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Certificate Programs

Recognizing that some trainees have specific passions and career paths in mind, we offer certificate programs that include special events and focused mentoring in the areas of focus listed below. Interested residents may participate in sessions from any number of the areas; those who wish to commit firmly to a particular area of focus will do so during PL-2 year. At the end of training, participants are recognized at residency graduation with a certificate to honor their achievements.

Advocacy & Population Health

The Advocacy and Population Health area of focus is a unique, hands-on opportunity to learn about the social determinants of child health, gain the skills necessary to be an effective physician-advocate and complete an individualized advocacy project that has an impact on the community.

 Specific Aims

  • Provide residents who have an interest in child advocacy and population health with the opportunity to explore this area of pediatrics in greater depth
  • Provide experiential training opportunities in advocacy and populations health, including both legislative advocacy/health policy as well as community advocacy/underserved populations
  • Provide faculty-mentored research opportunities in advocacy/population health
  • Provide career counseling for residents, allowing them to explore the ways in which advocacy/population health can be incorporated into the practice of general or subspecialty pediatrics

 Benefits

  • Residents who complete this area of focus will receive a certificate and designation upon graduation
  • Networking exposure to Chicago area individuals and organizations concerned with population health
  • Individualized advocacy project may lead to journal publication, conference presentations and continuation of pursuits beyond residency
  • Launch a career as a physician-advocate and discover your own “niche”

 Curriculum

Core Curriculum Components (required of all residents)
  • Community Medicine and Advocacy Rotation (PGY-2 year)
  • Continuity Clinic Quality Improvement Project (longitudinal)
  • Take Action publication contribution
  • Chicago Youth Programs (CYP) (visit twice during PGY-1 year outpatient rotation)

Pathway-Specific Educational Components

  • AAP online curriculum (independent self-study modules)
  • Journal clubs (approximately three times a year) with other advocacy pathway residents and faculty
  • Individualized education on research skills by faculty mentor

Individualized Advocacy Project

  • A mentored longitudinal effort, plus two to three months of dedicated elective time in PGY-3 year
  • May take the form of the resident senior project or be in addition to it
  • Presentation at annual hospital-based Advocacy Day
  • Opportunities to submit for publication, if desired

Experiential Opportunities (selected from an a la carte list)

 Certificate Program Co-Directors

 

Global Health

The Global Health area of focus is a unique opportunity for residents to learn more about global health issues, receive extensive pre-travel training, participate in an international elective and complete a scholarly project.

Learn more about our global health program

 Specific Aims

  • Offer an ACGME competency-based global health certificate program to McGaw trainees that will train them in clinical care delivery in resource-limited settings worldwide
  • Provide an education in core concepts in global health for trainees across specialties
  • Provide high-quality global health training experiences
  • Mentor residents through global health-focused scholarly projects

 Benefits

  • Residents who complete the certificate program will receive a certificate and designation upon graduation
  • Participants will gain exposure to a wide variety of multidisciplinary global health topics
  • Participants will have the opportunity to work and learn alongside residents and attendings from various subspecialties

 Curriculum

  • Must submit signed mentor-mentee agreement after meeting with one of the program co-directors
  • Must complete all program requirements as detailed below, including attendance at core lectures, participation in simulation sessions and global health electives and completion of a scholarly project

 Certificate Program Co-Directors

Medical Education

The Medical Education area of focus is a unique, collaborative opportunity to learn about the various aspects of medical education, develop mentorship and networking connections with other medical educators, improve skills in clinical teaching and develop an individualized education portfolio.

Learn more about this program

 Specific Aims

  • Provide residents who have an interest in medical education with the opportunity to receive more information in how to achieve this career path and increased opportunities to grow as an educator
  • Provide experiential opportunities in a variety of medical education formats, including clinical teaching, administration, educational research, curriculum design and assessment
  • Provide career mentorship to residents interested in medical education
  • Promote faculty-mentored scholarly activity in medical education for residents

 Benefits

  • Residents who complete this area of focus will receive a certificate and designation upon graduation
  • Residents have the opportunity to attend workshops and presentations by local experts in medical education on topics encompassing clinical teaching, curricular design, learner assessment, administration and educational research
  • Residents may network with medical educators and individual mentors to help with both career guidance and development of a portable education portfolio 
  • Individualized educational project may lead to journal publication, conference presentations and continuation of pursuits beyond residency
  • Residents become part of a larger community of trainees and faculty dedicated to education

 Curriculum

Core Curriculum Components (required of all residents)
  • Presentation of Continuity Clinic talks (PGY1, PGY2, PGY3)
  • Cooper Colloquium presentations, including chief resident mentoring and program director assessment (PGY2, PGY3)
  • Residents as Teachers and Leaders required web-based education (PGY1, PGY2, PGY3)
  • Residents as Teachers and Leaders required workshop (PGY2)
  • Teaching senior week on General Medicine rotation
Pathway-Specific Components
  • Conduct a scholarly senior project in education 
  • Attend 10 sessions of monthly seminars/workshops or web-based content; must attend a minimum of three sessions on learning theory, three on teaching skills, two on career guidance and two on educational research
  • Participate in Clinical Educator elective, as well as a second monthlong elective with an education focus that should be approved the co-directors of the area of focus
  • Participate in at least five educational experiences with reflection and feedback
  • Development of an education portfolio describing those medical education experiences, including reflection and evaluations
Scholarship
  • Participate in a senior project in an area of medical education, which might include curriculum development or educational research
  • Involvement in annual Feinberg School of Medicine Medical Education Day
  • Opportunities for attendance/participation at regional/national meetings
Medical Education Experiences
  • Participate in a variety of educational experiences ranging from large-group to individual sessions and working with learners at different levels, including at the medical school and their co-residents; participate in peer feedback, observation by expert educators and mentors and self-reflection
  • Residents must document five teaching experiences in their education portfolio
  • Residents must include feedback in their portfolio on all of these five experiences, and this must include learner, self-evaluation, peer and expert feedback
  • Residents must document teaching experiences of at least three different types
Mentorship
  • A key component of this area of focus will include mentorship for residents, both for their scholarly projects and for career mentorship
  • Residents will be matched with an educator in the department of pediatrics to serve as a mentor throughout their time in residency; the mentor will take primary responsibility for reviewing their education portfolio and developing an individualized plan for the area of focus
  • In addition to this relationship, career guidance will be a key topic during group meetings and a specific component to the core curriculum

