The PHM fellowship curriculum is based on the curricular framework set forth by the Council of Pediatric Hospital Medicine Fellowship Directors and is designed to meet ACGME training requirements. At the start of fellowship, fellows will meet with the program director and a PHM faculty mentor to discuss their educational and career goals so that their individualized curriculum is designed to fit their needs.

About the PHM Fellowship

Number of fellows per academic year: One

Duration of training: Two years

Sample Block Diagram:

BLOCK 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13
YEAR 1
Site ICH   ICH COM   ICH   ICH ICH   ICH/COM ICH  
  PHM S&S PICU PHM S&S PHM S&S NICU PEM S&S PHM ELEC VACA
YEAR 2
Site ICH   ICH ICH ICH/COM   ICH ICH     ICH ICH  
  PHM S&S ELEC ELEC PHM S&S SED ELEC S&S S&S PHM ELEC VACA

ICH = Inova Children’s Hospital
COM = Community hospital site
PHM = Core clinical rotations, including academic teams, complex care (PICU, Iliff Nursing and Rehabilitation Center) and comanagement
S&S = Systems and scholarship, which includes research, leadership, advocacy and patient safety
ELEC = Mandatory electives, which include pediatric emergency medicine, sedation (SED), NICU (including attendance at high-risk deliveries and experience in neonatal resuscitation) and other individualized curricula
VACA = Vacation

Clinical Experience

Fellows’ primary clinical experience will occur at Inova Children’s Hospital, where they will be responsible for providing family-centered patient care, mainly on the pediatric medical/surgical and intermediate care units. Fellows will lead and teach academic teams consisting of pediatric and family practice residents, medical students and advanced practice providers. Fellows are expected to regularly communicate and collaborate with pediatric subspecialists, nurses, pharmacists, therapists, case managers and social workers to deliver compassionate, evidence-based and cost-effective care.

Fellows’ community-hospital-based experience will occur at Winchester Medical Center, which is located about 70 miles northwest of Falls Church. The fellow will learn how to manage bread-and-butter pediatric patients on the general floor and reinforce their well-baby care skills in the nursery. Fellows will serve as the hospital’s pediatric experts, providing consultation as requested by emergency medicine physicians. Fellows will also have the opportunity to sharpen their teaching skills as they instruct and supervise family practice residents.

Fellows will continue to learn more about the management of medically complex patients during their rotation at Iliff Nursing and Rehabilitation Center, where one of our PHM physicians also serves as medical director. The center is located about three miles from Inova Children’s Hospital. Procedural skills will be strengthened during PICU, NICU, emergency department and SED rotations with additional opportunities offered through the Inova Center for Advanced Medical Simulation (ICAMS). Fellows are expected to achieve competence in performing common inpatient PHM procedures, and they are also expected to teach and supervise residents on these procedures.

Aside from the mandatory rotations as listed above, fellows will work alongside a PHM faculty mentor to design their remaining individualized curriculum, keeping in mind the fellow’s short- and long-term career goals. Electives may include additional time on academic teams, working in transport medicine, exploring palliative care or learning more about the business side of hospital administration.

Fellows will meet with PHM Scholarship Director, Dr. Courtney Port, early on in fellowship to discuss their research interests, prior experience and current departmental research projects. Dr. Port will work closely with each fellow to design and implement a project that will be completed over the course of the two-year program. By the end of fellowship, fellows are expected to submit their final research findings to a national conference or peer-reviewed journal.

Fellows will participate in weekly, monthly and yearly educational activities, some of which may be attended in conjunction with Inova’s pediatric residents or pediatric emergency medicine fellows. These may include, but are not limited to:

Weekly:

  • Pediatric Chief’s Morning Report
  • Pediatric infectious disease case conference
  • PHM Fellows’ Conference

Monthly:

  • Pediatric grand rounds
  • PHM evidence-based medicine journal club
  • PHM case conference
  • PHM QI conference
  • Educational grand rounds

Yearly:

  • PHM conference
  • PHM fellows conference
  • Inova Research Day

Pediatric hospitalists at Inova Children’s Hospital are fortunate to serve a diverse patient population. The PHM fellowship is committed to the recruitment of a diverse workforce, development of QI projects addressing health disparities and ensuring equitable care of all of our patients and their families.