Pediatric Hospital Medicine Fellowship
Welcome and thank you for your interest in the Spectrum Health/Michigan State University College of Human Medicine Pediatric Hospital Medicine Fellowship at Helen DeVos Children’s Hospital. Our work to keep kids healthy places us among U.S. News & World Report’s 2020-21 Best Children’s Hospitals. Helen DeVos Children’s Hospital is nationally ranked in eight pediatric subspecialties and has also made a national name for itself in the world of pediatric quality improvement and patient safety. We are located Grand Rapids, Michigan, one of the most enjoyable and fastest growing cities in the Midwest.
The fellowship offers complete clinical, educational and scholarly programs in our state-of-the-art, freestanding children’s hospital. We hope the following information is helpful to you and thank you again for considering us for your fellowship training. If you are an internal medicine/pediatrics resident, we can offer you time as an adult hospitalist during your fellowship elective time. Several of our hospitalists are internal medicine/pediatrics trained and continue to work in the adult world. Please don’t hesitate to inquire more about this!
- From Program Leadership and Senior Fellows
- Education
- Life as a Fellow
- Application Requirements
- Salary and Benefits
Congratulations on choosing to pursue a fellowship in the wonderful world of Pediatric Hospital Medicine! As you think about what is important to you in a fellowship, we would like to highlight a few reasons the program at Helen DeVos Children’s Hospital might be just what you are looking for:
- Our daily commitment to fellowship educational and programmatic excellence
- The strong QI and patient safety infrastructure that drives care in Helen DeVos Children’s Hospital
- Our incredible institutional and programmatic work to reduce power gradients and nurture the culture of collegial teamwork with colleagues who feel more like family members
Excellence
Our fellowship program was one of only four in the US to receive initial certification by the ACGME in January of 2020! As a fellow here, you will receive a robust didactic curriculum in research, QI, Patient Safety, Process Improvement and all PHM Core Content topics. The Pediatrics and Medicine/Pediatrics residencies here have a total of 24 residents/year, which affords fellows great team leadership, mentorship and teaching opportunities. We have 15 specialized fellowship electives for you to choose from, and our affiliation with Michigan State University provides regular medical student teaching and mentorship opportunities. Helen DeVos Children’s Hospital has been in the US News and World Report Top 50 for multiple successive years, including 2020 - 2021, and has over 300 pediatric physicians in 50 different specialties. Finally, our hospitalist faculty group is 18 members strong, with diverse clinical and research interests.
QI/Patient Safety/Process Improvement
Helen DeVos Children’s Hospital is the home of our amazing” i-Hub” (improvement hub), a physical space where quality, safety and process improvement specialists are co-located, to facilitate better and faster high impact improvement work. Pediatric hospital medicine fellows are involved in this process from the time of matriculation and have become a valued part of the i-Hub team.
Culture
Helen DeVos Children’s Hospital is the home of the “Call Me Bob” campaign, whereby all staff are encouraged to call each other by our first names. This has reduced the power gradient and sense of hierarchy that exists in many healthcare settings, which allows for better teamwork, more collaboration and a sense that work is a great place to be. We have robust initiatives in wellness and diversity that exist not just in the fellowship but are institutional mandates we take very seriously. If you were a fly on the wall here on any particular day, you would see the sense of joy, cohesion, energy and fun that exists in our group, the fellowship, and children’s hospital. Helen DeVos Children’s Hospital is a great place to be! Finally, while most of you have likely never visited Grand Rapids, we completely love our city, which in 2018 was voted the 12 best place to live in the US, by US News and World Report. a haven for foodies, outdoor adventure and so much more (and if you’ve never seen the beaches of Lake Michigan, you haven’t really lived!).
We look forward to meeting you virtually and sharing all that our fellowship, hospital and city have to offer!
Sincerely,
WELCOME FROM THE SENIOR FELLOWS
Jeri and Brett
For more information on our program, please contact Kelli VanZweden, program coordinator.
For more information on our program, please contact Kelli VanZweden, program coordinator.
WELCOME FROM THE SENIOR FELLOWS
In this letter, senior fellows Danielle Fisher MD and Allek Scheele MD share how the PHM fellowship at Helen DeVos Children’s can enhance your skills so that you can become an exceptional pediatric hospitalist.
Danielle and Allek on their first day as Senior Fellows
Allek and Danielle in PPE, preparing for the pandemic
With the exception of the community hospital medicine rotation, all fellowship training occurs at Helen DeVos Children’s Hospital, a 240 bed freestanding children’s hospital with more than 9,100 inpatient, 2,200 pediatric intensive care, and 1,400 neonatal intensive care admissions, and more than 56,000 pediatric emergency department visits annually. Spectrum Health is home to 31 ACGME-accredited residency and fellowship programs in partnership with Michigan State University College of Human Medicine.
