The three-year NPM fellowship program curriculum is comprised of the following components as outlined by the Program Requirements for Education developed by the American Board of Pediatrics (ABP) and ACGME Fellow Review Committee (RRC) for Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine:
- Administration
- Clinical Service, Level 4 NICU at Connecticut Children’s, Hartford Campus
- Neonatal Follow-Up Clinic;
- Scholarly Activity
- Transport and Night call
Rotations are done in 13, 4-week blocks over the course of each year of training. All fellows participate in all of the program’s rotations. Fellows are assigned to these rotations in an educationally appropriate sequence over 36 (39 blocks)months of training. Transport of the critically ill newborn infant forms an essential part of this experience.
Over the three-year period, approximately 15 blocks are spent on clinical service. The remaining 24 months (with a total of 12 weeks of vacation in three years) are devoted to the fellow’s scholarly activity. The fellowship requires approximately 15 blocks of clinical rotations, and typically, fellows will spend six blocks of the first year, 5 blocks in the second year and 4 blocks in the third year rotating between the two NICUs. When off service, the fellow’s primary responsibility is scholarly activity.
Fellows develop administrative skills and experience necessary to contribute to the function and advancement of a neonatal practice. This includes creation and management of the fellowship rotation and call schedules, as well as the Neonatal Perinatal Educational Conference lecture schedule. They participate in the NICU’s safety infrastructure through attendance at interdisciplinary Health Care Team meetings, a multidisciplinary group overseeing the functioning of the Hartford NICU, by daily participation (when on service) in Daily Management System rounds and by making occurrence reports regarding specific incidents. They also attend and participate in multidisciplinary Discharge Planning Rounds, enhancing their systems-based practice.
Fellows participate in Neonatal Follow-Up Clinic in off-service blocks during all three years of the fellowship. Over the period of three years, fellows attend an average of 24 half-day sessions during which they evaluate discharged high-risk newborns and perform supervised neurodevelopmental evaluations.
Night call is in-house. Night call is a mandatory component of the curriculum and it is expected that fellows complete the required night call curriculum in order to be eligible for graduation and for the program to complete the ABP Verification of Training forms for Neonatal-Perinatal board eligibility. Fellows take 60 calls during 1st year, 50 during 2nd year, and 40 during 3rd year.