Pediatric Residency Curriculum: Clinical Experience

Our curriculum provides comprehensive exposure and training in all areas of pediatrics, allowing flexibility in the schedule so you can customize your training to meet your career goals. Our program places equal emphasis on general and subspecialty care, preparing you to practice primary care or pursue a fellowship after graduation. Residents receive individualized attention from our faculty for education, supervision and mentoring, and they have ample time for self-directed learning as well as time for personal needs. We utilize the X+Y schedule model, which allows for balanced, wellness-based scheduling and focused attention to each rotation.

Pediatric Residency clinical curriculum consists of: 

Continuity clinic 

Residents follow their panel of patients longitudinally throughout residency and appreciate the important role of the primary care clinician in ensuring health and wellness throughout childhood. Residents care for their patients at Valley Health Partners (VHP) Children’s Clinic, which is a hospital-based practice serving a diverse population of pediatric patients throughout the Lehigh Valley. 

Acute ambulatory care

Residents rotate each year at VHP Children’s Clinic, caring for sick children in an ambulatory setting and managing acute illness.

Pediatric emergency medicine

Residents rotate each year in the Breidegam Family Children’s ER at Lehigh Valley Hospital–Cedar Crest, learning from pediatric emergency physicians how to treat and manage acutely ill and injured children. 

Neonatal intensive care

Residents rotate once in the PGY-1 year and once in the PGY-2 year in our 40-bed Level IV neonatal intensive care unit at Lehigh Valley Reilly Children’s Hospital, caring for critically ill premature and term infants with our team of neonatologists and neonatal nurse practitioners.

Pediatric intensive care

Residents rotate once in the PGY-2 year and once in the PGY-3 year in our renovated 12-bed pediatric intensive care unit with pediatric intensivists, caring for critically ill infants, children and adolescents with a variety of acute and life-threatening illnesses and injuries, including burn and trauma.

Inpatient pediatrics

Residents rotate three to four times each year on our 50-bed pediatric inpatient unit and 12-bed observation unit under the supervision of pediatric hospitalists, caring for children with a large variety of acute and chronic illnesses with the support of multiple pediatric specialists.

Newborn care

Residents rotate once in the PGY-1 year and once in the PGY-3 year on our mother-baby unit, evaluating newborns and educating families about their new baby.

Adolescent medicine

Residents rotate with adolescent medicine specialists, focusing on the complex medical and psychosocial issues of teens.

Developmental and behavioral pediatrics

Residents rotate in a variety of settings, evaluating and managing children of all ages for developmental and behavioral concerns.

Community and advocacy

Residents rotate in a variety of settings, focusing on the improvement of pediatric care at Lehigh Valley Health Network (LVHN) – quality initiatives – and gaining exposure to community resources and advocacy services for children throughout the Lehigh Valley.

Subspecialty pediatrics and individualized electives

Residents will be able to customize subspecialty rotations and individualized electives based on their career goals and preferences. Subspecialty rotations at LVHN include: 

• Pediatric cardiology
• Pediatric hematology oncology
• Pediatric neurology
• Pediatric pulmonology
• Pediatric endocrinology
• Pediatric gastroenterology
• Pediatric surgery (options of general, ENT, plastics, urology)
• Pediatric anesthesiology and procedural sedation
• Pediatric radiology
• Child and adolescent psychiatry
• Pediatric allergy and immunology
• Pediatric infectious disease
• Pediatric musculoskeletal medicine
• Toxicology
• Dermatology
• Pediatric nutrition
• Pediatric procedures rotation
• Rural community health
• Pediatric nephrology
• Global health
• Teaching elective
• Private practice general pediatrics
• Scholarly activity/research