The Division of Pediatric Emergency Medicine is committed to education and teaching. Fellows have protected time on Wednesdays to participate in divisional conferences and formal didactic teaching. These conferences are led by both fellows and faculty.

The fellowship didactic curriculum is an 18-month rotating conference schedule that consists of:

  • Board review
  • Core PEM topics
  • Subspecialty conference
  • Case conference
  • Radiology series
  • Toxicology series
  • Critical care series
  • Adult emergency medicine topics
  • Education series
  • Ultrasound workshops
  • Evidence-based medicine series
  • Simulation

Additional divisional education conferences include:

  • Journal Club
  • Morbidity and mortality conference
  • Combined surgery-PEM conference
  • Procedure workshops
  • Multi-disciplinary simulation

Fellows participate in the Department of Pediatrics’ core curriculum for all subspecialty fellows that encompasses topics in teaching, career development, leadership and scholarly development. This curriculum brings all pediatric subspecialty fellows together once monthly for session tailored by year of training.  It also includes a summer and spring retreat for all fellows focusing on career development and research, respectively.

All fellows complete training in Pediatric Advanced Life Support (PALS) and Advanced Trauma Life Support (ATLS).  In addition, all fellows become PALS instructors.  Fellows are also encouraged to participate in departmental conferences including the Emergency Medicine Grand Rounds, didactics and Journal Club, pediatrics case conference series and Grand Rounds.

Our fellowship ultrasound curriculum includes a one-month dedicated ultrasound rotation completed in the first year. During this rotation, fellows perform ultrasounds in the both the pediatric and adult emergency departments, supervised by Washington University ultrasound fellowship-trained emergency medicine faculty.  Our longitudinal curriculum includes monthly ultrasound scanning shifts under the direct supervision of an U.S. trained emergency medicine faculty member and systems-focused ultrasound workshops incorporated into weekly didactics throughout the year. Opportunities to attend outside ultrasound workshops and conferences for those interested in advanced skills are available and fellows are encouraged to attend.

The Division of Emergency Medicine hosts the Regional PEM Fellows Bootcamp, a three-day intensive clinical skills curriculum for first year fellows in July. Multiple fellowship programs send first year fellows to participate in a series of hands-on workshops, procedure labs and simulation experiences designed to prepare new fellows to care for critically ill or injured children and perform basic and life-saving procedures in the pediatric ED.

 Additional advanced coursework and degrees are available on an individual basis and many past fellows have taken advantage of these opportunities! Fellows are also provided with funds to attend one national meeting per year, including the national PEM Fellows’ Conference, Pediatric Academic Society meetings and American Academy of Pediatrics meetings or other conferences of interest.

The fellowship strives to produce graduates that are excellent clinician-educators. Fellows receive formal didactic instruction in adult learning theory, teaching skills and presentation techniques through the education series component of the curriculum and structured feedback from faculty through a variety of teaching opportunities and one-on-one mentorship during their teaching fellow rotations. 

Fellows have opportunities to hone their teaching skills in a variety of settings including:

  • Fellows’ conference
  • Divisional educational conferences
  • Morning resident conferences and simulations
  • Department of Emergency Medicine grand rounds
  • Department of Pediatrics grand rounds and early bird rounds
  • Bedside teaching of pediatric and emergency medicine residents
  • Medical student shadowing and preceptorships
  • Community outreach teaching
  • Annual PEM/trauma conference
  • Resident and medical student procedure labs
  • PALS course

Fellows receive formal, structured feedback from faculty with these teaching opportunities and through one-on-one mentorship during their teaching fellow rotations. Fellows also receive formal didactic instruction in adult learning theory, teaching skills and presentation techniques through the education series component of the curriculum.

Finally, fellows receive longitudinal training in administrative skills, quality improvement and research methodology through participation in divisional and departmental conferences, School of Medicine-sponsored workshops and completion of QI and scholarly research projects.