Overview

Orientation

Fellows will spend the first two weeks of July in orientation, which will introduce you to tkey key clinical and research aspects of our program. Orientation will start at the department level and with our GME office before starting with our program-specific orientation. This time will include learning procedural skills and performing a simulation on the Golden Hour.

After the first two weeks of orientation, each first-year fellow will shadow a senior fellow for call night before they do one on their own.

New fellows will shadow senior fellows in the unit for up to a week to learn about the flow before starting in the NICU.

Clinical Care

All fellows will rotate into our NICU and our perinatal and postnatal clinics.

All clinical activities take place in the University of Iowa Stead Family Children's Hospital.

 

Our Level IV NICU is divided into four teams:

Acuity: Highest to lowest

Neonatal Critical Care Unit (NCCU)
  • Cares for patients with the highest acuity
  • Fellowship delivery room experience

Nurse Practitioner
  • Manages patients with chronic lung diseases, long-term ventilated babies, and babies with tracheotomies
  • Faculty and fellow assigned will lead the team

Teaching & Transport
  • Faculty and fellow assigned will lead team of residents and the neonatal transport team

Level 6
  • Handles most patient discharges
  • Fellows rotate here in their third year, although they may elect to earlier

 

Fellows will rotate in two non-NICU clinics:

High-Risk Infant Follow-Up Clinic
  • Provide care for infants with high-risk conditions after discharge

Perinatal Care Clinic (PCC)
  • Consult with families with known complication in pregnancy that will likely result in NICU admission

 

Research

Non-clinical time is devoted to research and quality improvement projects. Each fellow participates in a research project that will result in a scholarly work product by the end of their training.

On Call Schedule

  • Call nights are divided equally among fellows.
  • A senior fellow makes the service and call schedule each year with the program director providing oversight.
  • All call nights are in-house.
  • Each year, there is at least one night covered without any fellows prior to the annual departmental fellow retreat.