Primary Care Track

The goal of the Primary Care and Community Health Track of the Pediatric Residency Program is to train pediatricians who receive focused education in primary care, community health, advocacy, and the medical-home concept.  This program has been funded by a grant from HRSA and is designed to provide more longitudinal education in primary care and multiple opportunities for involvement in community outreach.

The program is structured into 3 month blocks.  2 blocks each year are dedicated to ACGME required inpatient experiences and are alternated with 3 month primary care blocks.  These blocks are structured to have longitudinal experiences in general and pediatric primary care.

The primary care blocks are structured as follows:

• Residents will rotate for 3 months at a time on the primary care track.  There will always be a PGY-1, PGY-2 and PGY-3 in the primary care block.
• Residents will have a full day of continuity clinic at their regular continuity site during the block. The regular continuity site for each resident will remain constant for the 3 years of the program, as it does for the categorical residents.
• The goal is for experiences to be longitudinal during the block.  In order to accomplish some continuity with primary care, the traditional subspecialty experiences will be woven into the blocks over a longer period of time.
• Call during the primary care blocks will be primarily on the weekend, providing coverage of the inpatient units.  Additional call will be scheduled to handle phone calls for the outpatient office.

 PGY-1 Curriculum

• Residents complete rotations in inpatient, NICU, ED and term nursery.
• The focus of the Primary Care block will be exposure to general pediatrics community experiences.  Many of the experiences currently in the community pediatric rotation will be expanded over the course of each block, providing more exposure to the community.
• The subspecialty focus of the PGY-1 block will be asthma and pulmonary disease.  This is the largest number of patients with chronic illness that are seen in the Camden population.

PGY-2 Primary Care Blocks

• The PGY-2 residents will spend one day per week at a satellite practice. This time will be in addition to their full day continuity clinic.
• There will be one day per week available for a community project. The residents will have the ability to choose from the available experiences, and can choose the focus of their project.
• The subspecialty focus will be endocrine, gastroenterology and infectious diseases.  This subspecialty experiences will be 2-3 days per week for the duration of the block.

PGY-3 Primary Care Blocks

• PGY-3 residents will spend one day per week during the block at a satellite office.  This experience will allow them to focus some attention on a different patient population.  This will be in addition to their full day of continuity clinic.
• The subspecialty focuses for the PGY-3 blocks will be neurology, cardiology and dermatology.
• One half day per week to work on a research project during one of the blocks.
• There will be one half day per week available for community experiences.  The residents will have the ability to choose from the available experiences, many of which they will have been exposed to during their first year in the primary care blocks.
• Time will also be available for elective experiences.

Additional Experiences

• Involvement in community outreach
• Opportunity to learn Spanish

Qualifications

• Commitment to primary care and the under-served

How to Apply

Interested applicants should send a brief statement outlining their interest in the track. During the process of ranking, the primary care track should be selected separately from the categorical program. Applicants may apply to both the categorical program and the primary care track. Statements should be sent to the program coordinator at ortiz-ramonita@cooperhealth.edu.