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Curriculum & Rotations
Our program has a structured curriculum with specific goals, objectives, activities and evaluation methods, and is divided into the following rotations/activities:
- Inpatient rotations
- Outpatient rotations
- Microbiology Laboratory rotation
- Medical Economics rotation
- Epidemiology and Infection Control activities
- Research and other scholarly activities
The distribution of these educational experiences over the course of the 36-month fellowship is summarized in the attached graphs.
Inpatient Rotation
The inpatient rotation takes place at Wolfson Children's Hospital and Shands Jacksonville. Fellows are consulted on new patients by primary care physicians, pediatric hospitalists, intensivists, surgical specialists and other pediatric subspecialists. They also oversee the management of all inpatients admitted to the Pediatric Infectious Diseases service. The fellows assess and examine all the Pediatric Infectious Diseases patients who are admitted to the “day-unit” to receive monthly infusions (e.g. intravenous immunoglobulin) or the hemodialysis patients with infectious disease problems.
Fellows follow the daily progress of patients until resolution of their infectious disease problem or until discharge from the hospital. Each patient seen by the fellows is presented in detail to the inpatient attending during clinical rounds and didactic teaching is provided for each case. Fellows manage all necessary communication with the consulting physicians, microbiology laboratory staff, pharmacists, nursing staff, radiology staff and other ancillary healthcare team members.
Under the guidance of the inpatient attending, fellows assume a supervisory and teaching role over UFCOM-J pediatric residents as well as residents from the Naval Air Station - Jacksonville’s family practice residency program. Additionally, fellows interact heavily with medical students doing their elective rotation in Pediatric Infectious Diseases or during their inpatient rotations.
While on the inpatient rotation, fellows continue to attend the weekly Pediatric Infectious Diseases outpatient clinic on Wednesdays. This provides them the opportunity to follow the patients they saw in consultation after they were discharged from the hospital and to understand the natural history of acute and chronic infections.
St. Jude Children's Research Hospital Inpatient Rotation
Fellows spend a month-long rotation at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis, TN. This inpatient rotation enhances fellows' education and training in the management of infections in high-risk hosts (patients who are status post transplant, cancer and chemotherapy, etc).
Fellows consult on new patients, as well as follow patients admitted to the Infectious Diseases service. They follow patients until resolution of infectious disease problem or until discharge from the hospital and write progress notes on them as necessary. The fellows present their work to and are supervised by an inpatient attending who provides didactic teaching each case. Fellows are expected to attend and participate in all clinical and didactic conferences of the Infectious Diseases Department.
Outpatient Rotation
The outpatient rotations take place primarily at the UF CARES/Rainbow Center at Shands Jacksonville and the Pediatric Infectious Diseases Clinic at the Howard Building (Baptist Medical Center). Fellows also attend the Duval County Health Department’s Sexually Transmitted Infections (STI) Clinic and Tuberculosis Clinic.
UF Rainbow Center at Shands Jacksonville
Fellows see HIV-infected, affected or exposed patients at the Rainbow Center on Tuesdays. The outpatient attending selects and assigns patients to fellows according to the instructional value of the visit. They present their findings and management plans to the attending and discuss the cases at length. Fellows attend and participate in the weekly multidisciplinary clinical care conference for HIV patients held on Fridays. This allows ample opportunity to work closely with various members of the health team.
Pediatric Infectious Diseases Clinic at Baptist Medical Center
At the Pediatric Infectious Diseases Clinic held every Wednesday at the Howard Building/Baptist Medical Center, the fellows have the opportunity to see patients referred from primary care providers and other specialty clinics. They see a wide variety of new acute and chronic pediatric infectious diseases as well as follow patients after hospital discharge and patients with chronic problems (e.g. primary immunodeficiency disorders). They evaluate patients and develop management plans under the direct supervision of the faculty. They are then expected to communicate these plans with patients/families as well as the referring physician.
STI Clinic at the Duval County Health Department
Fellows attend the STI clinic/DCHD for half a day, three times per year. Under the guidance of an Infectious Diseases specialist, they see patients and learn to recognize, evaluate and manage a variety of sexually transmitted infections through discussion of cases.
Pediatric Tuberculosis Clinic at the Duval County Health Department
Fellows have the opportunity to attend the Pediatric Tuberculosis (TB) clinics at the Duval County Health Department. These clinics occur every Thursday morning and are staffed by one of our division’s pediatric infectious diseases faculty. This activity enhances the fellows' experience managing children with TB, and also gives them the opportunity to learn about the role of public health in the management of TB (e.g. contact investigations, reporting, direct observed therapy, etc).
Microbiology Laboratory Rotation
During this four-week rotation in the Microbiology Laboratory at Baptist Medical Center, fellows are introduced to basic and advanced medical microbiological techniques, their interpretation, and their role in establishing an etiologic diagnosis. The fellows gain knowledge related to culture techniques for and/or methods of identification in tissues and fluids of bacteria, mycobacteria, fungi, viruses, rickettsiae, chlamydiae, and parasites, including rapid methods, appropriate handling of samples, and methods of determining activity and resistance profile of antimicrobial agents. Fellows rotate through the different stations of the laboratory, and meet with the Laboratory Director to go over questions. As they do not have the opportunity to observe all of the tests during their rotation, fellows must supplement their practical experience with additional reading in order to ensure that they have fulfilled the comprehensive laboratory goals and objectives. Fellows are expected to attend the monthly laboratory/infectious diseases rounds (microbiology conference) and the monthly rounds in the laboratory.
