The University of Iowa Children's Hospital is a state-of-the-art
pediatric facility integrated within the University of Iowa Hospitals
and Clinics (UIHC). Each year, University of Iowa Children's Hospital experiences
more than 100,000 clinic visits and more than 6,000 inpatient admissions.
In addition, numerous pediatric outreach and satellite clinics provide
primary and specialty care for children in communities throughout Iowa.
A "hospital within a hospital", University of Iowa Children's Hospital
benefits from the sophisticated services and comprehensive resources of
University of Iowa Hospital and Clinics, one of "America's Best Hospitals"
designated by U.S. News and World Report. As a part of a major university
teaching hospital, we enjoy access to diagnostic equipment and treatment
modalities that may not be found at most free-standing children' hospitals.
Yet, our environment of family centered care is fostered by very active
advisory groups of parents, patients, and referring physicians. And as
an academic teaching facility, University of Iowa Children's Hospital is preparing
medical and health care leaders for the future.
Pediatrics residents at UIHC are similar in many characteristics to their
national peers in educational background, gender distribution, career
choices, and subsequent training experiences after residency training.
However, our residents distinguish themselves by their high sense of responsibility
and dedication to their patients, their superb efforts as teachers of
medical students and others, and by their selection for national recognition
and awards. Our facilities, equipment, and support staff are unsurpassed.
We are organized into 16 divisions that span general pediatrics and all
of the subspecialty areas. The interfaces of pediatrics with obstetrics,
internal medicine, family practice, radiology, and other disciplines are
collegial and mutually assistive. We share management of several patients
with surgeons. In such a setting, residents learn appropriate professional
interrelationships.
Our clinical practice serves the general pediatric health care needs
of the local community and the subspecialty needs of the region. Patients
are referred from across the nation for certain specialized pediatric
treatments and services, such as bone marrow transplantation, pediatric
otolarynogology, neurosurgery and orthopedics. In addition, we conduct
clinics in other cities and towns throughout Iowa. Our patients represent
all pediatric age groups and all socioeconomic strata, and they present
with virtually all acute and chronic conditions.
The Department of Pediatrics of the Roy J. and Lucille A. Carver College
of Medicine at the University of Iowa is recognized nationally for excellence
in each of its endeavors: teaching, clinical service, and research related
to childhood diseases. Pediatrics faculty here are among the nation's
best trained and most successful, as reflected in our authorship of texts
in the discipline and of reports of basic and clinical research in leading
journals, receipt of research funds and training grants, election to leadership
positions in pediatrics, and receipt of national and international recognition
for achievements. All of these factors have led to our ranking in the
top 20 Departments of Pediatrics in the country. Since 2001, we have ranked in the top 15 in total NIH funding for research among all departments of pediatrics in public schools of medicine, and in the top 10 considering all medical school grant recipients in the country.
The faculty serve as the staff physicians for children cared for at the
University of Iowa Children's Hospital and as the mentors for residents and fellows
in pediatric training programs. More than 90 pediatricians, pediatric
subspecialists, child psychologists, and doctoral level scientists constitute
the full-time pediatrics faculty. In addition, many pediatricians in private
community practices throughout the state hold clinical faculty appointments
and participate in teaching residents and fellows as well as medical students.
Faculty expertise is applied daily to resident and fellow education and
to patient care. Measures of treatment outcomes of our patients and of
our residents' and fellows' successes in board certification examinations,
acceptance into further training programs and professional employment,
and acclaim for excellence in their pursuits by national awards committees
all attest to our effectiveness as clinicians and teachers.
The educational philosophy that drives our residency training program
is that we must prepare our trainees for a life-long career of self-education
and dedication to the practice of pediatrics at the forefront of the specialty
as it advances. We seek to provide each resident with a sufficiently broad
experience that he or she can choose wisely among all the pediatric options
to pursue a career in the general practice of pediatrics, a subspecialty
service career, or an academic career. We provide an education in the
exploding molecular understanding of pediatric diseases, the critical
evaluation of new information, and in the complex interactions of medicine
with law, government, religion, and society, as well as instruction in
the current diagnosis and treatment of disease. Residencies nationwide
are adapting to the goal to evaluate resident performance in a mode that
determines competence in a variety of areas. We are in the process of
transitioning to such a model, and as such, are creating various tools
to demonstrate that the training received at the Childrens Hospital
of Iowa enables residents to attain their goal of being competent, compassionate
and caring pediatricians. Our residents complete our training program
with a confidence in their knowledge and abilities, an awareness of where
pediatrics is now and where it is going, and the tools to participate
fully in its exciting future.
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Pediatrics Residency Program Home

Stacy McConkey, MD
Residency Program Director
Director, Division of Developmental and Behavioral Medicine

Amy Stier, MD
Associate Residency Program Director
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