Clinical Training

4-weeks, year 1

First-year fellows participate in an orientation lecture series over the first 4 weeks. They also participate in a 2-day regional procedural/simulation boot-camp, our on-site 3-day ECMO course, a 1-day communications training course, and 1-day point-of-care ultrasound(POCUS) training course in addition to a NICU focused POCUS course. Fellows will also shadow in the NICU and on-call.

8 blocks of NICU service, 1 block Pre-attending Rotation

The Children’s National Hospital is a 70 bed Level IV NICU with approximately 1,100 admissions each year. Our trainees work in a multidisciplinary team setting with 24/7 attending physician on-site support. The majority of patients admitted require subspecialty medical and/or surgical care, and the fellows learn to manage high acuity patient care while gaining procedural, management, and communication skills. Multiple specialty programs such as our BPD team, Pulmonary Hypertension team, Neonatal Neuro Critical Care Program and Rare Disease Institute further enrich the fellow experience. The fellows oversee residents and provide regular clinical instruction during their rotation. Our fellows also direct transport calls and provide consultation and support to referring hospitals.

3 blocks NICU service, 1 month Pre-attending rotation, 2 week perinatal rotation

The GW NICU is a level III NICU with 20 beds and approximately 3,000 deliveries per year and 400 in-born admissions per year. Fellows will gain skills in delivery room management for both routine and high-risk deliveries. They will learn to coordinate care with maternal-fetal medicine and provide antenatal consultation both during their service months and during their perinatology elective. They work in a multidisciplinary team and oversee residents with 24/7 on-site attending physician support.

2 weeks

The CNH CICU is a 26 bed unit with multidisciplinary support and 24/7 coverage by cardiac intensivists. During their 2-week rotation, the fellow will learn the management intricacies of complex congenital heart disease by being fully immersed into the CICU team of cardiologists, cardiac intensivists, and cardiothoracic surgeons. In addition to this 2-week rotation, fellows participate in CICU consults regularly to understand the neonatology perspective in cardiac management. 

2 week perinatal rotation

Virginia Hospital Center maintains a high-risk delivery center, and during this rotation, fellows are exposed to a private practice model of perinatal management. They participate in maternal-fetal medicine conferences, consultation and clinic visits in addition to attending high-risk deliveries.

16 clinic sessions

Fellows provide follow-up assessment of NICU graduates. They are responsible for the medical assessment, a summary and coordination of care based on the multidisciplinary assessment at the visit. They will learn key portions of the developmental evaluation and be able to better counsel families in the NICU regarding long-term outcome potentials.