 Certificate Program Director

Primary Care & Community Health

The Primary Care and Community Health area of focus enhances your general education in primary care by integrating experiences in clinical practice and/or community health systems and a mentored primary care/community health–centered project to explore aspects of primary care, healthcare delivery, social determinants and community health, tailored to your interests.

 Specific Aims

  • Provide residents with an interest in primary care and community health with opportunities to explore and achieve competency beyond the general pediatric resident experience
  • Provide experiences and research mentorship in areas of community practice and primary care
  • Provide residents with career counseling over the span of training

 Benefits

  • Residents who complete the area of focus will receive a certificate and designation upon graduation
  • Networking exposure to Chicago-area individuals, practices and organizations concerned with pediatric primary care and/or community health
  • Opportunities for robust primary care and community health-related mentorship and research projects, which may lead to journal publication, conference presentations and continuation of mentoring and pursuits beyond residency
  • Opportunities for hands-on experience with advocacy in primary care
  • Preparation to be an excellent clinician, academic primary care or community health leader

 Curriculum

Core Curriculum Components (required of all residents)
  • Primary Care Outpatient Rotation experience, includes Project DOCC experience with medically Complex and Chicago Youth Program visit
  • Community Medicine and Child Advocacy Rotation, involving both site experiences and project on public health and social determinants
  • Continuity Clinic Quality Improvement Project
  • Continuity Clinic weekly during all three years of resident training
  • Cooper Colloquium Primary Care Talks
  • Participation in 6 Journal Clubs/year in continuity clinic to discuss new research on core general pediatric topics
Pathway-Specific Educational Components
  • Quarterly Guideline Sessions which include reviews of core ambulatory pediatric guidelines and sentinel papers
  • Primary care noon conferences and primary care focus faculty lectures three times a year
  • Online curriculum: AAP and CATCH funded curriculum on primary care topics
  • Medico-Legal Partnership educational opportunities
  • Primary care elective: personalized elective created with guidance from program leadership. Depending on interest, typically focuses more on a general pediatric topic area (ie breastfeeding), private practice and community pediatric practice exposure, community health or academic general pediatric interests
Individualized Project
  • A mentored longitudinal effort, plus two to three months of dedicated elective time in PGY-3 year
  • May take the form of the resident senior project or be in addition to it
  • This longitudinal primary care project may be oriented toward research, advocacy (community or policy), education, practice improvement or quality improvement project with measured outcomes.
  • Presentation and/or publication will be strongly encouraged.
Experiential Opportunities (selected from a list based on individual areas of interest)
  • Continuity Clinic at Lurie Children’s Uptown or Deming practices
  • Private practice and community based primary care experiences
  • Elective Experience to supplement primary care learning: Residents may choose to gain additional exposure in certain areas such as: audiology, speech/OT/PT, early intervention, Almost Home KIDS, and subspecialities that we commonly refer to
  • Child with Medical Complexity Elective
  • Hospital-based committees and programs

 Certificate Program Directors

Bioethics

The McGaw Bioethics Scholars Program is a two-year program and is co-sponsored by the Center for Bioethics and Medical Humanities and McGaw Medical Center. Learn more and apply here.

Participants will be asked to complete the following within two academic years:

 Attendance

  • Attend program orientation held in September  
  • Attend 10 core didactics/workshops lectures given by faculty
  • Attend 12 specialty didactics/workshops offered through departments at Northwestern Memorial Hospital, Lurie Children’s Hospital, Shirley Ryan AbilityLab, Center for Bioethics and Humanities, Master of Arts in Medical Humanities & Bioethics

 Complete Asynchronous Learning

  • Read one core reference book related to clinical ethics
  • Read two books related to bioethics and submit comments/reflections  
  • Participate in Practical Experience and Simulation Skills Practicum
  • Attend and observe two Ethics Committee meetings
  • Attend and observe one IRB committees meeting
  • Participate in a one-day ethics simulation module 

 Develop an Education Portfolio

  • Trainees will build an education portfolio that includes their reflections from workshops, readings and learner evaluations   
  • Mentors will review the portfolio and provide feedback on the content

 Complete a Scholarly Project

Examples: Conceptual paper, narrative or summative review of literature, case report, empirical research or specialty curriculum development (workshops, lectures, modules). The project should result in a poser presentation, peer-reviewed publication or curriculum development materials.

 Other

  • Trainees will be paired with a Bioethics mentor
  • Trainees will be required to find a scholarly project mentor from an available list of faculty based on their interest
  • Trainees are also required to attend two administrative meetings per year

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