Pediatric Anesthesia Training

Pediatric care at Loyola University Medical Center is provided at Ronald McDonald Children's Hospital, a tertiary referral center on the Loyola campus consisting of Level III NICU, PICU, monitored, and ward beds as well as the Ronald McDonald House for parents. The pediatric hospital is an active, growing facility with all pediatric medical and surgical subspecialties represented. The latter includes general, urologic, plastic, orthopedic, ENT, ophthalmologic, and cardiac surgical specialists.

Our goal is to provide the graduating anesthesia resident with the experience, skills and confidence to provide safe anesthesia for routine pediatric cases commonly encountered in a community hospital. The pediatric faculty consist of pediatric anesthesiologists, all of whom have completed a pediatric anesthesia fellowship, are board-certified in both pediatrics and anesthesia, or have equivalent past experience anesthetizing children.

All anesthesia residents will have a minimum core rotation of two months of pediatric anesthesia, with the option to take up to four additional months their senior year. The rotation includes both inpatient and outpatient cases. Outpatient procedures include a large volume of ENT, GU, and ophthalmologic cases. Challenging inpatient procedures include repair of complex congenital heart disease, necrotizing enterocolitis, bronchoscopy, neonatal surgical emergencies, grafting of burns, and remote-site anesthesia (radiologic, oncologic), etc. Required reading assignments with weekly quizzes during the two month pediatric anesthesia rotation and presenting on a pediatric anesthesia topic round out the resident's learning experience.

Additionally, attending pdiatric anesthesia faculty provide a comprehensive series of didactic lectures on pediatric anesthesia during the CA-1 to CA-3 years. Each quarter (approximately), a nationally recognized pediatric anesthesiologist lectures at Grand Rounds. Resident participation in pediatric clinical research projects and/or presentation of abstracts is also available and encouraged.