Training Sequence

The goal of the fellowship is to train competent, compassionate child abuse pediatricians who are able to evaluate suspected victims of abuse and neglect within a multi-disciplinary system of care. To accomplish this, the fellow will be expected to progress to independence through a system of increased responsibility with appropriate supervision.

There are six CAPs who will provide clinical supervision to the fellow. The fellow's clinical care and capability will be closely supervised and monitored, yet allow for individual growth and autonomy. The Clinical Competency Committee will review the fellow’s progress and evaluations to assure the fellow is advancing in clinical care and case management for promotion in independence and fellowship year and graduation.

Expected Activities by Year of Fellowship

Year One

In the first year of fellowship, the trainee will be introduced to the field mostly through clinical experiences under the direct supervision of an attending CAP. The fellow will have on-going communication with the Program Director and supervising attending physicians. The fellow will have protected time for research during the latter months of Year 1. This time is allocated to provide the fellows opportunity to research general areas of interest that will inform the fellow’s research question. During bi-weekly meetings with the primary mentor, the goals are:

1. To embark on a full literature review of child abuse pediatrics, as well as sentinel texts, many of them written by faculty within the program.
2. develop a slide series for future slide series for future lectures, drawn from cases throughout the year, and prior faculty digital libraries.
3. To identify areas of interest for research in years 2 and 3 of the program. This will be accomplished in three ways:
   • Identify areas of controversy related to cases staffed by fellows during the year.
   • Identify other topical areas of interest across the field of child abuse.
4. Solicit advice from CARES Institute faculty and other potential mentors within the hospital and universities.
5. To meet faculty across the institution who may share interest areas with the fellow in order to begin developing more concrete plans for research mentorship in years two and three.
6. To prepare administratively for research training for years two and three.

Years Two and Three

During the second year, as the fellow becomes more comfortable with the assigned duties, the fellow will take a more active, independent role in creating their own case plans and management. The fellow continues to present cases to the attending physicians; however the fellow is expected to synthesize the majority of the management plan and be actively involved with case management. During the third year, the fellow advances in independent clinical management. Although all cases are reviewed with an attending, the third-year fellow is expected to present a concise clinical case with the entire management plan determined by the fellow.

Clinical services are drawn back for the fellow in the second- and third-year of the program to permit the fellow’s scholarly work. An individualized plan will be developed with the Program Director and Scholarly Oversight Committee to assure that the basic requirements of the fellowship are met (quality improvement, policy and scholarly projects) by the completion of the fellowship.

Protected time is allotted for research to successfully complete their scholarly activity. Fellows are expected to complete rigorous training in ethics and regulatory issues related to research. This would include:

• Completion of online modules through Rowan University on biomedical research.
• Completion of CITI training for responsible conduct of research.
• Completion of HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) training.
• Attendance at conferences related to research design, QI, EBM, grants, etc. at Cooper and Rowan SOM.
• Participation in CARES research meetings.
• Attendance at National Research.

Each rotation represents one month.

KEY

ADV=Advocacy

CAP=Child Abuse Pediatrics

ELEC= Elective (such as Ophthalmology, Orthopedics, Radiology, etc.)

PEM=Pediatric Emergency Medicine

RES=Research*

*Research Blocks will include up to 20% Clinical CAP time