Intensive care question

[Perrotfish]

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I have been told that Pediatric residents are 'capped' for the number of ICU months they can have. Can anyone clarify what that cap is and where that regulation is? Is it NICU plus PICU months, or does each kind of ICU have a separate cap? Do burn unit months count towards the cap? Trauma units? Cardiac ICUs? Any guidance would be appreciated.

 

[michigangirl]

http://www.acgme.org/acgmeweb/Portals/0/PFAssets/2013-PR-FAQ-PIF/320_pediatrics_07012013.pdf

I am not aware of any "caps"-- you need to meet all the other requirements, that's all. Only requirement is minimum 2 rotations in NICU and 2 in PICU. but those are minimums.

 

[J-Rad]

Certainly looks like they've changed the rules. When I was in training there was a 6mo critical care (NICU/PICU) cap. There were ways around it.

 

[Perrotfish]

http://www.acgme.org/acgmeweb/Portals/0/PFAssets/2013-PR-FAQ-PIF/320_pediatrics_07012013.pdf

I am not aware of any "caps"-- you need to meet all the other requirements, that's all. Only requirement is minimum 2 rotations in NICU and 2 in PICU. but those are minimums.

Wow, there are about half a dozen rules that I have been told for Peds Residencies that don't actually exist.

Anyway, thank you. This is going to help a lot when I'm scheduling my away rotations.

 

[DeadCactus]

Wow, there are about half a dozen rules that I have been told for Peds Residencies that don't actually exist.

Anyway, thank you. This is going to help a lot when I'm scheduling my away rotations.

It's pretty amazing how much of the information floating around as common knowledge and "facts" is totally wrong...

 

[oldbearprofessor]

In fairness, the 6 month rule WAS in existence for a number of years. At that time, there was concern that residents were being used as workhorses, especially in NICUs and were being over-trained in skills they were very unlikely to be using. Whether that was true or common is debatable. Now, the emphasis is on individualizing training experiences and evaluations and we have things like Individual Learning Plans and Tracking. Guidelines have changed to focus on making sure there are certain core experiences and then being flexible in other ways. How all this will work out is not really clear and there are definitely pros and cons to this approach as well. That however would best be discussed in another thread.

 

[BigRedBeta]

Wow, there are about half a dozen rules that I have been told for Peds Residencies that don't actually exist.

Anyway, thank you. This is going to help a lot when I'm scheduling my away rotations.

Just to be clear, these are BRAND NEW guidelines that just went in effect 6 weeks ago to coincide with the new Pediatric Milestones Project (My research in fellowship is educationally related, so I've spent a fair bit of time reading the ACGME requirements this year). The guidelines that were in effect 8 weeks ago did include a cap of 6 months of ICU (NICU and PICU combined and also Cardiac ICU) care. Same is true of a number of other "facts" that people are probably telling you. But considering that many peds residencies back in the day were a third (or more) NICU, the cap on ICU months was not unwarranted.

And even with the cap, it wasn't impossible to do more ICU months - there was just limitations on how those electives got labeled (ie they were Category C, not A as they would be for someone who was in a program that didn't max out).