Fellowships

Critical Care Fellowship Program

The Pediatric Critical Care Medicine Fellowship program at the University of Florida/Shands Hospital is fully accredited by the American Council of Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) as a pediatric subspecialty. The Pediatric Critical Care Medicine Division consists of faculty appointed in the Department of Pediatrics.

The Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) is a 24-bed medical-surgical unit; beds are allocated between the PICU and Intermediate Care Unit based on need, with four to six beds used for intermediate care patients. The daily clinical service is composed of three pediatric residents, one fellow and two attendings at a time. Two fellows split most of the month and the attendings cover in one-week blocks. Fourth year medical students and trainees in other disciplines (e.g., Anesthesia, Pulmonary and Cardiology) also rotate through the unit from time to time. There are roughly 1,300 admissions per year divided between medical (~ 45%) and surgical (~ 55%) problems.

At the present time, we offer two specific fellowship tracks in Pediatric Critical Care Medicine depending upon the fellow's previous training.

1. Three-year fellowship in Critical Care Medicine: to apply for this track, the applicant must have completed three years of pediatric training in an accredited program and be Board eligible for pediatrics.

2. Two-year program in Critical Care Medicine: in order to apply for this, the trainee must have completed pediatric residency training and an approved fellowship in pediatric cardiology, pediatric pulmonary medicine, neonatology, or have completed an anesthesiology residency.

The responsibilities and opportunities available to the fellow vary with the individual's background, interests and future goals. In general, the responsibilities encompass direct day-to-day patient care clinical experiences, teaching residents and occasionally medical students, research and selected administrative responsibilities. Approximately 40% of the total training time is involved in direct patient care and the remaining time is focused on academic pursuits. Most of the clinical training occurs in year one, leaving ample time for scholarly activity in year two and three.

There are ample opportunities to pursue either laboratory or clinical research within the PICU division. There are numerous research opportunities including the opportunity to pursue a Masters in Clinical Research.

Fellowship Program Director
Tara Smith, MD
Interim Chief & Assistant Professor
Division of Pediatric Critical Care Medicine
Box 100296, Gainesville, FL 32610-0296
Office: 352-265-0462
Fax: 352-265-0443
smithtm@peds.ufl.edu

Fellowships

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