Program Highlights

The Phoenix Children’s Residency Program Alliance (PCRPA) provides outstanding clinical training in diverse clinical settings.  Residents learn excellent patient care at one the nation’s leading pediatric hospitals (Phoenix Children’s) and at a well-established and supported safety-net medical system (Valleywise Health).  Our mission is to provide world-class resident education, strong clinical experiences, and to create an environment that fosters personal and professional growth. Our program values intellectual curiosity, a growth mind-set and provides opportunities for scholarly activity, research and community service.

• The Phoenix Children’s Pediatric Residency Program Alliance uses 3 primary training sites each within 2.5 miles of Phoenix Children’s.  This alliance allows us to harness the clinical and educational experiences that best serve our residents and their development.  Valley wise Health provides key access to refugee care, social determinants of health and routine pediatric inpatient and outpatient care.  Rotations at Valleywise include inpatient pediatrics, outpatient pediatrics, newborn nursery, NICU, ED and PICU.  St. Joseph’s Hospital is an academic center that offers rotations in NICU and newborn nursery.  Depending on career interests, residents generally spend approximately 60-70% of their training at Phoenix Children’s, 20-30% at Valleywise Health and 10% at St. Joseph’s.
• Phoenix Children’s is the primary academic pediatric facility in the Phoenix Metro area.  As such, it trains medical students from all 5 local medical schools: University of Arizona Phoenix College of Medicine, Creighton University School of Medicine Phoenix, Mayo Clinic Alix School of Medicine, Midwestern University and AT Still University campuses. It houses the only pediatric and medicine-pediatrics residencies in the Phoenix metro area and serves as the pediatric training site for 5 family medicine training programs and 2 emergency medicine programs.  It is also home to the only pediatric fellowship training programs in the state with a list of programs that continues to grow each year.
• In July of 2022, Phoenix Children’s Pediatric Residency Program Alliance joined the AIRE Pilot to join approximately 20% of pediatric residency program in using X+Y as their curricular base.  Our program has chosen a 3+1 model as it best replicated the feeling of a month for residents and rotations but had the added benefit of adding 1 rotation block compared to a traditional 12-month schedule.  The X weeks are shorter periods of time on inpatient rotations where teams are kept whole throughout the day and week due to no longer having continuity clinic during inpatient rotations.  The Y weeks are outpatient focused with time spent in continuity clinic, longitudinal outpatient electives and a half day of administrative time.  With a 3+1 schedule, our residents are still able to follow their continuity clinic patients for their well-child checks but also allows repeat visits for sick appointments in the same week.  Though only 2 months into this major change, residents and program leadership are happy with the change and excited for the opportunities it may afford in the future.
• Phoenix Children’s has the advantage of being the largest provider of pediatric care in the state, being in the largest city in the state which also happens to be the capital.  This combination along with dedicated faculty and support staff help to drive the success of our Advocacy Track.  Residents are accepted into the track at the mid-point of intern year and then work collaboratively to develop a project for their remaining residency time.  These projects are based on the interests of the individual and often support the other career interests that they may have like subspecialty training.  With the recent change to X+Y, we are looking forward to Advocacy Track residents having time during their Y-week experiences to work on these projects.