About the Program
Rotation Sites
- Children's Medical Center Dallas is the #1 children's hospital in North Texas, ranked in all 11 pediatric specialties by U.S. News and World Report, and treats more than 300,000 children annually (and growing!). Children's serves as our residency program's home base and primary clinical training site for ED, inpatient, ambulatory, and ICU rotations. Here, our teams advance the leading edge of pediatric care for children in North Texas and beyond.
- Parkland Memorial Hospital is one of the country's great county hospital systems. Our residents rotate at this site, just across the street from Children's, for newborn nursery and NICU rotations. Over 12,000 babies are born here every year, providing ample hands-on training experience for neonatal and perinatal care.
- Texas Scottish Rite for Children is a nationally renowned center for pediatric orthopedics, development, and other specialties. Residents participate in their Developmental-Behavioral Pediatrics rotation and other electives at this site.
- X+Y+Z Schedule
The UTSW/CMC Pediatrics residency schedule is designed as a house system with an “X+Y+Z” format.
Why X+Y?
- X+Y is an increasingly popular format for scheduling in pediatric residency programs. X+Y has been shown to improve balance between inpatient and outpatient experiences, allowing residents to be more present in each clinical setting. This consistency allows residents to fully immerse themselves in the outpatient experience for 2 weeks at a time, building longitudinal relationships with clinic staff and patients and allows for a structural approach to fostering wellness.
Block Descriptions
- X (4 weeks): these weeks are primarily inpatient, including floor and ICU rotations.
- Y (2 weeks): these weeks consist of seven half-days of continuity clinic, with the rest of the time spent in Academic Half Days, Wellness Half Days, and longitudinal ambulatory experiences, including Community Pediatrics/Advocacy, Developmental Pediatrics, Mental Health, Adolescent Medicine.
- Z (2 weeks): these weeks are primarily ED rotations, electives, or back-up call.
Sample Schedules by Year
Houses
- Each year, our incoming Pediatric residents are “sorted” into Hogwarts Houses. Each house follows a similar X+Y schedule, with Y blocks and “Golden Weekends” repeated on a predictable interval. Each house also participates in the year-long House Cup competition together.
- Continuity Clinics
The continuity clinic experience teaches residents the clinical, interpersonal, and administrative skills and knowledge to provide pediatric primary care confidently and competently in the ambulatory setting. Residents will be exposed to a wide array of outpatient general pediatric experiences including well visits, management of chronic medical conditions, and acute illnesses during their three years of training. The educational experience is structured so that residents care for a panel of patients over time, allowing them to develop a rapport with the child and his/her family.
- Duration: At least thirty-six half-day clinic sessions per year, in accordance with the X + Y block schedule, for three years
- Locations: Children's Health Primary Care, Parkland Community Oriented Primary Care Centers, Federally Qualified Health Centers, and various community practices
The UT Southwestern Pediatric Residency Program also partners with local clinics and organizations to enhance training and improve child health. A key initiative, the Community Pediatric Physician Partners Outreach Program (C3PO), connects residents with the community through hands-on experiences. By participating in C3PO, residents gain a deeper understanding of community challenges and resources, strengthening their ability to provide holistic, patient-centered care.
- Individualized Curriculum
Our program offers a robust individualized curriculum. As a quaternary care center, we offer over 50 unique elective experiences that cater to the interests of residents aiming to become general pediatricians or pediatric subspecialists. We also welcome residents to partner with faculty members to create custom electives, many of which are later formalized into the elective catalog.
With guidance from faculty mentors and class APDs, our residents choose a “pathway,” which aids residents in tailoring their individualized time toward their career goals with recommended electives, faculty mentors, and scholarship opportunities.
- Conferences
Noon Conference
Our program hosts a daily lunch hour conference from 12 pm - 1 pm on Monday through Friday with buffet-style food catered by our main cafeteria. The noon conference content begins didactic-forward bootcamp during the early months of the academic year centered around high-yield topics from each specialty that residents rotate through. Following the bootcamp series is a rotation of case-based learning by departments and chief residents, dedicated board prep, monthly house staff meetings, Friday social and advising hours, and professional development topics including advocacy, global health, QI, and more.
Protected Academic Half Day
Our residents participate in twelve Protected Academic Half Days per year during which they are completely free of clinical responsibilities. These half days are comprised of resident morning report, case-based learning, and core curriculum topics combined with our robust simulation program. Our core curriculum topics are curated into a 12-month course for our PGY-1s and 24-month course for our senior residents.
- Simulation
Our Pediatric Residency incorporates a simulation curriculum, hosted at our state-of-the-art simulation center and other sites, that is designed to complement your clinical and didactic education activities. Our goal is to prepare residents to provide resuscitation, stabilization, and triage of acutely ill pediatric and neonatal patients, while also fostering the skills and teamwork behaviors necessary for effective communication and collaboration in these situations. We know these skills are best learned under realistic conditions in a safe training environment.
