{"id":3006,"date":"2022-06-09T16:04:50","date_gmt":"2022-06-09T20:04:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/medicine\/nephrology-hypertension\/?page_id=3006"},"modified":"2025-02-25T15:54:56","modified_gmt":"2025-02-25T20:54:56","slug":"pediatric-nephrology-fellowship-training-program","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/medicine\/nephrology-hypertension\/training\/pediatric-nephrology-fellowship-training-program\/","title":{"rendered":"Pediatric Nephrology Fellowship Training Program"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\"pediatricThe University of North Carolina and the UNC Kidney Center appreciate your interest in our Pediatric Nephrology training program. The Pediatric Nephrology Fellowship provides comprehensive subspecialty clinical and research training in all aspects of pediatric nephrology. Our goal is to train outstanding clinical nephrologists with a firm grounding in basic, translational, or clinical research methodology. The three year program accepts one fellow per year and is accredited by the ACGME.<\/p>\n

The Pediatric Nephrology Division at UNC is unique in that it is housed in the Department of Medicine rather than the Department of Pediatrics. The pediatric and adult programs are largely integrated from an educational perspective with both adult and pediatric fellows attending most teaching conferences together. The clinical experiences are separate. The pediatric fellows have the opportunity to closely interact with a large number of faculty with diverse areas of expertise creating a rich environment for research collaboration, collaborative learning, and camaraderie.<\/p>\n

The Pediatric Nephrology group successfully cultivates an atmosphere of enjoyment in learning, and models healthy work\/life balance. We prioritize our own physical and emotional well-being and time for ourselves or with our families outside of work. We offer flexibility and help to one another, create a safe and encouraging environment for learning, and genuinely enjoy our healthy work-family dynamic. Students and residents who rotate with our group thoroughly enjoy themselves and learn a ton of nephrology.<\/p>\n

Clinical training (year one)<\/h2>\n

\"\"The first year of pediatric nephrology fellowship is dedicated to clinical service, providing inpatient and outpatient experience in all aspects of pediatric nephrology, including dialysis and transplantation. All pediatric nephrology patients are cared for by pediatric housestaff on a general pediatrics service, with nephrology fellows and attendings providing consultative services. Fellows have many opportunities for teaching, as there are usually 2-3 learners (students and residents) on the renal rotation (the rotation is very popular among students and residents!). Our outpatient nephrology clinic sees over 2,000 visits annually, and fellows have a continuity clinic of outpatients that they follow throughout fellowship. Chronic dialysis exposure and experience is gained through Fresenius dialysis centers in Carrboro and Sanford; 3-6 children on chronic home peritoneal dialysis, and 3-5 children on hemodiaylsis. During inpatient weeks, fellows provide acute intermittent hemodialysis, as well as CRRT, including CRRT through an ECMO circuit. Fellows can further expect to develop competency in performing ultrasound-guided renal biopsies (~20 in the first year). Fellows spend 20 weeks of their first year on the inpatient consult service. They are on-call 24 hours a day for 7 days at a time. On outpatient weeks, they have one full day of continuity clinic weekly, see patients who are urgently referred, see and manage outpatient dialysis patients (both hemodialysis and peritoneal dialysis), drop in to attending clinics a half day per week, and attend clinical and didactic conferences. The rest of the weeks of the year are reserved for electives (see below for a list), at least one week of which may be designed by the fellow pursuant to their own interests. There are four weeks of vacation per year.<\/p>\n

Statistics<\/h2>\n

Average chronic dialysis patients (hemodialysis and peritoneal dialysis): 5-10<\/strong>
\nAverage renal transplants per year: 8-10 (2019-2022)
\n<\/strong>Average CRRT starts per year: 21 (2017-2021)
\n<\/strong>Outpatient Clinic Encounters: 2000 per year<\/strong>
\nAverage Inpatient nephrology consult census: 8-10<\/strong><\/p>\n

1st year Schedule<\/h2>\n

Inpatient consult service, on call 24 hours\/7 days: 20 weeks (one week at a time)<\/p>\n

Outpatient weeks (clinic, weekly clinical and teaching meetings, outpatient hemodialysis): 17 weeks<\/p>\n

Electives: 11 weeks<\/p>\n