The following electives are established through the pediatric medical and surgical subspecialty faculty at the University of Florida College of Medicine – Jacksonville and Nemours Children’s Health, Jacksonville.

These electives offer a unique opportunity for exposure to patients in a variety of inpatient and outpatient settings:

• Allergy/immunology
• Ambulatory pediatrics
• Anesthesia/procedural skills (WCH/UF)
• Bioethics
• Cardiology
• Care of the medically complex child
• Child Protection Team
• Dedicated clinic months in both the PGY-2/3 years
• Child and adolescent psychiatry
• Development/behavior evaluation clinic
• Endocrinology
• Gastroenterology and nutrition
• Hematology/oncology
• Infectious disease
• Jacksonville Health and Transition Services clinic (JaxHATS)
• Medical genetics
• Mental health (elective for PGY2 residents, required for PGY3 residents)
• Microbiology
• Narrative medicine
• Nephrology
• Neurology
• NICU (WCH)
• Ophthalmology
• Orthopedic surgery
• Orthopedics non-operative/Sports medicine
• Otolaryngology/head and neck surgery
• Palliative care
• Patient safety
• Pediatric emergency medicine (WCH)
• Practice Management Basics (for primary care)
• Physical medicine and rehabilitation (physiatry)
• Pulmonology
• Radiology
• Research/Research Skills (the latter is lab based)
• Rheumatology
• Rural medicine (Billings Clinic, Montana)
• Surgery

Global Health Options

We started our first program sponsored international elective in the fall of 2017. This elective was in collaboration with Universidad El Bosque, Bogotá, Colombia and made possible through the generosity of the Bruno family and the Scott Bruno fund.

This led to the creation of our global health track, which is now in its fourth year. This is a 3-year longitudinal experience composed of structured didactics as well as experiential and self-directed learning opportunities. Residents on this track will have the opportunity to do local global electives in the PGY-2 year as well as international electives in the PGY-3 year in Bogota, Colombia or Beijing, China.

Our Wellness Program

There has been increasing recognition of physician burnout by the ACGME and the important of wellness and development of resilience among physicians. Our program has developed multiple wellness initiatives aimed at ensuring we are helping our residents cope with and prevent burnout early in their training. Our approach to wellness is holistic and we believe that wellness should be incorporated into our daily lives as a routine. We offer monthly wellness sessions where residents discuss different aspects of physician burnout such as dealing with stressful times, end of life events, building resilience during residency and coping with other stressors (such as financial concerns). These discussions are often facilitated by dedicated faculty. They may also use this time for other wellness activities such as a nature walk on our grounds.

Class retreats, Halloween pumpkin carving contest, holiday party, birthday recognition, participation in community events are also part of our wellness initiatives. We have a big-brother/big-sister mentor program to help incoming interns settle into residency with ample guidance and as little stress as possible. In addition, the program organizes and supports multiple social and cultural events throughout the year.

Healthcare Equity and Excellence

We believe strongly in supporting a learning environment that emphasizes our focus on healthcare excellence, equity and organizational enrichment. Our program welcomes and supports cultural and ethnic diversity in our residents as well as faculty who hail from a multitude of different backgrounds. Our residents also hail from varied backgrounds, represent different continents and speak multiple languages besides English. These include Albanian, Arabic, Dutch, French, Gujarati, Hindi, Chinese, Korean, Kru, Ibo, Yoruba, Nepali, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Turkish and Urdu.

Our goal is to recruit the very best candidates, regardless of their race or ethnicity, who will fit into our program culture, and appreciate the richness of our training environment that we are so proud of.

To further support our mission, we have recently initiated a resident led effort to support related activities on an ongoing basis in our program. The SEARCH (Striving for Excellence and Reflecting on Cultural Humility) noon conference series will consist of:

• Group discussions led by guest faculty
• Short film and video presentations on relevant topics that provoke thoughtful discourse
• Celebration of cultural events, helping our residents to understand and support each other better and further cultivating an inclusive environment

We have set aside dedicated time in our conference curriculum for these sessions and are also planning advocacy efforts supporting related work through our community rotation. We also have resident representation on the diversity, equity and inclusion resident university committee.

At the institutional level, UF College of Medicine – Jacksonville has developed the Healthcare Excellence and Organizational Enrichment Council. Their mission is to cultivate a culture of inclusive excellence where healthcare equity and access serve as the foundation for our medical care, education, innovation and research efforts. Our program faculty have also served as one of the lead authors on the recent AAP publication on elimination of race-based medicine. For the past three years, UF Health Jacksonville has also been recognized as a LGBTQ+ Healthcare Equality Leader.