The Children’s Regional Hospital at Cooper accredited Pediatric Residency Program will provide you with strong post-graduate training to build your pediatric knowledge and clinical experience necessary to become a successful pediatrician. Our full-time faculty is energetic, enthusiastic, and committed to teaching. We have earned an excellent reputation by providing quality medical care in a family-centered environment. We have worked equally hard within our medical education program to create a friendly atmosphere that is conducive to learning.
The pediatric residency experience at the Children’s Regional Hospital at Cooper will provide you with a balanced exposure to both primary care pediatrics and the pediatric subspecialties. We not only have a well-established role as a regional center for pediatric tertiary care, but also have a long-standing commitment as primary caregivers to children in the city of Camden. In addition to primary care pediatrics, your residency experience will expose you to the full array of pediatric subspecialty and support services. These include: adolescent medicine, allergy/immunology, cardiology, critical care medicine, dermatology, developmental and behavioral pediatrics, endocrinology, gastroenterology, genetics, infectious diseases, neonatology, neurology, pulmonary medicine, and psychiatry. Pediatric surgical subspecialties include adolescent gynecology, craniofacial surgery, general pediatric surgery, ophthalmology, otolaryngology, and plastic and reconstructive surgery.
Other departments within the hospital with pediatric subspecialists include anesthesiology, physical and rehabilitative medicine, radiology, and emergency medicine.
A pediatric residency at Cooper can provide you with some unique clinical opportunities. One of the goals of our medical education program is to expose our residents to a diversity of experience. Our faculty’s varied backgrounds in academic medicine and private practice offer our residents a unique perspective on pediatrics that prepares them for careers in either setting. Approximately 35 percent of our graduates pursue careers in the pediatric subspecialties.
A second goal of our medical education program is to keep the process as personalized as possible. Both our full-time subspecialists and our general pediatricians are accessible and available to residents. Our program is built on a foundation of regular one-to-one interaction between house staff and attendings. This allows for the development of a mentoring relationship between our residents and faculty. In addition, it opens opportunities for our residents to join in our faculty's ongoing quality improvement and research projects. We also encourage mentoring relationships between our residents and medical students. As the clinical campus of Cooper Medical School of Rowan University, we have medical students participating in the care of our pediatric inpatients and outpatients. Part of your responsibility as a pediatric resident will include the supervision of these students.
We have 24 approved categorical pediatric residency positions, eight each at the PGY-1, PGY-2, and PGY-3 levels.
Categorical Program
The American Board of Pediatrics requires that every pediatric resident complete three years of training. Our program offers the following rotation schedule:
PGY-1
The “intern” year is designed to expose the resident to a wide range of pediatric cases. The first-year resident is considered the primary caregiver for those patients who are on his or her service. Initially, the intern is closely supervised by a senior resident, and given increasing autonomy as the year progresses. Interns are responsible for supervising medical students on the inpatient units. The NICU experience is devoted to gaining familiarity with premature and other ill newborn patients and their management, whereas nursery experience is devoted to caring for "well babies" following delivery.
|
Categorical PGY-1 Track Yearly Rotations |
|
|
Inpatient Unit |
16 weeks (Including night float) |
|
Neonatal Intensive Care Unit |
4 weeks |
|
Emergency Department |
4 weeks |
|
Outpatient Ambulatory Care Clinic |
8 weeks |
|
Newborn Nursery |
4 weeks |
|
Required Core Pediatric Electives |
12 weeks |
|
Continuity clinic |
1 half-day per week throughout entire year |
|
Vacation |
5 weeks (including 'interncation') |
PGY-2
The second year involves managing increasingly ill children, especially in the PICU and the NICU. The role of the PGY-2 resident on the inpatient units is that of a supervisor. Several months of required and elective subspecialties are provided to expose the resident to a breadth of pediatric cases.
