Characteristics of Pediatric Hospital Medicine Fellowships and Training Programs

OBJECTIVE: To explore the structure, components, and training goals of pediatric hospitalist fellowship programs in North America. DESIGN: We constructed a 17-item structured questionnaire to be administered by phone. Questionnaire items focused on documenting goals, training, requirements, and clinical duties of pediatric hospitalist training programs. From February through June 2007, research staff contacted directors of the programs. Responses were ana-lyzed to determine program characteristics, including goals, formal training require-ments, clinical rotations, and participation in hospital administrative activities. RESULTS: All 8 training programs completed the survey. There appear to be 2 dis-tinct tracks for pediatric hospitalist training programs: clinical or academic spe-cialization. Currently there are no standards or requirements for fellowship training from an external accrediting body and the curriculum for these pro-grams is likely driven by service requirements and speculation on the needs of a future generation of pediatric hospitalists. The stated goals of the programs were quite similar. Seven reported that the provision of advanced training in the clini-cal care of hospitalized patients, quality improvement (QI), and hospital adminis-tration are central goals of their training program. Six reported training in the education of medical students and residents to be a primary goal, while 5 indi-cated training in health services research as a primary goal. CONCLUSIONS: Pediatric hospitalist fellowships are in the very early stages of their development. In time, greater structure across institutions will need to be put in place if they are to succeed in becoming a necessary prerequisite to the practice of hospital medicine. Journal of Hospital Medicine 2009;4:157–163. VC 2009 Society of Hospital Medicine