Our graduates report feeling very well-prepared for the next step of their careers. We offer many opportunities for residents to individualize their training to meet their specific career goals.
In addition to a robust selection of clinical rotations, our residents participate in multiple organized learning sessions to enhance their education and ensure strong preparation for the pediatric board exam. Finally, we reinforce the importance of each pediatrician’s engagement in his or her community through comprehensive training in advocacy.
Our Locations
Brenner Children's Hospital
Brenner Children’s Hospital is a 160-bed “hospital within a hospital” founded in 1986. This $132 million facility is the only children’s hospital in northwest North Carolina. The pediatric emergency department (including the Childress Institute for Pediatric Trauma) has an annual volume of approximately 38,000 visits per year, became the first Level 1 pediatric trauma center in the state in 2011 (one of only 51 centers in the country); and is also one of only two level 1 Pediatric Burn Centers in the state of North Carolina. We are an active member of the Injury Free Coalition for Kids, and in January 2021, the American College of Surgeons verified Brenner Children’s Hospital as the only regional Level I Children’s Surgery Center. The inpatient pediatric ward comprises five floors of Brenner Children’s Hospital and includes pediatric and neonatal intensive care units plus the Wake Forest Birth Center, opened in 2019. The Birth Center was recently voted one of America’s Best Maternity Hospitals for 2022 by Newsweek. More than 4,500 children are admitted to Brenner Children’s Hospital each year, and more than 21,000 pediatric subspecialty visits occur annually at the hospital-based outpatient clinics.
Downtown Health Plaza
The Downtown Health Plaza (DHP) is the largest primary care outpatient department in the Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist system and the home of our resident continuity clinics. This multidisciplinary clinic, including Internal Medicine and Obstetrics and Gynecology in addition to Pediatrics, is strategically located in a healthcare manpower shortage area and has a unique attachment to the underserved east Winston-Salem community. It is certified as a level 3 patient-centered medical home by the National Committee for Quality Assurance, meaning that our residents are taught a model of care placing patients at the forefront. Radiology, lab and pharmacy are located on-site. Patients are screened for the social determinants of health at every visit, and we have an onsite Food Pharmacy, as well as funds to support transportation and other basic needs for our patients. Close partnerships exist with many community resources, and several are co-located within the DHP. The DHP is the primary outpatient teaching site for the residency program.
Rotation Overview
Our inpatient pediatric ward comprises three floors of Brenner Children's Hospital.
While on service, residents are exposed to both general pediatrics and subspecialty patients, including, cardiology, nephrology, rheumatology, gastroenterology, pulmonology, infectious diseases, neurology, hematology/oncology, and endocrinology.
Additionally we assist the various surgical specialties (ENT, Neurosurgery, Orthopedics, Ophthalmology, Urology, and Pediatric Surgery) in the care of admitted patients.
We have three resident wards teams – one inpatient subspecialty team, and two primarily pediatric hospital medicine teams. The subspecialty team is comprised of a second and a third year resident, and our hospital medicine teams are comprised of one second or third year and two interns. A third hospital medicine team is staffed by APPs and helps to protect resident education during times of high census. Interns act as the primary physician and point of contact for patients and their families. Our upper level residents are given autonomy to run their team with guidance from our hospitalist and subspecialty faculty. Residents only have four 24-hour calls through all of residency, with none during intern year. The average intern load through the course of the year is five to eight patients.
While in the PICU residents cover a variety of patients, most commonly trauma, respiratory failure, sepsis, solid organ transplant, and ECMO.
Brenner Children's Hospital NICU offers subspecialty pediatric care including, pediatric surgery, and ECMO.
At Brenner Children's Hospital, the intensive care unit and the intermediate care unit handle referrals from nurseries and NICUs across the state, offering residents a wide-range of patient populations and pathology.
- 24/7 NNP/PA coverage with additional MD/DO and PA Resident coverage during daytime, in addition to medical students rotating through the NICU
- 4 teams of providers: 2 resident teams and 2 NNP/PA teams
- On-site Level IV NICU adjacent to The Birthing Center, with immediate access to neonatologists and 79 beds (74 single patient rooms)
- Innovative palliative care program
The pediatric emergency department at Brenner Children's Hospital offers our residents experience in caring for both emergencies and acute care visits.
Our pediatric emergency department carries a Level I Trauma Center designation along with the Childress Institute for Pediatric Trauma. We have more than 38,000 pediatric visits each year with a 12-14% admission rate through our 24 bed state-of-the-art ED that opened in March 2011. Our core faculty is comprised of 13 pediatric emergency department physicians, all with specific fellowship training in pediatric emergency medicine. The department also offers a fellowship in pediatric emergency medicine, taking two fellows each year.
Subspecialty clinics take place daily in the pediatric outpatient clinic, with more than 25,000 visits annually.
We offer all major sub-specialties, as well as housing several multidisciplinary clinics such as Brenner FIT, Kids Eat, Cystic Fibrosis clinic, and Cleft clinic, and trach/vent clinic which allow families to bring their child in on one day to see all of their various subspecialty providers.
Each resident is assigned to their Continuity Clinic in the Pediatrics Downtown Health Plaza pediatric outpatient clinic facility.
The Continuity Clinic is a high priority in our program, and residents at all levels are relieved of other duties to attend the clinic throughout the year. Once assigned to a certain clinic day, residents maintain their clinic group throughout their 3 years of residency, building close relationships with the continuity clinic faculty and other residents that share the same day. Patients include newborns, all the way through adolescent visits.
As dedicated pediatricians we strive to provide a medical home for our patients, especially those with chronic medical conditions. In addition to well-child care, we provide follow-up visits for inpatient and emergency department discharges and acute sick visits. We aim to ensure access for all within our community. We offer bilingual staff and Spanish-language interpreters for our patients who need or prefer to communicate in their first language.