Medical Economics Rotation
This two-week elective is offered to 3rd-year fellows. It consists of a series of didactic lectures coupled with practical experiences. Fellows rotate through a variety of offices for managed care, private practice, advocacy speaker, medical business/billing, and risk management.
The elective is organized through Dr. Thomas Chiu, MD, MBA, Chair of the Department of Pediatrics at UFCOM-J. This rotation enhances the fellows’ understanding of the impact of managed care and other business and legal issues on both professional and clinical practice.
Epidemiology and Infection Control
Fellows attend the infection control committee meetings at Wolfson Children's Hospital held twice a month. They play an integral role in the research and workings of the infection control team. Fellows use the infection control/hospital epidemiology resource manual created especially for fellows.
Each fellow completes the Infectious Diseases Society of America/Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America infection control fellows’ online course by the end of their 2nd year of training. They also attend lectures on infection control delivered by program faculty.
Scholarly Activities
Research
Please refer to the research page for more details on this section.
Other Scholarly Activities
Under the guidance of faculty, fellows assume a supervisory and teaching role over pediatric/family practice residents and medical students doing an elective rotation. Fellows do bedside teaching, participate in morning reports and meet with residents daily to discuss patient's progress and formulate plans. Communication, teaching skills and ethical principles are taught by faculty through role modeling during specific rotations.
Additionally, fellows are required to attend a Teaching Skills seminar organized by the Office of Educational Affairs, and Ethics conferences organized by the Pediatrics core program.
Conferences
Most of the conferences are scheduled at regular intervals, as described below. Fellows are responsible for presenting at multiple conferences and they are always supervised by a faculty member for their presentations. They are evaluated by peers (residents and fellows) and faculty. Sample conference schedule.
- Infectious Diseases Core Curriculum Conference: Twice monthly, a topic is reviewed. The list of topics is based on the PREP ID Review Course. There is a list of topics to be reviewed in a 3-year period. Some topics are repeated annually or every 2 years.
- Clinical case conference: Every other month, the fellow on the Inpatient Rotation presents an interesting case seen during the rotation. There is an interactive discussion of the case, followed by a brief review of the topic. This conference is conducted during Morning Report with the Pediatric residents, and the Pediatric ID fellows and faculty.
- Combined Peds/Adult Infectious Diseases conference: Monthly, one case is presented by a Pediatric ID fellow, and another case is presented by an Adult ID fellow. There is an interactive discussion of the cases, followed by a brief review of the topics.
- Journal Club: Monthly, one fellow will present at the Journal Club. The format will be an evidence-based medicine practicum, which is designed to give the fellows “hands on” experience in the process of E.B.M. with a mentor/supervisor. See Journal Club EBM practicum and Journal Club assessment for details.
- Peds ID Morbidity and Mortality conference: Quarterly, pediatric deaths and complications related to Infectious Diseases are reviewed in conjunction with the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit.
- HIV Grand Rounds: Monthly, a topic related to HIV is presented and discussed. Fellows present here once a year. The rest of the times, faculty or guest speakers present.
- Microbiology/Infectious Diseases Conference and Lab Rounds: Monthly, current topics in clinical microbiology are presented. Fellows present here once a year. The rest of the times, faculty or guest speakers present. Lab rounds are conducted monthly at the Microbiology Lab at Baptist Medical Center. Current cases are discussed, and laboratory findings are correlated with clinical presentation.
- Pharmacology Conference: A series of six lectures on the pharmacology of antimicrobials is presented annually by a Pharm.D.
- Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology (IC/HE): Twice a month, fellows attend the IC/HE meetings at Wolfson Children’s Hospital. Current issues related to IC at WCH are discussed, followed by a review of current literature on the topic. Fellows are asked to present the review of literature.
- Research conferences: Quarterly, fellows present their research projects (proposal, updates, results, etc.)
- Fellows Research Seminars: This will consist of a series of lectures given each academic year and will include the topics listed below. Speakers and dates may vary and additional topics may be added as needs arise.
- Ethics of Research
- IRB and HIPPA for Research
- Good Clinical Practices in Research
- Research Design
- How to Create Datasets
- Grant Writing
- How to Prepare a Poster
- Presentation Skills
- How to Write an Abstract
- How to Write a Manuscript
- Biostatistics for Clinical Research Course: Twice a year, a biostatistician presents a series of lectures covering basics of biostatistics, research design, and interpretation of scientific literature. Fellows are required to attend a full series at least once in the first 2 years of training.
- Teaching Skills Seminars: Consist of an all-day seminar designed to improve knowledge and skills in facilitating the learning of fellow residents, students, and other health professionals. This is organized by the Office of Educational Affairs. Fellows are required to attend the seminar in the first year of training.
- Cases in Pediatric Infectious Diseases Series: Once a month, a faculty member reviews electronically presented case vignettes (history, examination findings, laboratory results and/or imaging studies) with the fellows. This is done in a quiz-like format followed by a discussion of differential diagnoses and pertinent clinical and theoretical information.
- Ethics Conferences: Once a year, the core program organizes a series of ethics conferences. Fellows are required to attend.