Curriculum

Pediatric Infectious Diseases Fellowship

Our fellowship in pediatric infectious diseases (ID) program has a structured curriculum with specific goals, objectives, activities and evaluation methods and is divided into the following rotations/activities:

  • Inpatient rotations
  • Outpatient rotations
  • Outside/external rotations: St. Jude’s Hospital (inpatient), Mayo Clinic - Jacksonville (transplant ID), UF adult infectious diseases (inpatient elective)
  • Microbiology laboratory rotation
  • Medical economics rotation
  • Epidemiology and infection control activities
  • Research and other scholarly activities

The approximate distribution of these educational experiences over the course of the 36-month fellowship is summarized in the attached graphs .pdf (Adobe PDF Document).

Inpatient Rotation

The inpatient rotations take place at Wolfson Children's Hospital and UF Health Jacksonville. Fellows are consulted on new patients by primary care physicians, pediatric hospitalists, intensivists, surgical specialists and other pediatric subspecialists. They also oversee the management of all inpatients admitted to the pediatric infectious diseases service.

St. Jude Children's Research Hospital Inpatient Rotation

Fellows spend a month-long rotation at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis, TN. This inpatient rotation enhances fellows' education and training in the management of infections in high-risk hosts (patients who are status post transplant, cancer and chemotherapy, etc).

Outpatient Rotation

The outpatient rotations take place primarily at the University of Florida Center for HIV/AIDS Research, Education and Service (UF CARES) and the Pediatric Infectious Diseases Clinic at the UF Health Pediatric Multispecialty Center – Prudential Drive. Fellows also attend the Duval County Health Department’s Sexually Transmitted Infections (STI) Clinic and Tuberculosis Clinic.

Adult Infectious Diseases Elective Rotation

This four-week elective rotation is available for fellows in their final year of training. It allows the pediatric infectious diseases fellow to practice adult infectious diseases to learn about the differences in practice and management of the adult patient population.

Transplant Infectious Diseases Rotation at Mayo Clinic - Jacksonville

The fellows rotate for four weeks with the Jacksonville’s Mayo Clinic adult infectious diseases program to gain exposure and experience in the management of transplant patients. They attend to the inpatient service as well as the outpatient clinics and participate actively in didactic conferences within the infectious diseases division.

Microbiology Laboratory Rotation

During a four-week rotation in the Microbiology Laboratory at Baptist Medical Center, first-year fellows are introduced to basic and advanced medical microbiological techniques, their interpretation and their role in establishing an etiologic diagnosis. During their second year of training, fellows complete a two-week microbiology laboratory rotation at UF Health Jacksonville to further enrich their clinical microbiology education.

Medical Economics Rotation

This two-week elective is offered to third-year fellows. It consists of a series of didactic lectures coupled with practical experiences. Fellows rotate through a variety of offices for managed care, private practice, advocacy speaker, medical business/billing and risk management.

Epidemiology and Infection Control

Fellows are required to attend the infection control committee meetings at Wolfson Children's Hospital held twice a month. They play an integral role in the research and workings of the infection control team.

Each fellow completes the Infectious Diseases Society of America/Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America infection control fellows’ online course by the end of their 2nd year of training.

Research and Other Scholarly Activities

Research

Please refer to the research page for more details on this section.

Other Scholarly Activities

Under the guidance of faculty, fellows assume a supervisory and teaching role over pediatric/family practice residents and medical students doing an elective rotation. Fellows do bedside teaching, participate in morning reports and meet with residents daily to discuss patient's progress and formulate plans. Communication, teaching skills and ethical principles are taught by faculty through role modeling during specific rotations.

Additionally, fellows are required to attend a teaching skills seminar organized by the Office of Educational Affairs, and ethics conferences organized by the pediatrics core program.

Conferences

  1. Infectious diseases core curriculum conference: Twice monthly.
  2. Clinical case and literature review conference: Every other month, interactive discussion of the case, followed by a brief review of the topic
  3. Combined peds/adult infectious diseases conference: Monthly, one case is presented by a pediatric ID fellow and another case is presented by an adult ID fellow, there is an interactive discussion of the cases, followed by a brief review of the topics
  4. Journal club: Monthly, an evidence-based medicine practicum
  5. Peds ID morbidity and mortality conference: Quarterly review of pediatric deaths and complications related to infectious diseases
  6. HIV grand rounds: Monthly discussion of a topic related to HIV
  7. Microbiology/infectious diseases conference and lab rounds: Monthly discussion of current cases and topics in clinical microbiology are presented, with correlation of laboratory findings with clinical presentation, rounds in the microbiology laboratory are conducted at least three times a month to discuss various day-to-day aspects of clinical diagnostic microbiology
  8. Pharmacology conference: Lectures are provided on the pharmacology of antimicrobials
  9. Infection control and hospital epidemiology (IC/HE): Twice a month
  10. Research conferences: Quarterly, fellows present their research projects (proposal, updates, results, etc.)
  11. Fellows research seminars and online modules/courses: A series of lectures given each academic year on research and publication methodologies is made available to fellows during their training, lectures cover the basics of biostatistics, research design and interpretation of scientific literature
  12. Teaching skills seminars: All-day seminar during the first or second year of training is offered to improve knowledge and skills in facilitating the learning of other health professionals
  13. Cases in pediatric infectious diseases series: Monthly review of case vignettes in a quiz-like format followed by a discussion of differential diagnoses and pertinent clinical and theoretical information