Pediatrics Los Angeles Medical Center - Curriculum

The Internship and Residency Training Program in Pediatrics at the Kaiser Permanente Los Angeles Medical Center reflects a long-standing tradition of providing residents with the skills needed to become accomplished and compassionate pediatricians. We emphasize the longitudinal, rather than the episodic, practice of pediatrics. As such, our residents follow a personal panel of patients whom they often meet in the newborn nursery and care for throughout residency. Furthermore, with a Southern California referral population of three million members, residents are afforded an excellent opportunity to manage a complex and interesting array of patients and problems in a variety of clinical settings. 

Curriculum at a Glance

PGY-1

• Focus on recognition of the sick child and general principles of management on inpatient rotations such as Pediatric Wards and Pediatric Emergency Medicine (located across the street at CHLA)
• Establish familiarity with well child care, normal development, and goals of preventative medicine in the newborn nursery and on outpatient rotations

PGY-2

• Focus on broadening clinical experiences with addition of adolescent care and higher acuity inpatient care, including NICU and PICU
• Increasing autonomy, especially during PICU and night float rotations, which includes initial evaluation of all pediatric consults in our KPLA emergency department
• Introduction of leadership role as junior resident on Pediatric Wards, overseeing team of interns and medical students

PGY-3

• Focus on leadership and education in both inpatient and outpatient settings including the Teach rotation, during which residents lead clinical didactics and function as junior attendings
• Emphasis on the physician’s role as a child advocate and exposure to the care of underserved and underrepresented populations
• Relatively more outpatient rotations with time to focus on future career planning and fellowship applications and interviews

Pediatric Inpatient Service

The Pediatric Ward and Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) consists of 48 beds—32 ward beds and 16 PICU beds. It encompasses a wide spectrum of general and subspecialty patients and affords residents with ample experience managing common “bread-and-butter” problems along with more esoteric pathologies. All pediatric patients from the affiliated surgical disciplines of Cardiothoracic Surgery, Neurosurgery, Otolaryngology, Ophthalmology, Urology, and Orthopedic Surgery, are admitted to this service.

Nursery Service

The nursery service, which includes a cutting-edge neonatal intensive care unit, admits more than 2,500 newborns per year including infants with high-risk or complex management problems who are transferred from the nine other Kaiser Permanente medical centers in Southern California. On this service, trainees become comfortable with neonatal resuscitation, normal and abnormal fetal development, and common birth and neonatal complications. In addition, residents have frequent opportunities to become proficient in NICU procedures such as endotracheal intubation and umbilical line placement.

Ambulatory Pediatric Service

With more than 85,000 pediatric patient visits per year, the ambulatory pediatrics and subspecialty divisions provide an excellent source of patients for the teaching program. Housestaff and attending staff work together in an authentic general Pediatrics office setting that offers trainees a unique opportunity to participate actively in contemporary prepaid care.

Community Medicine & Health Advocacy

To round out our learning, our residents have the opportunity to gain experience in Community Pediatrics and Child Health Advocacy through work at several community-based clinics (Hollywood Sunset Free Clinic, Hollywood High School Clinic, and Via Care FQHC) and tour the facilities of several Los Angeles County regional services under the leadership of our Community Pediatric Fellow. They are also given the opportunity to travel to Sacramento to participate in the CMA Pediatric Legislative Day or to contribute locally via web-conferences and other venues.

Please see our residency brochure for a full description of our curriculum.

Didactics

Our residency program employs frequent, relevant didactics with protected learning time to ensure that residents have the opportunity to deepen their learning and to foster an appreciation for constant inquiry in manageable time frames. The formal teaching program includes attending rounds on the ward and nursery services, subspecialty conferences and lectures, formal noontime resident education conferences four days a week, once weekly noontime departmental case conference, and twice weekly morning report.

Morning Report

Led by faculty hospitalists and our chief resident, the twice weekly morning reports follow a problem-based learning format in which medical students, interns, and residents work together through a patient case to help learners develop illness scripts, make cost-conscious decisions, and review evidenced-based practices.

Noon Conference

Noon conference lectures by general pediatrics and subspecialty faculty members are held daily (with the exception of Tuesdays) to help broaden residents’ scope of knowledge and to augment learning on selected topics. Lecture content also includes related materials such as resident journal club, research project presentations, and career development workshops. As an added perk, catered lunches are provided daily for noon conference!

Case Conference

Held weekly, Tuesday case conferences bring together practicing local and regional KP pediatricians and pediatric subspecialists to review interesting cases presented by our residents and to encourage a culture of lifelong learning and scholarship.

Ambulatory Clinic Didactics

Our weekly clinic didactics combine selected readings of outpatient topics with small group discussion including general pediatric faculty to help residents learn core principles in preventative medicine and ambulatory pediatrics. Senior residents also take on active roles as educators during their third year Teach rotations during which they participate in the instruction and supervision of junior residents and medical students.

Mock Codes/Simulation Lab

Mock codes and procedural skills labs are held roughly once a month in our state-of-the-art simulation center to familiarize interns and residents with PALS algorithms, effective communication strategies, and competency in common procedures to ensure that they feel comfortable when real-life situations arise.

Grand Rounds & Interdepartmental Conferences

As a teaching hospital with 20+ residency and fellowship training programs and 230+ residents and fellows, interdepartmental collaboration and a multidisciplinary approach to patient care are strongly emphasized. As a part of this effort, residents are encouraged to attend monthly hospital-wide Grand Rounds and other interdepartmental conferences including pediatric radiology, sports medicine, critical care, and wellness.