Rotations and Experiences

Inpatient Wards Our inpatient pediatric ward comprises four floors of the new Brenner Children's Hospital.  While on service residents are exposed to both general pediatrics and subspecialty patients, including, cardiology, nephrology, rheumatology, gastroenterology, pulmonology, infectious diseases, neurology, and endocrinology.  Additionally we also assist the various surgical specialties (ENT, Neurosurgery, Orthopedics, and Pediatric surgery) in the care of admitted patients.  Residents are divided among two teams that carry both general and subspecialty patients providing everyone with a diverse patient load.  Each team is made of two interns, a second year and a third year resident.  Our upper level residents are given autonomy to run their team with guidance from our hospitalist and subspecialty faculty.

Pediatric Intensive Care Unit Upper level residents rotate through our PICU during their second and third years of residency.  While in the PICU residents cover a variety of patients including trauma, respiratory failure, post-transplant, congenital heart defects, ECMO, etc.  While on the rotation residents are encouraged to perform procedures and assist in our sedation suite.

Click here for a virtual tour of Brenner Children's NICU.

Neonatal Intensive Care Units Our NICU experience occurs between the two hospitals:  Forsyth Medical Center and Brenner Children's Hospital.  Both NICUs serve as Level IV units, however Brenner Children's Hospital NICU offers subspecialty pediatric care including, pediatric surgery, cardiothoracic surgery, and ECMO.  While at Forsyth residents obtain delivery room experience and have the opportunity to participate in a number of procedures while working in a brand new 56-bed unit.  The experience at Brenner Children's differs in that only EXIT (EX utero Intrapartum Treatment)procedure deliveries occur in the building.  Thus the patients in the 35-bed intensive care unit and the 12-bed intermediate care unit are all referrals from nurseries and NICUs across the state; offering a very diverse patient population and pathology.

Pediatric Emergency Room The rapidly expanding pediatric emergency department at Brenner Children's Hospital offers our residents experience in caring for both emergencies and acute care visits.  Our pediatric emergency department carries a Level I Trauma Center designation with the recent creation of the Childress Institute for Pediatric Trauma.  We have approximately 30,000 pediatric visits each year to our 17-bed department.  Our core faculty are comprised of four pediatric emergency department physicians all with specific fellowship training in pediatric emergency medicine. The department also offers a fellowship in pediatric emergency medicine, taking two fellows each year.

Subspecialty Clinics Subspecialty clinics take place daily in the pediatric outpatient clinic, with more than 19,000 visits annually.  We offer all major sub-specialties, including special programs such as BrennerFIT, a new obesity program for children and their families.

Newborn Nursery The Term Newborn Nursery is located in Forsyth medical center, a 961-bed facility with over 7,000 deliveries each year.  Forsyth recently completed a new Women's Health Center, including brand new nursery and NICU facilities.  Residents work with our general pediatrics faculty to learn all of the aspects of newborn care.  We establish continuity with these patients and follow them as outpatients at the Downtown Health Plaza, the residents clinic site.

Continuity Clinic & Ambulatory Pediatrics Each house officer is assigned to Continuity Clinic in the newly renovated 26-room pediatric outpatient clinic facility.  The Continuity Clinic carries the highest priority in our program, and residents at all levels are relieved of other duties to attend the clinic throughout the year.  Once assigned to a certain clinic day, residents maintain their clinic group throughout their 3 years of residency, building close relationships with the continuity clinic faculty and other residents that share the same day.  Patients include newborns from our nursery at Forsyth Medical Center, all the way through adolescent visits.  As dedicated pediatricians we strive to provide a medical home for our patients, especially those with chronic medical conditions.  In addition to well child care, we provide followup visits for inpatient and emergency department discharges, and acute sick visits.  Approximately 70% of the patient population is hispanic and interpreters are an integral part of our patient care team.