This program incorporates several simulation-based activities throughout the year, including:
- Interprofessional simulation sessions during orientation for new PGY-1's
- Interprofessional simulation sessions and procedure labs during Protected Academic Half Days
- Simulation sessions, mock codes, and procedure labs during NICU Delivery rotation
- Mock codes during PICU rotation
- Select topics covered in past simulations include: septic shock, cardiogenic shock, anaphylaxis, respiratory failure, status epilepticus, SVT, Vfib, PEA, traumas, and acute psychosis
- Advocacy
Just as we work to develop residents into excellent clinicians, we work equally hard to give residents the skills needed to be an effective child advocate for the rest of their careers. Every resident in our program receives frontline advocacy and community health training as part of our core curriculum.
Community Pediatrics
This rotation allows residents to explore non-medical drivers of health that affect the well-being of children and families in North Texas. Residents have an opportunity to learn about poverty, food insecurity, health disparities, access to health insurance, homelessness, toxic stress, legislation 101 and much more. Lastly, residents are introduced to some of the community organizations that provide services and resources for children and families both through on-site visits and/or volunteer work.
Legislative Advocacy
Each Spring, residents and other trainees throughout Texas have the opportunity to participate in the Texas Pediatric Society's (TPS) Pediatric Trainee Advocacy Day. During this event, trainees attend a morning of workshops where they learn about TPS' legislative priorities, as well as how to craft an effective policy-related "elevator pitch.” Trainees also hear from keynote speakers in the legislative advocacy field. In the afternoon, attendees meet with Texas legislators to discuss policies of note, and to advocate for the health of children and families.
Community Organization Resident Practicum (CORP) Elective
The CORP elective is a two-week elective that aims to foster relationships between our residents and the many critical community organizations that work to ensure the comprehensive health of patients and families. Residents partake in both formal lectures and informal round table discussions with leaders from local health care systems, non-governmental organizations, and social outreach programs.
- Global Health
Whether you are interested in a career in global pediatrics, public health, or simply wish to expand your understanding of health care beyond borders, our Global Health Program offers mentorship, structure, and flexibility to support your path.
Domestic and “Glocal” opportunities play a key role in global health training. Our Dallas Global Health Elective prepares residents for international practice without leaving DFW. This two-week, multidisciplinary rotation includes:
- Online modules and faculty-led lectures on global health ethics, tropical medicine, and diseases of poverty
- Simulation-based procedural training (suturing, splinting, ultrasound, malnutrition supplement recipe sampling, etc.)
- Case-based exercises to develop clinical decision-making in variable-resource environments
International rotations are personalized to align with each resident's career goals and interests. From urban hospitals in Lima to rural clinics in Malawi or Guinea, residents gain firsthand experience navigating health care delivery in variably resourced settings. Our residents have traveled to several international sites, partnering with hospitals and communities to help launch meaningful, sustainable projects.
Global Health International Rotation Site Partnerships:
- Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia - Lima, Peru
- Sacré Coeur / Hope Ignited - Conakry, Guinea
- BIPAI (Baylor International Pediatric AIDS Initiative) - Lilongwe, Malawi
- Scholarship
Our residents complete at least one scholarly activity prior to graduation. These activities vary based on the interests of the resident and have historically included (but are not limited to) basic science, clinical/translational, quality improvement, medical education, and advocacy projects. Residents have access to invested and accomplished faculty investigators across our tertiary care children’s hospital (Children’s Medical Center) and overarching institution (UT Southwestern). Along with presentations at our program’s scholarly symposium, we have an excellent track record of residents who have had projects accepted to major national meetings and peer reviewed journals and have received grants from the AAP, NHLBI, and major professional societies. There is financial support available for residents who have been accepted to conferences as presenting authors.
- Resident Wellness
Residency can be challenging, and we understand how pivotal it is to incorporate wellness into our training program. Our wellness initiatives are multimodal, beginning in orientation and reinforced throughout residency. These include, but are not limited to:
- X + Y scheduling, with Wellness Half Days for health and dentist appointments and “Golden Weekends” during Y blocks
- Clear and equitable coverage policies for illness/fatigue
- Use of Shift Admin scheduling system to empower resident shift adjustments
- “Big/Little Peer” Mentoring Program
- Check-Ins with Faculty Advisor and Chief Residents
- Debriefing sessions after PICU, NICU, GI, Cardiology rotations; patient deaths / difficult encounters
- Access to the UT Southwestern Resident Wellness and Counseling Center (covered by health insurance), which provides individual and couples therapy, medication management, standardized test preparation, mindfulness training, and more
- Regular housestaff meetings for resident feedback
- Residency sponsored events (Intern Retreat, Residents as Leaders, Holiday Party, Graduation)
- House Cup competition with wellness day activities
- Wellness Residency Committee Events (fitness classes, Halloween Costume Contest, birthday celebrations, good news newsletters, book club, coordinating after-work activities)
- Annual Faculty vs Resident softball game
- Employee benefits, badge money, free weekday lunches, educational funds, free parking
