Cardiac Intensive Care Unit
The Nemours Cardiac Center consists of a 10 bed cardiac intensive care unit, a 16-bed step-down unit, a state-of-the-art digital cardiac catheterization and electrophysiology suite and an operating room, all used only for the care of infants and children with heart disease.
In addition to first-class open-heart surgery, this care includes modern approaches to closing cardiac anomalies in the heart and opening restrictive blood vessels and valves in the catheterization lab. These treatment capabilities, offered in a mere handful of centers in the United States, are available at the Nemours Cardiac Center.
This cardiac intensive care unit (CICU) rotation is an elective rotation experience. This learning experience is designed to develop the resident’s skills in order to adequately provide pharmaceutical care to cardiac patients, review the pathophysiology and therapeutic treatment recommendations of disease states encountered with emphasis on cardiac surgery in accordance with national guidelines. The rotation will also help the resident improve their ability to design and implement treatment and monitoring plans and their ability to communicate recommendations to the medical team.
Inpatient Hematology/Oncology(Heme/Onc)
The Hematology/Oncology (Heme/Onc) rotation is a four-week, elective learning opportunity for the pharmacy practice resident. This rotation includes patients admitted to the 3CN and 3A units of the hospital. Between both units there are approximately 31 beds in total, 21 of which are located on 3CN and 10 on 3A. 3CN patients are usually Heme/Onc patients and the 3A patients typically are blood and bone marrow transplant patients (BBMT). The average daily census of oncology patients (there are also endocrinology, rheumatology & neurology patients on 3CN) is about 15 patients with 70% being Heme/Onc and 30% BBMT. Case-mix can vary significantly. The initial goal is to have the resident cover at least 5 patients and this may increase based on case variability. This rotation is designed to further develop the skills necessary to adequately provide pharmaceutical care to these patients and review the pathophysiology and therapeutics of their disease states in accordance with national guidelines. The experience involves the provision of direct patient care for Heme/Onc inpatients. The resident will participate in daily patient care rounds and is responsible for working with the residents, the attending physician, and the nurses to prevent, identify and/or solve medication therapy issues.
Neonatal Intensive Care Unit/Special Care Unit (NICU/SCN)
The NICU/SCN rotation provides the resident the opportunity to learn various aspects of critical care medicine in the neonatal setting. Through participation in patient care rounds and other activities, the pharmacy resident will be given the opportunity to implement pharmaceutical interventions and provide drug information to the medical staff.
The SCN/NICU rotation is a 6-week elective rotation experience. The first 3 weeks of the rotation will be spent at Christiana Hospital’s Special Care Nursery (SCN), where the resident will develop a foundation for neonatal intensive care. This unit contains a Level III NICU with a bed capacity of 60 and an average daily census of 40 beds. The resident will review the pathophysiology and therapeutic treatment recommendations of disease states encountered in the SCN such as respiratory distress syndrome, patent ductus arteriosus, and hyperbilirubinemia.
The second 3 weeks of the rotation will be spent at the Alfred I. duPont Hospital for Children’s Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU). This 14 to 18 bed Level III NICU, with a daily census ranging from 12 to 15 patients, encompasses surgical neonatal patients transferred from other area hospitals. Here, the resident will learn the surgical aspect of neonatal intensive care and continue to learn pertinent neonatal disease states. Overall, the rotation will help the resident improve their ability to design and implement treatment and monitoring plans, as well as improve their ability to communicate recommendations to the medical team.