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Critical Care

Pediatric Critical Care Medicine Training

The Program
The Place
The People
The Fellowship Curriculum
How to Apply
Contact Us


The Program

Since 1990, the UAMS Department of Pediatrics, in partnership with Arkansas Children’s Hospital, has offered an ACGME-accredited fellowship training program in Pediatric Critical Care Medicine.  We offer a three-year fellowship in Pediatric Critical Care Medicine leading to board eligibility for the Critical Care Medicine Sub-board of the American Board of Pediatrics. Currently, our first-time Board pass rate is 97% since the program’s inception.  Before telling you a bit more about the program curriculum and how to apply, let us share with you more information about our hospital and its tremendous resources.

The Place

Arkansas Children's Hospital is a private, not for profit, free standing children's hospital with 350 beds. Established in 1910, the hospital underwent rapid growth in the 1980's and is now one of the ten largest children's hospitals in the nation. The hospital serves as the major pediatric teaching affiliate for the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences.

The hospital is the only pediatric hospital in the state of Arkansas, and serves as a referral center for areas of Mississippi, southern Missouri, eastern Oklahoma, northern Louisiana and northeast Texas. Having the only PICU in this cachement area allows us to provide pediatric critical care fellows with abundant, thorough, and varied clinical experiences in the care of critically ill and injured children.  Nationally renowned programs such as the pediatric cardiovascular surgery program and the ECMO program attract patients from other areas of the country as well.  The ECMO program at Arkansas Children’s Hospital is one of the nation’s busiest.

Arkansas Children’s Hospital is the base for the pediatric residency program of UAMS, which currently has 62 pediatric residents, 19 medicine-pediatric residents and two child neurology residents enrolled in the program. Fellows in critical care play a key role in educating pediatric housestaff in the care of critically ill children and adolescents.

The Donald W. Reynolds PICU is a 26-bed unit with approximately 1,200 admissions per year.  Due to our being the only pediatric facility in the state, the PICU at Arkansas Children’s Hospital cares for children with a wide variety of critical illnesses and injuries.  A separate 15 bed cardiovascular intensive care unit is in close proximity to the PICU.  Arkansas Children’s Hospital is home to the state’s only Burn Center , as well as a 65-bed NICU.

The hospital operates Angel One - an extremely busy neonatal and pediatric transport service, utilizing two helicopters, three vans, and a variety of fixed-winged aircraft. All pediatric transports include a physician. Fellows in critical care medicine have ample opportunity to gain experience transporting critically ill and injured children and learning to provide medical control for a transport team.  The Angel One team averages approximately 80 PICU transports per month.

The People

Critical Care Faculty

Ten Board-certified pediatric intensivists comprise the primary teaching staff for the fellowship program.  Four of these faculty members are cardiac intensivists who attend in both CVICU and PICU.

2012 Critical Care Fellows

Katherine Irby, MD               University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, Little Rock, AR

 

Mubbasheer Ahmed, MD University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, TX

Mahsun_Yuerek_-_Critical_Care

Mahsun Yuerek, MD                    SUNY Downstate Medical Center, Brooklyn, NY

Kate_Miller_-_Critical_Care

Kathryn Miller, MD         Indiana University,    Indianapolis, IN

Jeremy_Garlick_-_Critical_CareJeremy Garlick, MD                    SUNY Downstate Medical Center, Brooklyn, NY

  

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Courtney Ranallo, MD           University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, Little Rock, AR

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Jonathan Byrnes, MD  University of Mississippi Medical Center, Jackson, MS
 

Other Faculty
 
The ACH/UAMS pediatric faculty includes over 200 faculty members representing virtually every pediatric subspecialty, including 19 cardiologists, nine pulmonologists, four nephrologists, 16 neonatologists, five gastroenterologists, four infectious disease specialists, five hematologists-oncologists, four pharmacologists, and 19 emergency medicine physicians.
 
Surgical specialists include two cardiovascular surgeons, five pediatric surgeons, two pediatric neurosurgeons, and five pediatric otolaryngologists. There are 30 pediatric anesthesiologists at Arkansas Children's Hospital.
 
Critical support physicians for the intensivists include 11 pediatric radiologists and six pediatric pathologists.
 
The Fellowship Curriculum
 
The majority of the first year curriculum involves clinical rotations in the PICU, as well as a one-month experience in Pediatric Anesthesia.  Research months and one elective month round out the first year.  The initiation of a research project completes the first year course of study.
 
Further development and initiation of the fellow's research project occupies most of the second year. Clinical responsibilities are reduced to provide research time. Clinical responsibilities during the second year include PICU, CVICU (two months), and an elective.
 
The third year of the fellowship is largely devoted to research. Research time during this year is largely devoted to continued data collection, data analysis, and submission of a first-authored manuscript reporting the fellow's research findings. Clinical responsibilities during the third year include PICU, CVICU (2 months), and one month on Sedation Service.
 
An optional fourth year can be arranged to combine either clinical pharmacology or cardiovascular intensive care with general pediatric critical care. Finally, for candidates seeking dual certification in Pediatric Critical Care and Pediatric Cardiology, that option is available through a combined five-year fellowship.
 
Throughout the three year curriculum, fellows participate in a broad variety of educational conferences, both within the Division of Pediatric Critical Care and also at the Departmental and hospital level.  A Fellows’ Core Curriculum conference series provides a structured curriculum for all fellows in the Department of Pediatrics addressing such topics as:  research design, grant writing, presentation skills, quality improvement initiatives, principles of evidence-based medicine, teaching skills, professionalism, and a variety of other topics.  During the second year, fellows are enrolled in a Biostatistics course offered through the UAMS College of Public Health.   Pediatric critical care fellows also participate in teaching a variety of courses, such as the Advanced Pediatric Life Support, Pediatric Advanced Life Support, and Pediatric Emergency Assessment, Recognition, and Stabilization courses to residents and medical students.
 
A unique educational resource available to our fellows is the Arkansas Children’s Hospital Pediatric Understanding and Learning through Simulation Education (P.U.L.S.E.) Center.  The PULSE Center offers a state-of-the-art, multidisciplinary, high-fidelity simulation environment.  Fellows both learn and teach at the PULSE Center.  They are involved in teaching “mock codes” to the pediatric housestaff.  Fellows have several opportunities for learning at the PULSE Center in a high-fidelity simulation environment, including courses on delivering “bad news” to family members, workshops on management of the difficult airway, and a unique ECMO simulation training program which has gained national recognition.

How to Apply
 
The pediatric critical care fellowship program at UAMS/ACH participates in the NRMP fellowship match.
 
We are approved by ACGME for a total of six pediatric critical care fellows.
 
Beginning in 2009, we will use the E.R.A.S. application system.
 
Applicants must be board eligible in General Pediatrics by the standards of the American Board of Pediatrics, and hold either an appropriate visa or a permanent resident status if trained at an international medical school.
 

Contact Us:

Richard T. Fiser, MD
Director, Fellowship Program
E-mail: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

      or

Cassandra O'Neal
Fellowship Program Coordinator
Pediatric Critical Care Medicine
University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences
College of Medicine
Department of Pediatrics
Arkansas Children's Hospital
One Children’s Way, Slot 512-12
Little Rock, Arkansas 72202-3591
(Phone) (501) 364-1008
E-mail: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
 
The University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences is an equal opportunity/affirmative action employer and has a Conrad 30 waiver program. Women and minorities are encouraged to apply.

Resources

GME Resident Handbook

 

 

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