Fellowship Program Overview
The Neonatal Fellowship at the University of Louisville is a three-year ACGME accredited program divided into clinical service rotations and research. Clinical service rotations are split between Norton Children’s Hospital level IV NICU and the University of Louisville Hospital level III NICU. Fellows have the opportunity to see patients in the Neonatal High-Risk Follow-Up outpatient clinic in the state-of-the-art Novak Center for Children's Health, and they also accompany the "Just for Kids" Transport Team during the transport of critically ill infants.
​
Time is dedicated to clinical and laboratory research and outcomes research. Fellows in the Neonatal Fellowship Program will use this time for reading, independent study in the sub-specialty area, and preparing for lectures and teaching.
Core Curriculum
​
Our 12-month rolling monthly topic theme includes core lectures given by speakers from within as well as outside of the division of neonatology and dedicated board-review sessions providing broad exposure to topics. Traditional lectures join case-based, interactive, and flipped-classroom style lectures to create a foundation catered to the adult learner. In addition, we utilize software including Kahoot, Mentimeter, and Poll Everywhere which help engage learners. In addition to our core curriculum, we also collaborated with colleagues in other divisions for combined learning opportunities such as ECMO skills education with PICU, ED, and surgery fellows. We offer hybrid sessions with in-person attendance as well as streaming via zoom. Finally, we have built a neonatal fellows team through Microsoft Teams which has provided a centralized hub of educational resources.​​
Clinical Service ​
​
Fellows spent clinical service time at several location. The primary locations are at our Norton Children's Hospital Level IV NICU and at our University of Louisville Level III NICU. First year fellows spent time with our "Just for Kids" transport team and this experience is continued throughout training with emphasis on allowing service fellows or night call fellows to participate in complex transport cases. Over the past year, we have developed a private practice rotation opportunity for upper level fellows at our Norton Women's and Children's Level III NICU. Our goal is to ensure each fellow receives a broad range of clinical experiences during their years of training.
Additional time is spent at the Novak center for neonatal follow-up clinic as well as at three of our clinic outreach sites (Bowling Green, Owensboro, and Paducah, KY).
​
​
Scholarly Work
Fellows have several months devoted to research alone. Fellows are encouraged to identify areas of research interest early in the program and to establish mentors. It is our expectation that all fellows will have submitted a publication by the time they graduate.​
​
Research Curriculum Series
​
The course is designed to guide fellows through their research experience. Modules include conducting a literature review, developing a research question, writing the protocol and statistical plan. Other topics include the ethical conduct of research, basic statistics and graphing, ways of presenting data and how to write a paper.
Mentoring Program
​
​The mentoring program at the University of Louisville is aimed at the proper balance of support, challenge, and strategy that enables our fellows to build the foundation of their careers during their training experience. Fellows complete a vision board at the start of fellowship and are matched with faculty (with input from the fellow) that would be best suited to give their guidance and expertise. A key component of success during fellowship training is effective and supportive mentoring.
​
​
Quality Improvement & Safety Curriculum
​
The quality improvement and safety curriculum provides our neonatal fellows the opportunity to learn and practice their skills in a group setting. Neonatal fellows are integrated into unit quality improvement projects and learn how to use basic QI methodology and statistical process control to lead their projects. Fellows participate in the safety curriculum over three years, as well as take part in unit wide safety activities; these activities include reviewing and responding to pateint safety concerns, attending the hospital Team Safety Meeting and taking part in Congenital Heart Disease Flight Plan reviews. The safety curriculum culminates in the third year where fellows present a root cause analysis for the division. The quality improvement and safety curriculum is an engaging way for our neonatal fellows to learn leadership skills that will serve them in an academic or private practice setting.
​
Wellness Program
We offer a formalized Wellness curriculum with the content delivered at quarterly wellness workshops. There is support for wellness events such as our beginning of the year “Welcome Party,” all fellows retreat, and mid-year “Holiday Party.” In addition, we hope to have an off-campus fellow retreat and 2-3 fellow dinner clubs with coverage from the units (pending COVID restraints). We have wellness themes for each month that we will work to emphasize during that month with awareness to available resources.
Norton Children's Hospital NICU
Norton Children’s Hospital has 300-beds and is Louisville's only Level I Pediatric Trauma Center. It provides the area's highest-rated neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) and serves as the primary pediatric teaching facility affiliated with the University of Louisville School of Medicine. The NICU is a 101-bed Level IV providing ECMO and surgical repair complex birth defects or acquired conditions.
University of Louisville Hospital NICU
University of Louisville Hospital Center for Women & Infants houses a 24-bed Level III NICU – one of the largest in the region with approximately 300 admissions per year. The unit has been designated as a baby-friendly hospital by baby-friendly USA (2017- 2022).
Norton Women's and Children's Hospital NICU
The Level III NICU at Norton Women’s & Children’s Hospital provides a high level of care for medically fragile newborns including ELBWs, therapeutic hypothermia, etc. Surgical repair of complex conditions and ECMO are only provided in the NICU at Norton Children’s Hospital in downtown Louisville.
Novak Outpatient Neonatal Follow-up Clinic
The Novak Center for Children's Health opened in Summer 2018. This 176,000 square foot building is home to general, specialty and subspecialty pediatrics programs at the University of Louisville and Norton Children's Medical Group. There are seven clinical floors, a conference center, and three roof-top gardens to provide state-of-the art patient care and pediatrics medical training. Additionally, fellows attend outreach clinic at three satalite locations in Kentucky: Bowling Green, Owensboro and Paducah.
