The University of Iowa Stead Family Children’s Hospital is the only comprehensive health care center in Iowa offering the full range of Pediatric Critical Care (ECMO, VAD, CRRT). Unique to Iowa, our 28-bed unit includes the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) and the Pediatric Cardiac Intensive Care Unit (PCICU), both led by our faculty and fellows, and is a Level 1 Trauma Center.
The 36-month curriculum is divided into approximately 18 months of clinical rotations and 18 months of research. Each rotation is 2-4 weeks in duration.
First Year
- PICU Days – 12 weeks
- PICU Nights – 10 weeks
- Total PICU Time –
22 weeks
- Total PICU Time –
- CVICU – 8 weeks
- Anesthesia/Sedation – 6 weeks
- Research – 16 weeks
Second Year
- PICU Days – 8 weeks
- PICU Nights – 8 weeks
- Total PICU Time –
16 weeks
- Total PICU Time –
- CVICU – 8 weeks
- Elective – 2 weeks
- Research – 26 weeks
Third Year
- PICU Days – 8 weeks
- PICU Nights – 8 weeks
- Total PICU Time –
16 weeks
- Total PICU Time –
- CVICU – 4 weeks
- Research –
32 weeks
Our unit operates as a PICU team and a CVICU team during the daytime, but one combined team at night. This allows fellows additional exposure to high-acuity patients throughout the year. Fellows do a night float rotation Monday – Friday but still take 24 hour call intermittently on weekends.
Our fellows serve as medical control for all admissions to the PICU. This is an excellent opportunity to learn how to establish effective communication with outside providers to ensure patients are cared for and transferred safely. While first years are heavily supervised during their initial rotations, the majority of transport/admission calls are managed by second and third fellows independently.
Elective opportunities include rotations in or with the cath lab, echocardiography suite, burn unit, cardiothoracic surgery, PICC line/procedure, bronchoscopy, or additional research time.