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Our Highest Priority

We place the highest priority on resident education, with a multitude of conferences and educational opportunities focused on helping residents achieve core educational goals and cultivating intellectual curiosity. Learn more about the specifics of our clinical rotations and schedules.

Residents as Students

We offer residents a rich variety of educational opportunities where they learn from Children's National experts.

  • Noon Conference: Daily hour-long lecture series within a year-long curriculum which features high-quality, faculty-led lectures covering American Board of Pediatrics content specifications. There are a variety of educational sessions that are components of the noon conference curriculum, including Professorial Rounds, Board Review and Morbidity and Mortality Conferences. This series incorporates elements of key crossover themes such as health equity and high value care. Interested in seeing a conference example? Watch our conference on Bone Health from Andrea Estrada, M.D., in Endocrinology and Diabetes.
  • Professorial Rounds: Weekly, case-based, multidisciplinary and highly interactive conference during which providers from multiple departments come together to discuss an interesting case.
  • Board Review: Weekly sessions led by second year residents utilizing multiple-choice board review questions and interactive audience response to promote engagement in review of a key boards topic.
  • Residency Morbidity and Mortality Conference: Monthly case-based conferences led by several residents and one faculty mentor, designed to discuss adverse patient events and develop quality improvement initiatives.
  • Morning Report: Case-based discussion led by senior residents twice per week prior to work rounds which focuses on the approach to diagnostic reasoning as well as initial management and treatment. Curious about what this looks like? Watch recently-graduated Mickey Emmanuel, M.D., talk to the residents about anemia.
  • Attending Rounds (aka Teaching Rounds): Fellow- and faculty-led didactic sessions occurring three times per week before work rounds on inpatient acute care rotations; topics are pertinent to each rotation’s educational and patient care goals.
  • Grand Rounds: Hospital-wide conference held on Wednesday morning from September to June which draws nationally recognized speakers and leaders of innovation from within and outside of Children’s National.
  • Chief Lecture Series: Chief-led curriculum for new interns held on Wednesday mornings in July and August that focuses on a variety of practical clinical and communicative skills.
  • Simulation Sessions: Monthly sessions for residents on inpatient teams are held in a state-of-the-art simulation center with a focus on recognizing deteriorating patients and escalation of care. Additionally, every other month Emergency Department faculty lead small groups of residents through simulations as part of morning education. This focuses on the care of the ill child and incorporation of tools available at the bedside for stabilization.
  • Skills Sessions: Small group sessions run by Emergency Department faculty to train residents in intubation, CPR, bag-valve mask ventilation, and other practical skills
  • Night Team Teaching: Nightly teaching sessions for our intern night team taught by the night senior residents and attendings.
  • BearResident.com: This is our program’s central resource for clinical, residency and rotation specific information.

Residents as Teachers

We also believe that it is important to deliberately provide opportunities for our residents to hone their skills as clinical educators. Our Residents as Teachers curriculum is a longitudinal set of activities to help residents learn and practice educating others. 

  • Step-Up Sessions: At the start of both their PL2 and PL3 year, residents will participate in half-day workshops focusing on teaching skills relevant to inpatient care: orienting the team, developing autonomy on rounds, teaching in a busy clinical session, evidence-based medicine, learner assessment, rotation debriefing and implicit bias.
  • Senior Residents As Teachers (SRAT): While on acute care services as senior residents, the PL3s will participate in Hospitalist and Chief Resident facilitated lunch discussions to further reinforce the topics above, provide targeted suggestions to meet individual needs and share best practices.
  • Teaching Resident: PL2s will rotate as the teaching resident during their Junior Hospitalist rotation. Activities include: facilitating small group learning sessions with medical students; observing history taking and physical exams by junior learners and providing feedback; and leading educational sessions with the Night Float Team. Faculty will observe many of these sessions and provide feedback to allow for improvement in each resident’s approach to teaching.
  • Presentations: PL3s will each lead two Morning Reports throughout the year. PL2s will lead a noon conference focused on the ABP board specifications for topics of their choice. They are also in charge of facilitating multidisciplinary simulated patient escalation sessions and leading their interns through an evidence-based-learning lecture while on acute care teams.
  • Supervisory Role in Continuity Clinic: In many continuity clinics, senior residents help supervise interns during their clinical duties and are responsible for leading discussions on a variety of primary care topics.

Interested in Medical Education? Check out our Medical Education Pathway!