Founded in the 1970s, by Drs. Daniel L. Levin and Frances C. Morriss, the Fellowship in Pediatric Critical Care, was one of the first of its kind in the world and has gone on to train over 90 physicians in the art and science of intensive care for critically ill infants and children. One of the largest in the U.S., the program ranges in size from 12 to 15 fellows, depending on their individual career paths, and emphasizes intense periods of clinical rotations during the early part of the experience with a later shift to periods of protected time to carry out a research program developed with the help of faculty, other fellows and other UTSW investigators.

The educational emphases of the Division of Critical Care reflect the diversity of the trainees who rotate through the different PICUs and conduct research on the delivery of critical care to children. While the major thrusts of educational activities focus on physicians in various stages of training, Division Faculty also participate in the education of Pediatric Nurse Practitioners, Staff Nurses, and Respiratory Care Practitioners.

Medical Students who select the PICU to fulfill their acute care rotation requirements are exposed to the full range of patients seen in the different units, participate as integral members of the multidisciplinary team of residents, fellows, and faculty. The rotation emphasizes patient-based learning, with the student taking primary responsibility for 1 or 2 patients and using their illness as a jumping off point for learning that combines both didactic and self-directed study. Other elective opportunities for students, interested in learning about critically injured patients in a trauma/neurosurgical setting or children recovering from cardiovascular surgery to correct congenital or acquired heart disease.

Pediatric residents rotate through the PICU 1 month each year of their residency. The 3-year experience exposes residents to a spectrum of critically ill children at distinct phases of their training. As they progress from interns seeing patients this sick for the first time in their careers, to 2nd year residents with increased familiarity with these conditions and confidence to manage them, to leaders of entire resident teams whose responsibility is to care for a large number of these patients, the pediatric residents should experience both an increasing confidence in their ability to recognize and stabilize a critically ill child, as well as profound humility for the speed with which disease can take a child from his/her family.

Residents from other specialty training programs also rotate through the PICU’s at some stage in their training. This applies especially to residents in Anesthesiology and Pain Management, and Emergency Medicine, where Critical Care experience is required. Their experience is tailored to their individual experience level, but their membership on the Pediatric Teams is particularly welcome because of the perspective they bring from working with adult patients. Residents from other specialties are always welcome to participate in elective rotations in the multidisciplinary medical surgical, trauma/neurosurgical, or cardiovascular ICUs.