Curriculum Overview

The UCSF Pediatric Residency is dedicated to providing education through a variety of modalities and formats to ensure its trainees have content that complements and augments the various training and experiential components of our residency program. Our curriculum is divided into several ways. Read more for information below.

Noon Conference

Every weekday, residents at all sites participate in noon conferences.  These conferences are normally held at Mission Bay and broadcast to residents at all sites.  Topics include clinical topics, professional development topics, and clinical reasoning (often known in other institutions as "Morning Report"), where cases from the wards and clinics at both hospitals are discussed in an interactive and engaging format.

Z-Block/Half-Day Conferences and Longitudinal Curricular Threads

Every 6 weeks, residents participate in a curriculum that is 100% protected from the clinical sphere.  On Tuesday mornings, interns have dedicated workshops focused on learning that is necessary early on during residency, and on Thursday mornings, the senior residents have additional learning sessions tailored to their needs.  These workshops are a mixture of simulation-based education, clinical guideline review, and board preparation.    Wednesday morning sessions are attended by one quarter of the residency, and are focused on longitudinal curricular themes including advocacy, health equity, quality improvement, mental health, and additional topics in primary care pediatrics. 

ZBlock Conferences

In-Unit Didactics

We recognize that the best learning occurs just before you interact with patients who have that condition, and many rotations have developed formal educational sessions that are administered during the rotation itself.  For example, the Newborn Nursery rotation has a curriculum that tackles topics such as care of infants with hyperbilirubinemia and evaluation of hip dysplasia, among other things.

Simulation

We have a robust simulation curriculum that occurs in multiple locations and formats within our pediatric residency. Some highlights include:

  • An embedded interprofessional mock code program on both the Pediatric Wards and our C6 Oncology unit. Residents work side by side with nurses to run in-situ mock codes while on these rotations, and junior and senior residents serve as code leaders.
  • An embedded simulation program at ZSFG 
  • Integrated simulation in the Mission Bay emergency Department runs in concert with our emergency medicine colleagues
  • Integrated PALS and NRP in our Intern Orientation as well as recertifications during Z-Blocks and Transition Seminars
  • Z-Block simulation-based education
  • We also utilize simulation in other ways, including challenging conversations and equity-based de-escalation programs, amongst others 

Grand Rounds

Grand Rounds occur weekly at both of our major clinical sites. Residents at ZSFG attend grand rounds on Tuesday mornings (schedule of topics can be found here) while residents at Mission Bay and associated elective rotations attend grand rounds on Thursday at noon (schedule of topics can be found here (Accessible to UCSF faculty and residents).

Both Grand Rounds serve to highlight advances and cutting-edge work in children’s health and health equity from local and national experts. 

Wellbeing

In addition to our efforts to foster community and connection within and outside of work (see Community and Belonging Section), we also want to attend to the day-to-day challenges and opportunities that our residents encounter.  

Each year, interns on service are covered by the senior residents to participate in a monthly noon conference facilitated by faculty whom they select for Intern Time Out. It is meant as a space to debrief and process the challenges of residency, connect with peers, and be supported by invested faculty. 

We have a long-standing and innovative simulation-based curriculum (known as the Kravitt Seminar) designed to support residents in a three-year process of delivering challenging news and navigating death and bereavement. Residents interact with both faculty and standardized patients to better prepare them to help patients and families navigate challenges, uncertainty, and loss.  

We also have a Code Lavendar program that engages faculty and staff to support and debrief challenging patient care experiences within the clinical environment. This service is an opt-out process that is collaboratively managed by the Chief Residents, the Director of Wellbeing, and our unit-based social workers. 

Transition Seminars

Annually, each R1 and R2 class is freed of clinical requirements for a day to focus on skills and topics needed for transition to roles with more autonomy and supervisory roles. Topics from feedback dialogues, overnight emergencies, leadership styles, and other senioring skills are facilitated by chiefs and faculty in interactive workshops embedded on these days.