Program Organization and Curriculum
The training program for fellows in the Division of Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center is structured so that three years are spent in clinical care and hypothesis-driven investigation relevant to gastrointestinal, hepatic and nutritional problems in infants and children, with responsibilities increasing over the three years.
Program Objectives
The goals and objectives of our program are aligned with requirements of the American Board of Pediatrics for certification in pediatric gastroenterology and with guidelines of the North American Society for Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition (NASPGHAN) regarding training and education:
Rudolph CD, Winter HS. NASPGHAN guidelines for training in pediatric gastroenterology. NASPGHAN Executive Council, NASPGHAN Training and Education Committee. J Pediatr Gastroenterol Nutr 29 Suppl 1:S1-26, 1999. Available at http://www.naspghan.org/PDF/NovSupplement.pdf.
Clinical skills
Skills in clinical gastroenterology, hepatology and nutrition are learned through experience with the diagnosis and management of the wide range of acute and chronic, major and minor, conditions that characterize our specialty and through increasing responsibilities over the course of the program.
The major clinical exposure comes in the first year of fellowship (10 months, including one clinical elective). In the second and third years, this knowledge is consolidated in the outpatient setting, including the endoscopy suite, and in less intensive inpatient experiences.
Our faculty respects fellows' developing knowledge and experience, allowing fellows to have increasing autonomy in preparation for their own practice. Structured programs in billing, coding, process improvement and other issues in systems-based practice. Overall, the program provides the fellow with supervision and mentoring to develop clinical judgment and skills, medical knowledge, humanistic qualities and professional attitudes and behaviors to develop as a competent sub-specialist.
Research skills
The development of research skills is another major goal of the program. Fellows begin to explore their interests during first year research electives. This experience is used to identify faculty mentor(s) and develop a hypothesis-driven project in basic science or clinical research relevant to pediatric gastroenterology, hepatology and nutrition, one that can be used as the basis for the fellows' career development. This project is then the primary focus of the second and third years.
Teaching skills
Teaching is an important component of divisional activities. Informal, patient-centered teaching occurs daily on inpatient rounds and in outpatient clinics. In addition, the divisional schedule includes a variety of teaching conferences. Fellows play an important role in teaching through presentations at some of these conferences, along with formal and informal teaching of pediatric residents and medical students.
