OTHER OPPORTUNITIES:
Advocacy
The University of Colorado pediatric advocacy training is a multifaceted program that draws on the strengths of our location, our community, and local advocacy experts. We believe that pediatricians play an essential role in advocating for their patients and their communities. Our advocacy program provides our residents the opportunities to gain the skills necessary to form effective partnerships, enact change, and empower their communities.
Advocacy Rotation
Our advocacy education begins during intern year with a required 1-month rotation where you'll learn essential advocacy knowledge, skills, and familiarize yourself with local resources. The rotation is a personalized month-long experience based on your identified advocacy interest. Highlights of the month include: tour the State Capitol with Children's Government Affairs team to learn about the legislative process and opportunities for involvement, meet with Children's resource specialists to tailor community experiences to your advocacy interest, engage with local pediatric advocates, and skills sessions such as writing a CATCH grant, writing a letter to the editor and presenting your advocacy findings.
Career-Focused Educational Block (CFEB)
We offer residents a unique opportunity to participate in a longitudinal block experience during their third year. As opposed to traditional monthly electives, the longitudinal block is a six-month period in which residents can customize their education to fit with their future career goals with options in primary care, subspecialties, global health, or hospitalist medicine. Residents allocate their time between primary care clinics, specialty clinics, research or beginning their job search. They meet with a mentor of their choice twice monthly during the longitudinal block. The longitudinal block is specifically directed towards the individual residents learning goals, helping prepare them to move on to the next phase of their careers. It focuses on self-directed learning an individual career exploration.
Global Health
We believe that international experiences are extremely valuable to residents' clinical training, providing our residents with the opportunity to be immersed in another culture and to experience medical practice in an entirely different environment. The Colorado School of Public Health's Center for Global Health (CGH) at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus coordinates health activities across the University of Colorado campus and forms partnerships with other groups in Colorado dedicated to creating advances in global health. CGH is intricately connected to Children's Hospital Colorado. CGH's director, Dr. Stephen Berman, is a Professor of Pediatrics and a past President of the American Academy of Pediatrics. The Maternal and Child Health Division at CGH was recently designated by the WHO as a Collaborating Center for Promoting Family and Child Health, one of only two programs in the Americas to receive this designation. CGH has also newly developed a Fellowship in Pediatric Global Health. CGH offers many opportunities for residents to participate in research and clinical work. For more information on our Global Health Pathway, see the pathway's page.
Research
Numerous opportunities for resident research are supported by our program, including both clinical and laboratory investigations. Each resident is expected to participate in a scholarly project during the three years of residency training. This can include a basic science or clinical research project or any other educational endeavor (such as a quality improvement initiative, an educational manual, or a special presentation to the residency) as approved by the Program Director. This program helps residents identify every search mentor, who then assists the resident with project design. Residents are allowed to use a portion of their elective time, and or use a half-day per week during electives to work on research. Most residents who pursue a research opportunity are encouraged to submit a manuscript and or present at a national meeting. The program funds resident travel for this purpose. Each spring a resident research day is held to display and recognize the scholarly work of residents.
See here for information on the StaRR (Stimulating Access to Research in Residency) program and contact Program Director, Adam Rosenberg (adam.rosenberg@childrenscolorado.org) if you are interested.
Simulation
The Simulation Program uses a full suite of state-of-the-art, full-size, and computer-driven patient simulators to support individual and team training. These lifelike simulators closely mimic human physiology so that participants can gain experience with the physical diagnosis, management of common disease state, avoidance and management of medical complications, and management or troubleshooting of monitors and instruments that are utilized in contemporary healthcare settings with a special emphasis on teaching effective techniques for interest. We have a simulation curriculum in place that allows all residents to participate in high-fidelity, low-fidelity, and senior leadership simulations throughout their residency.
Supplemental Curriculum
For a deeper dive into advocacy, our resident-run supplemental advocacy curriculum builds on the knowledge from the intern year rotation to enact change in the community. The curriculum is centered around an annual project with the goal of accomplishing a meaningful policy change. Skills sessions, including stakeholder analysis, drafting legislation, and practice testifying, are taught through the lens of the annual project. We are fortunate to have developed relationships with current Colorado Legislators. Through these relationships, our group has insight into the political process and assistance with legislative projects. In addition, members of our supplemental curriculum teach advocacy on the wards via Chalk Talks and Morning Reports.
Teaching
The expectation to teach students, colleagues, and patience is one of many roles and responsibilities that may be new to interns. Residents learn from excellent faculty role models and experience formal training and teaching through workshops and an available Residents and Fellows as Medical Educators Elective. This elective, offered through the University of Colorado Academy of Medical Educators is taught by renowned experts in medical education and is a stand-out opportunity for those specifically interested in medical education. Additionally, our Residents as Teachers (RAT) committee has brought the concepts they've learned from the elective to the co-residents as a separate curriculum. There are noon conferences and AHD's put on by the RAT committee, as well as a teaching elective: Teaching Elective at Children's Hospital (TEACH). This elective allows senior residents to incorporate daily hands-on teaching with residents and students, which includes frequent chalk talks, providing feedback, setting specific learning goals, etc.