Fellowships and Residencies Pediatric Cardiac Critical Care Instructorship
Come train at the #1 ranked Heart Center in the Nation! We offer a one-year pediatric cardiac intensive care fellowship to 4th year trainees interested in pursuing additional training in pediatric cardiovascular intensive care medicine. Candidates must have completed fellowship training in pediatric critical care medicine, pediatric cardiology, neonatology, or pediatric cardiovascular anesthesia.
About the instructorship
The Pediatric Cardiac Critical Care Instructorship offers a 12-month didactic and clinical training program to individuals interested in pursuing one year of additional training in pediatric cardiac intensive care medicine.
Our cardiovascular intensive care program provides a unique interface among critical care medicine, cardiology, cardiothoracic surgery, and cardiac anesthesia. Our instructorship provides hands-on experience in pediatric cardiac critical care from more than 1000 admissions per year, including the pre-operative care of newborns with congenital heart disease, thoracic organ transplantation, ECMO, ventricular assist devices and one of the largest cardiomyopathy/heart failure populations in the country.
The clinical content is designed based on the individual candidates’ previous experience and training and would focus on developing clinical knowledge and skills specifically in pediatric cardiac critical care.
The program is directed by Natasha Afonso, MD, MPH with Ronald A. Bronicki, MD and Joe Knadler, MD as associate program directors. The program is coordinated by Debbie Cody and Denae Yeppez.
Curriculum
Our curriculum is composed of interactive didactic lectures, directed reading conferences, patient care conferences, problem-based learning, and simulation activities. The instructors and faculty play an active role in both scheduling and participating in these conferences.
- Didactic interactive lecture series: Weekly sessions with Dr. Ronald A. Bronicki discussing cardiopulmonary physiology through case-based presentations on selected topics
- Case conferences: Led by 4th year instructors once weekly with close faculty support and mentorship.
- Faculty Rounds: Led by on-service faculty members weekly, discussing a wide breadth of clinical & non-clinical topics
- Complex patient care conference: Led by on-service faculty members weekly discussing current complex inpatients and challenging clinical situations.
- Monthly morbidity & mortality conferences: Led by instructors with close faculty mentorship.
- CICU Simulation and Problem-based Learning cases: weekly
- Heart Center Performance Rounds and Quality Improvement Conference: weekly
- Cardiac research group meetings: Monthly
- Critical Care Educational Conference and Research Conference: weekly
- Monthly Heart Center morbidity and mortality conferences
- Echocardiography Boot Camp and longitudinal curriculum
- PICU Boot Camp and PFCCS Course Enrollment for learners without a primary critical care training background
- ECMO Boot Camp
- Longitudinal curriculum for job preparation and career guidance
- Access to an extensive digital cardiac critical care literature repository and index with over 4000 manuscripts from PubMed
Rotations
Critical Care Medicine trained
- Cardiac intensive care as 4th year instructor: 3.5 months
- Cardiac intensive care as junior faculty: 3 months
- Cardiac Catheterization: 1 month
- Cardiopulmonary bypass and perfusion and Cardiac anesthesia: 0.5 months
- Electrophysiology: 0.5 months
- ACHD: 0.5 months
- 2 months of electives:
- Echocardiography
- Heart failure
- Cardiology consult service
- Vacation: 1 month
Cardiology trained
- Cardiac intensive care as 4th year instructor: 3.5 months
- Cardiac intensive care as junior faculty: 3 months
- ACHD: 0.5 months
- Pediatric intensive care: 2 months
- 2 months of electives:
- Anesthesia (airway management)
- Perfusion
- Palliative care
- Heart Failure
- Vacation: 1 month
Neonatology trained
- Cardiac intensive care as 4th year instructor: 4 months
- Cardiac intensive care as junior faculty: 3 months
- Cardiac Catheterization: 1 month
- Cardiopulmonary bypass and perfusion and Cardiac anesthesia: 0.5 months
- Electrophysiology: 0.5 months
- 2 months of electives:
- Echocardiography
- Heart failure
- Cardiology consult service
- Vacation: 1 month
Benefits
To learn more about the benefits:
How to apply
Thank you for your interest in the Pediatric Cardiac Critical Care Instructorship. To apply, please complete the program application form and submit along with a current curriculum vitae to cvicuinstructorship@texaschildrens.org. If you have any questions or concerns, you may also contact Debbie Cody at 832-826-6264 for more information.