in private practitioners’ offices
• receive as much responsibility as possible, in a supervised educational environment
• have the opportunity to make decisions, formulate diagnoses, and present your cases to supervisors. Our attending faculty members are very accessible and will give you support and direction
• gain experience with common and uncommon pediatric diseases, as well as the various aspects of well-child care and normal growth and development
• explore areas of special interest through a block of electives
• be enrolled in Pediatric Advanced Life Support (PALS) and Neonatal Resuscitation Program courses

Orientation

The annual orientation, which is kicked off with a social dinner at the program director’s home, will serve as your introduction to your residency. You’ll get to know your classmates in a casual setting through luncheons and/or welcome dinners scheduled with attendings and staff at each site, followed by tours.

The chief residents also host a dinner, where you’ll receive your schedule and can ask questions and learn about the day-to-day expectations. Orientation ends with a shadow day, with you following the team with which you’ll soon
be working.

2nd Year: What to Expect

Begin to Care for Patients with More Complex Needs

In your second year, we’ll emphasize developing skills and knowledge to take care of patients with more complex needs. The second-year program has additional flexibility, giving you a choice of ambulatory medical and surgical subspecialty experiences.

You’ll also gain increased responsibility and independence in the emergency department, and work with critically ill patients in rotations through cardiology, as well as the neonatal and pediatric intensive care units. You’ll begin to take on a supervisory role in general inpatient rotations, helping first-year residents organize rounds, triaging and assigning patients, and assuming overall coordination of clinical care.

To present a balanced curriculum in the second year, we offer a variety of electives. You also can increase your private office experience during much of the second (and third) year of training, while continuing traditional continuity clinics for a half day each week.

3rd Year: What to Expect

Become a Manager and Educator

During your third year, the emphasis will be on training to become a manager and educator, rather than on simply providing patient care. You’ll oversee and assist junior residents and students in the inpatient and outpatient settings, providing guidance and supervision. Team management, in conjunction with our attending faculty members, will become a major role you’ll take on this year.

You’ll also have ample opportunities for elective rotations in subspecialty areas of interest. Throughout your residency program, you’ll have a chance to work with community agencies that provide services to children. You’ll receive wide-ranging experience in developmental and behavioral pediatrics, as well as the evaluation and treatment of victims of child abuse.

Training in the Child Advocacy Center will teach you about the management of abused children. Off-site electives, including experiences abroad, are permitted during call-free rotations. Research electives also are encouraged.

A Day in the Life of a Pediatric Resident

Here’s what you can expect, in general, when you come to Nemours/Alfred I. duPont Hospital for Children’s Pediatric Residency Program: