Yale Pediatrics is always interested in finding a new and better way to achieve education and clinical excellence. Our motto is that there is “no ceiling on success” in these arenas, and we try hard to respond to feedback from a variety of sources to make improvements in the lives of our residents and patients. Some examples of our innovate strategies include:
Community and Tertiary Care
Yale New Haven Children’s Hospital is a mid-sized hospital with a total of 212 beds. We serve as both the community hospital for the New Haven area, as well as a major referral center for patients from NY, CT, RI, and MA. While working here residents engage with the entire care spectrum of pediatrics, from our busy outpatient primary care center (over 40,000 visits annually), to our Bone Marrow Transplant and Pediatric Cardiac ICU services. There is no patient population within the Children’s Hospital which does not have resident coverage.
We rotate at Bridgeport Hospital, a community hospital about 20 miles south of New Haven, where residents serve as the pediatrics resource in-house by staffing the wards, NICU, ED emergencies, and newborn nursery.
X + Y Scheduling
Starting in 2015, our residency became only the second program in the country to transition to x + y scheduling, removing continuity clinic from inpatient and ICU experiences and instead condensing clinic in regular blocks interspersed throughout the year. This innovative approach resulted in a massive decrease in handoffs and overall improvement in patient continuity in both inpatient and outpatient settings. True to our program character, we solicited resident feedback about the switch from those classes who experienced both systems, and resident experience was also consistently improved in this approach. Residents who are on rotations without inpatient continuity (electives, emergency department, etc) continue to participate in weekly clinic to increase outpatient continuity opportunities.
Academic Half Day
Residents at Yale have protected educational time in the form of an academic half day. On Wednesday mornings all residents on an outpatient clinic block learn using the Yale Pediatric Primary Care Curriculum, with lectures lead by faculty, peers and content experts. On Thursday afternoons, there is an inpatient-focused academic half day in which ward interns and seniors alternate every other week in having protected time to learn. Our inpatient academic half days follow an “illness-script” curriculum with mixed specialty input into common and uncommon pediatric presentations. We often engage in hands-on and interactive learning including simulation, journal-clubs and cased base presentations.
Tracks
The Yale Pediatrics residency program offers five tracks as a method to structure scholarship and enrichment opportunities. These tracks have minimal impact on the clinical curriculum (excepting certain elective opportunities) but they are a wonderful way to grow a unique skill set and develop a deeper interest without pressure. Many residents seek to complete more than one, and interested residents can participate in activities that appeal to them, even if they aren’t formally enrolled in the track.
Residents who complete a track are recognized at graduation with this additional distinction. Our Five Tracks include:
- Research
- Quality Improvement
- Medical Education
- Global Health
- Advocacay
Global Health Track
Global Health Track Leader
We have a long-standing Global Health program here at Yale. Interested residents apply into this experience late in their PGY1 year and those who participate receive dedicated didactic education through a structured 2-week elective at Yale and opportunities throughout the year via our refugee and Y-CHIC clinics. Though the COVID pandemic made this difficult, we aim for all residents to have a 4-6 week immersive experience in a global health setting and we have several global partners in countries including Rwanda, Uganda, Haiti and the Dominican Republic. All residents who are active participants in the tract are eligible for up to $2,000 in funding to offset the costs of their experience
Advocacy Track
Flourishing Families (FF) is an advocacy track and curriculum designed to empower Yale Pediatric Residents with the knowledge and skills to work as physician advocates in the New Haven community and beyond. FF has a particular focus on teaching and addressing structural health inequities and racism.
Residents participate in a broad range of learning and advocacy opportunities including helping families address legal challenges through our Medical-Legal Partnership with The Center for Children’s Advocacy, providing written and oral testimony for the CT General Assembly with mentorship from the American Academy of Pediatrics CT Chapter, teaching health classes to immigrants and refugees in partnership with Integrated Refugee & Immigrant Services, and writing Op-Eds for local news publications to just to name a few.
Dr. Molly Markowitz directs the FF Track and Curriculum. If you have further questions or would like to learn more, please email her at: molly.markowitz@yale.edu