Fellows study the pathophysiology of medical and surgical critical illness in infants and children, learn diagnostic skills and therapeutic procedures and participate in rounds, didactic presentations, on-call and teaching of residents and medical students. The unit has 22 beds. It is the primary training base for fellows in anesthesiology and surgery critical care. The unit serves general surgical patients and patients from all the surgical specialties except cardiothoracic surgery. Because Washington University Medical Center is a Level 1 trauma center and a regional burn center, the unit serves many burn and trauma patients.
Fellows participate in the care of all patients in the unit.