Learning and Teaching Opportunities
Med-Peds residents attend core lectures and grand rounds in both Internal Medicine and Pediatrics at ChristianaCare and Nemours Children’s Hospital. Our grand rounds series features local and visiting professors of national and international stature. Most conferences are teleconferenced across the campuses, and grand rounds are recorded so they may be reviewed at off times. We encourage residents to broaden their knowledge through professional meetings and contributions to medical publications. Stipends are available for residents to attend one conference each year. Interns participate in morning report, care conferences, chief resident conferences and intern-specific procedure workshops and lectures.
Academic Half Days
Med-Peds residents participate in both Ambulatory Academic Half Days in both Pediatrics and Internal Medicine each week on their “Y” block with categorical colleagues. A new Inpatient Academic Half Day in Internal has been developed for interns and residents on inpatient Internal Medicine rotations.
Med-Peds Specific Conferences (Block Meetings, Med-Peds Academic Days, Cohort Time)
Block Meetings
Med-Peds residents, faculty and students gather after hours to have a social, educational, and business meeting every third Wednesday of each 4-week block. The theme for the year is determined by our Med-Peds chief residents.
Med-Peds Academic Days (MPAD)
Held 4 times throughout the year, these full day activities, include educational sessions, wellbeing activities and a community advocacy event led by our committee directors alongside our faculty.
Cohort Time
During each ambulatory “Y” block, the residents in that cohort (5 residents in each cohort from PGY-1 thru PGY-4) have a half day each session for both weeks of “Y” to deliver their own learning curriculum (e.g. QI, Board review, antiracism, wellbeing activities) in their own setting (e.g. coffee shop, pickle ball court, resident houses, etc.).
Quality Improvement
Each spring, each Med-Peds quality improvement team presents its data to the rest of the Med-Peds residency, faculty and hospital administration. Previous projects have won hospital-wide awards and have continued as the standard of care in the resident practice (autism screening, vision referrals streamlined, point of care hemoglobin, and lead levels for children, and hypertension control). Our Med-Peds quality improvement teams consist of residents from different years of training and expertise to create balance and synergy.
Current projects include:
- Barriers to Maternal Presence at the Bedside of Infants with Neonatal Opioid Withdrawal Syndrome
- Improving Transitions of Care when receiving Overnight Admissions on Resident Teaching Teams
- Promoting Learner-Centered Leadership and Person-Centered Care: A Workshop-Based Intervention for Senior Residents
- Implementation of a Modified Sleep Promotion Bundle for Adult Inpatients
- Surveying Resident Experience, Interest, and Perceived Barriers to Prescribing Buprenorphine in a Primary Care Resident Clinic
Last year’s projects included:
- Insecure with Food Insecurity: Evaluating Screening Patterns and Barriers to Screening for Food Insecurity in a Resident Run Clinic
- Development if a Longitudinal Med/Peds RRT & Acute Care Curriculum
- Increasing Caregiver Involvement at the Bedside for Patients with Neonatal Opioid Withdrawal Syndrome
- Providing Education about Neonatal Opioid Withdrawal Syndrome to Expectant Mothers with Opioid Use Disorder
- Empowering Patients to Take Control of Their Health Care Transition
- Mo’ Money Fewer Problems: Improving Resident Billing Practices to more Accurately Reflect Services Provided
- “Y” block QI project
- Relax-A-Box: Reducing Restraint Use Through Behavioral Strategies
Achieving Competence Today
Achieving Competence Today (ACT) is a master’s level transdisciplinary 12-week course that has the following primary goal:
to increase learner’s competence in systems and practice improvement while stimulating interprofessional learning and collaboration.
Topics include:
- Quality and Performance improvement skills including measurement and outcome analysis.
- Patient safety.
- Interdisciplinary team concepts.
- Health care economics and health policy.
- Change theory.
- Budgets and approval processes as they relate to conducting a performance-improvement project.
ChristianaCare was one of six top-performing ACT sites identified by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation-funded Partnerships for Quality Education national initiative, which was piloted at 20 leading U.S. teaching hospitals. Other top-performing sites include University of Pennsylvania, University of Virginia, Johns Hopkins University, University of Missouri and Harvard affiliated Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center.
Professional Meetings
Residents are encouraged to broaden their knowledge through professional meetings. Funds are available for residents to attend one seminar or conference each year. We encourage our residents to go to the National American Academy of Pediatrics, American College of Physicians, Northeast Med-Peds meetings and National Med-Peds Resident’s Association meeting.