|
Categorical PGY-2 Yearly Rotations |
|
|
Inpatient Unit |
4 weeks (No night float) |
|
Pediatric Intensive Care Unit |
8 weeks |
|
Neonatal Intensive Care Unit |
8 weeks |
|
Emergency Department |
4 weeks |
|
Outpatient Ambulatory Care Clinic |
8 weeks |
|
Electives |
12 weeks |
|
Cardiology at Nemours Children Hospital |
4 weeks |
|
Continuity clinic |
1 half-day per week throughout entire year |
|
Vacation |
4 weeks |
PGY-3
The final year of pediatric training is geared toward preparing the resident for his or her future career, be it in primary care pediatrics or fellowship training. The inpatient and outpatient experiences are supervisory in nature, with a considerable amount of time devoted to teaching the junior residents, interns, and medical students. The residents have a great deal of autonomy in managing in the general pediatrics inpatient unit. Several months of elective time are provided to ensure the opportunity to explore areas of interest prior to graduation.
|
Categorical PGY-3 Yearly Rotations |
|
|
Inpatient Unit |
14 weeks (Including night float) |
|
Pediatric Intensive Care Unit |
4 weeks (Optional) |
|
Neonatal Intensive Care Unit |
6 weeks |
|
Emergency Department |
4 weeks |
|
Outpatient Ambulatory Care Clinic |
4 weeks |
|
Electives |
16 weeks |
|
Continuity clinic |
1 half-day per week throughout entire year |
|
Vacation |
4 weeks |
Core Electives
Our program offers five core pediatric electives that we require our residents to complete.
Adolescent Medicine
Residents benefit from focused exposure to adolescents learning how to offer comprehensive medical and psychosocial care for early teenage years through early adulthood. Residents will learn about unique aspects of adolescent management including gynecology, sports medicine, and more.
Developmental Behavior
Our Developmental-Behavioral Pediatrics rotation is a one month experience focused on normal development, variations in development, and developmental disabilities. We explore behavioral and mental health disorders, as well as disorders of cognition, language, and learning. In this rotation, our residents will have the opportunity to work with and learn from multiple specialty teams at Cooper.
- The Cooper Cleft Palate team offers a multidisciplinary approach for managing patients with cleft lip and palate conditions in our Cleft Palate and Craniofacial Program. Residents will get to work with our ENT, Oral Maxillofacial Surgery, Audiology, Genetics, Pediatric Dentistry, and Speech Pathology specialists.
- The Cooper Leaning Center offers residents the opportunity to learn from experienced school psychologists, evaluate children who have difficulty in school, perform multiple specialized psychological tests, and participate in tutoring services.
- The Pediatric Rehabilitation and Physical Medicine team allows residents to learn from our pediatric physiatrists about concussion evaluation and management, Cerebral Palsy, Multiple sclerosis, Muscular dystrophy, Gait and Balance Dysfunction, and other spinal cord and brain injuries.
- Bright Beginnings (Neonatal Follow-up Clinic): Infants born at Cooper and admitted to the NICU are followed for medical needs as well as developmental evaluation, PT, OT and Speech needs.
- Phenylketonuria (PKU) Clinic
Community Health & Medicine
Residents have the opportunity to work with multiple different teams that serve our hospital and general community. Residents will work with CARES, Child Life team, Social Work Services, and Pharmacy. Residents learn to become better advocates for their community, learn ways to help their patient with food insecurity, visit community schools for outreach, and conduct a Windshield Survey on the Camden Community.
Pediatric Cardiology
Residents benefit from learning and working alongside the dedicated pediatric cardiology specialists at CHOP. Our residents will have the opportunity to learn and experience procedures performed in the cardiac catheterization lab, electrophysiology, and cardiac surgeries. Residents also benefit from the Pediatric Cardiac ICU, Exercise Stress Test Lab, and outpatient cardiology offices.
Pediatric Surgery
Residents learn from our skilled Cooper pediatric surgeons and visit the operating room with the team of surgeons. Residents participate in pre-operative evaluations of patients in clinic. Residents also learn about the post-operative care and outpatient management of these patients.
Subspecialty Pediatric Electives
We offer multiple subspecialty electives to our pediatric residents:
- Allergy / Immunology
- Child Abuse
- Dermatology
- Infectious Diseases
- Cardiology
- Neurology
- Gastroenterology
- Genetics
- Hematology / Oncology
- Pediatric Anesthesia
- Pediatric Radiology
- Child Psychiatry
- Pediatric Surgery
- Dermatology
- Otolaryngology
- Sports Medicine
- Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation
- Lactation
- Pharmacy