Program Description & Goals

Mission Statement

The aim of the program is to train fellows to become the future generation of critical care physicians who will provide skilled clinical care to critically ill and injured children, advance the science through research and innovation, and develop skills to educate other physicians and health care providers. The program hopes to train caring, humanistic physicians who will serve as future leaders in Pediatric Critical Care Medicine.

About the Program

What is unique about the fellowship?

First is the dedicated neurocritical care service that works side by side in the PICU to teach and provides optimal care to patients with a plethora of neurologic injuries including things like stroke, severe TBI, aneurysm rupture, spinal cord injury, and severe refractory status epilepticus. Our unit uses multimodal monitoring, 24/7 available integrated continuous video EEG, transcranial dopplers, and cutting-edge neurologic interventions. Second, being the only dedicated children’s hospital in Arizona, we have more than 75 pediatric subspecialities available to our patients, which allows us to care for anything and everything that arrives to the PICU from our enormous catchment area. Typical ICU cases are readily available because, as the center for excellence for the state of Arizona, we admit all patient populations.

What type of fellows would be a good fit for our program?

The type of fellows who thrive are the types of physicians whose principal focus is to provide the best care to pediatric ICU patients and their families. They are the types of people who can adapt to changes in the curriculum and system because the division and fellowship are always adding to and adjusting to best meet the needs of our trainees. They are the types of people who develop lifelong friendships with their attendings and peers. They are the types of people who love to learn by doing and evaluating their actions with people they trust to elevate them to their highest potential. It may help if they like ice cream and do not take themselves too seriously because none of us are perfect all the time.

What is there to do when fellows are not working?

We understand that there is a whole world outside of the hospital doors and want our fellows to enjoy the beauty and diversity that Arizona has to offer while they are here. There are so many different climates in the state, and each is close enough that fellows can explore them without needing an entire weekend and big plans. There are several lakes and rivers within an hour or so from the hospital. Fellows can be skiing or snowboarding at 12,500 feet in less than three hours or enjoying pine forest, canyon hikes, or rappelling in in less than two hours. There are many local hiking and biking trails throughout the Phoenix metropolitan area. There are vibrant food and night life scenes in Phoenix and Scottsdale.

Post-Fellowship Employment