Overview

At Tufts Medical Center, our curriculum is designed to support our mission of providing residents with a strong foundation in general pediatrics through care of diverse patients in community and tertiary care settings and close contact with experienced faculty. This ultimately allows each resident to pursue a successful career in their preferred field, including academic, community based or subspecialty pediatrics.

Our 3 year curriculum

The first year of residency is dedicated to achieving a foundation in pediatrics with appropriate supervision, while also allowing time for career exploration, mentorship and personal and professional goal development.

The second year of residency promotes a transition to supervisory roles, with an emphasis on autonomy, scholarship and career mentorship.

The final year of residency involves exploration in the role of supervisor and autonomous practitioner, focusing on preparing for independent practice and achieving professional goals.

PGY-1

PGY-2

PGY-3

Inpatient Hospital Medicine at Tufts Medical Center

Community Inpatient Hospital Medicine Supervisor at MetroWest Medical Center

Inpatient Hospital Medicine Supervisor-Tufts Medical Center

Inpatient Medicine at Tufts Medical Center

ER at Tufts Medical Center 

Inpatient Night Team Supervisor (divided into two 2-week blocks)

Community Inpatient Hospital Medicine at Lowell General Hospital

ER at Tufts Medical Center

ER at Boston Medical Center

Heme/Onc Inpatient

PICU

Teaching Resident

Newborn Nursery (MIU)

NICU

Ambulatory Pediatrics (OPD) Preceptor

Ambulatory Pediatrics (OPD)

NICU Night Team (divided into two 2-week blocks)

PICU

NICU

 Adolescent Heme/Onc Outpatient Elective

NICU Night Team (divided into two 2 week blocks)

NICU

IC/Elective-No Weekend Call

Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics

IC/Elective- No weekend call

IC/Elective-Weekend Call

Subspecialty Elective-Weekend Call

IC/Elective- Weekend Call

IC/Elective-Weekend Call

Subspecialty Elective-Weekend Call

IC/Elective-Weekend Call

IC/Elective-Weekend Call

Individual Curriculum(IC)/Advocacy

IC/Elective-Weekend Call

 IC/Elective-Weekend Call

Vacation (divided into two 2-week blocks)

Vacation (divided into two 2-week blocks)

Vacation (divided into two 2-week blocks)

The majority of patient care teams at Tufts Children's function on a night float system with the night team working 6 nights in a row. The day begins with sign out at 6:30am. At the end of a shift, the day team then signs out to the night team at 5:30pm. The night float system allows for continuity of care for patients, as the residents work on night float for 1-2 weeks at a time, depending on the rotation. The night team rounds with the attending in the evening and serves to move along the diagnostic process and assist with discharge preparation. Subspecialty patients (with the exception of Heme/Onc) and general pediatrics patients are admitted to the hospitalist team, which allows residents to see a variety of different cases and work with different consultants during their time on the floor.

Residents participate in weekly continuity clinics at a variety of sites, including General Pediatrics at Tufts Children’s, community health centers, and private practices in the Boston area. Our residents enjoy continuity both among their patients and with a preceptor over their three years. Residents interested in primary care often choose to do a month-long elective in the third year to sample different primary care venues before beginning their job search.

Residents at Tufts Children’s are encouraged to pursue interests and development of skills that are closely aligned with their career goals. Each year of residency includes elective blocks. Residents identify faculty mentors and specific objectives prior to completing elective blocks to ensure that the time is best spent working toward achieving those goals. Examples of recent electives completed by residents include rotations in primary care, sedation, surgical subspecialty clinics, medical subspecialty clinics, community hospitalist medicine, pre-attending Heme/Onc, advanced in-house and away NICU and PICU rotations, research, community health, and global away rotations.

All residents are required to participate in a quality improvement or patient safety project as well as a scholarly research project. The foundations of quality improvement and research are provided through our didactic series. Historically, we have engaged the residents in either class-wide or residency-wide quality improvement projects with expectations for individual contribution linked to particular rotations.  The program leadership assists residents in finding mentors for research projects during the intern year with the research experience concluding on our annual Pediatric Research Day in spring of 3rd year.  

Developing clinical educators is integral to our mission at The Tufts Children’s. The hallmark of this experience has traditionally been our third year teaching resident rotation. In addition we integrate skill building as a supervisor and educator into the newborn rotation and several PGY2 rotations so residents can build a stronger base in teaching strategies earlier in the training experience. 

Residents who have interest in pursuing leadership in medical education are encouraged to apply for the Clinical Educator Track (CET) near the end of their intern year. CET is a combined program for Internal Medicine and Pediatric residents that includes an annual intensive workshop series in addition to mentoring to complete a medical education research project.
 

Advocacy is an important component of resident education at the Tufts Children’s. Interns spend a portion of their individualized curriculum block visiting community sites of interest as well as completing modules to give them a foundation about advocacy. Advocacy lectures are a part of the resident didactic curriculum. Residents are also encouraged to attend the annual Massachusetts Resident and Fellow Day at the Statehouse where participants meet directly with state senators and representatives to lobby on behalf of the Massachusetts Chapter of the AAP. Furthermore, one member of each class serves as a delegate to the American Academy of Pediatrics. Residents may also join our recently created Resident Advocacy/Health Equity workgroup, a resident-run group interested in social justice, advocacy projects, social determinants of health, and community service projects. 

The patient population at the Tufts Children’s and our affiliated community hospitals is culturally diverse, something that we are very proud of. In an effort to serve them better and to bolster our resident education on diversity in medicine, we have recently implemented implicit bias training for all residents as part of our curriculum. Lectures on health equity are incorporated into our resident didactic series. In addition, our grand rounds series has been complemented by Health Equity Rounds, a longitudinal, case-based conference series aimed at focusing on the social determinants of health and health equity which impact a patient’s experience or outcome. Also recently instituted is a resident-run Advocacy/Health Equity interest group that brings together residents with shared interests and all levels of experience to explore related topics and opportunities.