Curriculum
At UNC, the PCCM Fellowship’s broad clinical training is heavily supplemented with an academic education curriculum that includes a mix of didactic and simulation-based learning. The didactic program includes multidisciplinary conferences with our neurosurgery, burn surgery, cardiothoracic surgery, cardiology, pulmonary, nephrology, neurology, and pediatric general surgery colleagues. In addition, the core PCCM curriculum involves a recurring lecture series designed to cover core PCCM topics over a 12-month period including lessons on pathophysiology, evidence-based medicine, and new and upcoming therapies. The simulation training involves high-fidelity simulators to cover a range of topics from skills training to crisis management to difficult conversations at the bedside.
The PCCM Fellows at UNC also participate in a biannual ECMO/VAD course, an annual Ultrasound course, as well as a regional boot camp at the start of fellowship followed by a regional boot camp for senior fellows.
In addition to the conferences listed below, fellows are also mentored by PCCM faculty in delivering the core lecture series to residents rotating in the PICU and in facilitating simulation training. These experiences combine to provide a solid foundation to an academic career.
Education
The Pediatric Critical Care Medicine Faculty is actively involved in medical education across the hospital. The faculty and fellows support the Pediatric Critical Care Medicine Interest Group for Residents (PIG) with regularly scheduled events to discuss career choices, journal clubs and other information relevant to the field of critical care medicine.
Academy of Educators
One of the many uniquely valuable – and popular – educational options for fellows is the opportunity to join and participate as an educational leader in the “UNC Academy of Educators.”
This robust, formal education training curriculum is designed to emphasize teaching excellence in faculty and fellows, while promoting curricular innovation. Participants enjoy many types of opportunities for peer-to-peer leadership and teaching, and additional networking opportunities.
There are currently over 380 Faculty, Fellow and Resident members participating in the UNC Academy of Educators program.
The Academy offers numerous academic program components as well as four core committees:
- Scholarship
- Programming
- Awards
- Membership
Evaluation
UNC has pioneered a 360 degree evaluation methodology. Using this approach, the fellow is evaluated by attending physicians, nurses and themselves twice a year. These evaluations incorporate all aspects of the fellows training including: Clinical, Research, Education, Interpersonal and Administrative functions focusing on the core competencies. The Fellowship Director discusses the evaluation with each fellow, providing them with formal feedback.
In addition, the fellows evaluate the faculty and the program biannually to allow for continued advancement and improvement in the PCCM Fellowship.