During the PGY-2 year, a greater emphasis is placed on subspecialty pediatric care. In addition, residents are provided unique patient exposure through the subspecialty clinics at the Nemours Children’s Health, Jacksonville, UF Health Jacksonville, Wolfson Children’s Hospital and other regional referral centers. Preparing residents for a career in a subspecialty or general pediatrics starts early in the PGY-2 or latter part of the PGY-1 year.

Inpatient Experience

PGY-2 residents are given increasing supervisory experience by running both an inpatient general pediatrics team and/or hematology/oncology team at Wolfson Children’s Hospital. The resident supervises first year pediatric residents, family medicine residents, medical students and physician assistant students in providing care for patients with a variety of common pediatric illnesses.

Subspecialty Experience

During the second year, residents will rotate for a full block (4 weeks) in cardiology, gastroenterology, nephrology and pulmonology. The resident will round with the team in the morning and then are expected to spend time in the clinic in the afternoon. This does depend on the service. The resident will take calls on their subspecialty patients during the day and each evening will sign out their patients to the resident taking overnight call on all subspecialty patients. During these months, the call will be taken by the subspecialty residents five nights per week, rotating on average every fourth night between each resident, adding up to approximately 5 calls/block. All residents may not do all four of the subspecialty rotations. The addition of the subspecialty rotations to our curriculum has vastly expanded dedicated learning in each of these core pediatric subspecialties.

Pediatric Emergency Medicine Experience

During the pediatric emergency medicine rotation, PGY-2 residents are given the unique opportunity to participate in patient care throughout the pediatric emergency department, as well as providing teaching interactions with junior residents and medical students. These activities are done in conjunction with pediatric emergency medicine faculty, emergency medicine residents and pediatric emergency medicine fellows. While the majority of residents at the current time do their PGY-2 block at UF, a few may also do so at Wolfson Children’s Hospital.

NICU

During the NICU, the PGY-2 resident assumes increasing responsibility not only for patient care but for the supervision of PGY-1 residents and medical students. In the NICU, residents have an opportunity to closely interact with neonatal nurse practitioners, physician assistants and attending physicians, thereby broadening their overview of other aspects of pediatric health care delivery by working as part of an inter-professional team.

PICU Experience

In the PICU, the resident joins a multidisciplinary health care team and gets first-hand experience in the care of the critically ill child. The 26-bed quartenary family-centered unit at Wolfson Children’s Hospital, housed in the state of the art Critical Care Tower, cares for a complex array of patients with medical, post-surgical and traumatic conditions and is equipped to provide cutting edge life support including high frequency ventilation, nitric oxide administration, ECMO, and continuous renal replacement therapies. The PICU is also equipped to house oncology patients receiving chimeric antigen receptor (CAR-T) and MIBG therapies. Our residents are encouraged to take ownership of their patients as they provide care to the sickest of children. Situational awareness and teamwork are the undercurrents of our PICU culture. Here too, the residents work with pediatric emergency medicine residents and fellows as well as with physician assistants as part of an interdisciplinary team.

Developmental Pediatric Experience

The developmental pediatric rotation is a multifaceted experience, including exposure to community resources and developmental testing. Residents on this rotation will have extensive one-on-one interaction with developmental and neurodevelopmental faculty. They will participate in team meetings with families of children with complex developmental and behavioral conditions to coordinate care and assess ongoing needs. Didactic lectures on development are provided during this rotation in addition to those that are part of the regular didactic curriculum.

As part of this rotation, residents go to the Mt. Herman School for Exceptional Children, Terry Parker High School for Emotional and Behavioral Disorders, Pine Castle Adult Day Center, Florida School for the Deaf and the Blind, The Clarke School for Hearing and Speech, Early Steps (Northeast Florida Regional Early Intervention Program).

Residents also have to prepare and present a journal club during the rotation.