Fellowship Rotational Curriculum
Five blocks hospital medicine at Helen DeVos Children’s Hospital
Four blocks scholarly activity/research
Three blocks electives
One block community hospital medicine at Lakeland Hospital
The fellowship curriculum in year one consists of:
The curriculum in year two consists of:
- Five blocks electives
- Four blocks scholarly activity/research
- Two blocks hospital medicine at Helen DeVos Children’s Hospital
- One block neonatal medicine
- One block sedation
- Four weeks for vacation/conference
Electives
The electives offered include:
- infectious disease with antibiotic stewardship
- pediatric emergency medicine
- palliative care/pain management
- care/pain management
- child abuse and neglect
- nephrology
- pulmonology
- toxicology
- pediatric surgery
- genetics and metabolism
- global health
- hospital administration and leadership
- pediatric physical medicine & rehabilitation
- the business of medicine
- inpatient child psychiatry
- the option to design your own elective
Didactics
We are passionate about your learning, and have in place a well-rounded approach to education, both clinically and via the following didactic series:
- Core fellow research, QI and process improvement
- Hospital fellow-specific series based on the PHM Content Outline, given by the hospitalist section
- Hospitalist Fellowship Journal Club (monthly)
- Hospitalist Fellowship Ethics presentations (quarterly)
- Weekly Grand Rounds
- Weekly Multidisciplinary Case Conference
Fellows as Teachers
- Completion of a two day and half day Clinical Teacher Program
- Development and oversight of monthly simulation sessions with residents and medical students
- Leaders in the Intern Lecture Series
- Formal teaching in the undergraduate medical education curriculum at MSU College of Human Medicine
- Bedside teaching of residents and medical students
Scholarly Activity
Fellows must complete and present at least one major scholarly project in the area of patient quality/safety. In reality, our fellows are involved in multiple scholarly projects during their two years here, including clinical research and additional quality work. Helen DeVos Children’s Hospital has extraordinary QI infrastructure in the form of the i-Hub (Improvement Hub), where fellows receive full support to design and carry out any number of projects of interest to them. In addition, fellows have great research oversight and mentorship by one of our core faculty members, a grant-funded member of the hospitalist division. Many members of the Spectrum Health hospitalist group are involved in scholarly activity, so there is no shortage of ideas or mentors for you.
Examples of current fellow scholarly projects include:
- Pediatric Hospitalist Co-Management of Neurosurgery Patients
- I-STOP Process for Floor Patients
- Trend in Marijuana Exposure in Newborns Before and After Recreational Legalization in Michigan
- Development of Education Around Opioid Use in Children and Adolescents
- Lost in Translation: Overcoming Language Barriers by Partnering with Language Services
- Project DRIVE: Decreasing Redundant and Irrelevant Vitals Everyday
- Critical Care Billing for Hospitalists
Fellow Wellness
Part of wellness involves being empowered to have a voice in the running of the fellowship, and that is hugely important in our program. Your opinion will be sought out on all aspects of your fellowship experience, with the commitment of continuous quality improvement by all of us at Helen DeVos Children’s Hospital! In addition, there is an enormous focus on resident/fellow wellness at Spectrum Health, and fellows can be involved via participation in the many events throughout the year, or as leaders, including Resident/Fellow Wellness Committee, Diversity Council and Housestaff Council.
Fellows also have access to Encompass, an employee assistance program which offers a variety of assessment and counseling services, provided free of charge.
Mentorship
You will love the overall culture at Helen DeVos Children’s Hospital, which is warm and welcoming, and we also work to pair you with mentors who act as advisors, coaches and guides during your fellowship and beyond. In addition, our hospitalist group is committed to celebrating life outside the hospital, too, and we have regular get-togethers that you’ll love being a part of.
PHM fellowships participate in the NRMP match, but not through ERAS. There is a common fellowship application used by all programs that you send to the programs you are interested in applying to.
2021 PHM Fellowship Match timeline
August 12, 2020: Application review and interview invites begin!
September 23, 2020: NRMP Match opens
October 28, 2020: Rank Order Entry List opens
December 2, 2020: Rank Order List Certification due
December 16, 2020: Match Day, 12:00 PM EST
For more information on our program, contact Kelli VanZweden, program coordinator.
Spectrum Health provides a comprehensive and very competitive benefits package for our residents, staff and their families. In addition, our program provides educational monies to support your ongoing education. Download our salary and benefits document to learn more.
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West Michigan - A Great Place to Call Home
As the second largest city in Michigan, Grand Rapids is an amazing place to work, live, play and explore. This vibrant city is known for some of the best festivals in the world, like ArtPrize, and is only a short 45 minute drive to Lake Michigan. The city has been recognized by numerous sources, including The New York Times, where Grand Rapids was ranked as one of the 52 Places to Go. Additionally, Thrillist consider Grand Rapids the best food city in the state of Michigan, and in 2018, Trulia chose Grand Rapids as the Hottest Real Estate Market to Watch in the country. Grand Rapids is a city with endless experiences for people of every age. Learn more.
