Care is supervised by 2 full-time Pediatric Hospitalists. Subspecialists contribute to patient care as consultants, while specialists from other departments collaborate with the pediatric staff, as in the care of infants with surgical problems. Residents are able to follow the progress of many patients after discharge through the Inova Pediatric Center. The specialty care unit is for the care of immunosuppressed children, including oncology, rheumatology, bone marrow and kidney transplant patients. Emphasis is on the continuity of medical and psychosocial care required for these chronic, complex patients.
Residents work as part of a team with the outpatient program, nursing, social work and child life.
While the attending specialty service constitutes much of the active care, residents follow the patients throughout admission and emphasize in each experience the role of the primary caregiver. Responsibilities for this floor are mixed with those of the inpatient floor coverage, but a PL-2 provides primary coverage. Experiences also include hospice and terminal care, and coordination of outpatient home care and outpatient therapies. The experience in the newborn service includes managing the normal infant, handling problems in the delivery room and learning the normal transitional physiology. Because the emphasis of this residency is on primary care, the resident learns to manage problems likely to be encountered in community hospitals while being exposed to the more complex neonatal cases.