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Our Fellowship Program 

Our one-year, ACGME-accredited pediatric anesthesiology fellowship training program offers two positions to provide a well-rounded exposure to a wide range of patients in diverse clinical settings, encompassing all of the pediatric surgical and medical subspecialties. In addition you will acquire knowledge and skills in pediatric regional anesthesia, pain management, pediatric cardiac anesthesia and critical care. We also believe in developing your abilities in teaching, research and the administrative aspects of the specialty. 

Our main facility at Nemours Children’s Hospital, Delaware includes 12 main ORs, 4 short procedure rooms and off-site locations such as IR, MRI, CT and cath labs.

Rotations

Some of the major areas of rotation include pediatric cardiac care, pediatric intensive care, pediatric pain management and pediatric presurgical service.

General Anesthesiology (7 months)

You will gain experience and skills in all of the pediatric surgical and medical subspecialties, and achieve competence in caring for children in both highly complex cases and busy outpatient arenas. We also participate in a solid organ transplant center. We have a robust orthopedic service providing extensive experience in caring for children with complex medical histories undergoing complex orthopedic procedures.

During your time in the general anesthesiology rotations, you will be involved in various surgical subspecialties such as: 

• General surgery
• Trauma surgery
• Solid organ transplant
• Urology
• Neurosurgery
• Orthopedics
• Plastic surgery
• Ophthalmology
• Oral surgery
• ENT
• GI
• Hematology/oncology
• Bone marrow transplant
• Pulmonology
• Medical imaging
• Interventional radiology
• Optional elective month

Regional Anesthesia

You will perform various types of regional anesthesia throughout the year with one-on-one supervision. Over 1,500 blocks are performed yearly, including upper extremity, lower extremity, truncal blocks and neuraxial anesthesia (epidural, spinal, caudal blocks).

Pediatric Cardiac Anesthesiology (2 months)

Under the guidance of our pediatric cardiac anesthesiology faculty, you will gain an understanding of the pathophysiology and clinical presentation of a variety of cardiac-related conditions in children. Two months are dedicated to cardiac anesthesiology and cardiac critical care. This includes cases in the ORs, cath labs and Cardiovascular ICU. You will also participate in ICU rounds and lecture series to learn more about the pre and postanesthesia care of your patients. 

Through practice-based learning and improvement, you’ll learn to function competently as an anesthesiology consultant for children with cardiac pathophysiology having a noncardiac surgical procedure.

Pain Management Service (1 month)

You will develop proficiency in performing pain management consults in children with a wide range of pain issues and gain an in-depth knowledge of available pain management modalities. Through practice-based learning and improvement, you will also become familiar with the use of published resources on pediatric pain management, as well as multidisciplinary resources.

Critical Care — Neonatal ICU (1 month) and Pediatric ICU (1 month)

With a focus on patient care and medical knowledge, you will gain an in-depth clinical exposure to neonatology and pediatric critical care medicine under the supervision of our critical care faculty in the ICUs.

You will gain knowledge of advanced techniques in neonatal and pediatric resuscitation, mechanical ventilation, ECMO and noninvasive ventilatory support. You will gain skills in trauma resuscitation and management of pediatric head trauma, and acquire experience in managing the surgically and medically critical ill child. 

Didactic Curriculum & Research

• Weekly fellow conferences
• Monthly combined anesthesia/critical care medicine advanced seminars
• Weekly combined sessions with residents
• Monthly journal clubs
• Departmental Grand Rounds
• Cardiology conferences
• ECMO course
• Simulation sessions
• Oral board exam/OSCE preparation
• Research, QA and scholarly projects
• Monthly conferences focusing on wellness education and finance
• Education in combination with the other fellowship programs in the hospital

Clinical Supervision

As a fellow in pediatric anesthesia, you will work closely with attending physicians during all of your clinical educational experiences. The attending physician will be physically present for induction and emergence and available throughout the case.

Under the attending physician’s supervision, you will perform preoperative patient evaluations, identify pertinent issues, propose strategies, and identify potential complications, thus gaining exposure to all pediatric surgical and medical subspecialties, assuming more independence as your skill and performance levels grow. On-call experience in the operating room and PICU will be supervised. You will also have responsibility, under the attending’s supervision, for postoperative follow-up with inpatients and outpatients, as well as consultations in the pain service and presurgical clinics.