PL-1: The Intern Year

The focus for the intern year (PL-1) is to learn the diagnosis, management, and follow-up of acutely and chronically ill infants and children. An important aspect of this year is to learn what is normal for each age and to be able to identify when a child falls outside this range. There are four months of inpatient pediatrics. These months are on general inpatient services where residents care for patients on medical and surgical services, ranging from common primary care problems to complex subspecialty concerns. Patients range from newborn to adolescent. Although the ward attending is primarily responsible for the residents' education, the inpatient service offers an opportunity to work closely with community pediatricians, subspecialists and our surgical faculty. The fourth inpatient month is on Hematology/Oncology service. Here, residents work closely with an attending on a team that includes a PL-3, specialized nurses and pharmacists.

Four months are dedicated to general ambulatory pediatrics; three at our UHCC Pediatric and Adolescent Center where residents care for acute and chronic problems and address issues in preventive health and heath maintenance. One month of child development provides supervised experiences in a variety of community settings to learn variations in behavior and development and to learn about the diagnosis and management of children with developmental disabilities.

Of the two-month neonatal experience, the first concentrates on the evaluation and care of the full term newborn in the nursery and outpatient setting. The second month allows experience in neonatal intensive care. Residents receive one-on-one attending supervision as they learn the care of the sick or premature infant, neonatal resuscitation, and delivery room stabilization in a NICU that stresses family-centered care.

In addition, two months are spent in our pediatric emergency department learning acute care management. Through clinical, didactic, and patient simulation technology, residents become credentialed to perform all of the Residency Review Committee (RRC) required skills.