Pediatric Critical Care

critical care The PICU rotation takes place in the 22-bed unit at the Alfred I. duPont Hospital for Children. The PICU experience exposes residents to a full range of acute medical and surgical problems and helps residents become skilled in important technical procedures, including life-support monitoring, respiratory therapy, and parenteral nutrition. Residents participate in "mock codes" and learn to counsel parents of critically ill children. All residents become certified in Pediatric Advanced Life Support (PALS) at the beginning of their residency training. In addition, residents can elect to participate in transports of critically ill children. Residents also gain practical experience with evidence based medicine and have access to didactic sessions that include mechanical ventilator management, pharmacology of sedatives, analgesia, inotropes, vasopressors, and approach to the pediatric airway, etc.