Mission

The Integrated Pediatric Residency Program’s mission is to provide comprehensive training in a supportive environment to develop ready, compassionate, and dedicated pediatricians and officers.

Vision

Our vision is to be a premier military pediatric residency known for its collaborative and caring environment and high-quality training to equip pediatricians to provide exceptional care to children worldwide, whether in or out of uniform.

Aims

Ready Pediatricians

Train pediatricians capable of providing highest quality evidence-based care in any military treatment facility, deployed or on humanitarian missions.

Compassionate Leaders

Develop leaders who thrive in team environments, communicating clearly and respectfully, seeking to help everyone around them perform to their best abilities, both in the clinical environment and their communities.

Lifelong Learners

Nurture a value of lifelong learning, continued teaching, scholarly growth, and always striving to do their best.

Commitment to Safety

Encourage safety starting with the care of each patient to the improvement of the medical care system, empowering involvement in quality improvement and patient safety initiates in all clinical environments.

Growth and Resiliency

Cultivate skills that maximize resiliency and physician wellness through personal insight, community and connection to those in medical, military and local environment.

Our program has a dedicated didactic afternoon on Wednesdays starting at 12 p.m. with Dayton Children's Hospital (DCH) Grand Rounds, then three hours of resident-specific education from core faculty, chief residents and subspecialty faculty. While on rotation at DCH, residents attend morning report from 8:25 to 9 a.m. on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday where a senior resident utilizes case presentations to facilitate learning through discussion. While rotating at WPMC, residents attend morning lecture from 8 – 9 a.m. on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday; lectures vary from specialty teaching by cardiology, dermatology, dentistry, developmental, child/adolescent psychiatry, core faculty, chief resident, senior residents and rotating medical students, as well as monthly simulation for either neonatal resuscitation (NRP) or pediatric code (PALS) and a monthly IV lab. Also, residents on their full-day continuity clinic days participate in a 40-minute continuity clinic didactic prior to the start of their afternoon clinic, leading the discussion as a PGY-3 resident under the mentorship of faculty members.

Throughout the academic year, residents present case conferences, morbidity and mortality conferences, and American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) Clinical Practice Guideline presentations. Residents also participate in the Healer’s Art course during orientation and Finding Meaning in Medicine groups periodically throughout the year to promote cohesion and wellness. All residents complete the Resident Quality Improvement Curriculum (RQIC) at DCH and contribute to outpatient quality improvement projects at WPMC while on rotation, as well as many opportunities to participate in quality improvement projects throughout DCH. We also hold monthly Journal Club and Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) discussions. Third year residents participate in a longitudinal Friday afternoon Board Review during the last six months of their residency to help prepare for board examination.

Military Specialties

Adolescent, developmental-behavioral, cardiology and dermatology.

Civilian Specialties

Allergy/immunology, anesthesiology, cardiology, endocrinology, foster and kinship care clinic, gastroenterology, genetics, hematology/oncology, infectious disease, nephrology, neurology, neurosurgery, ophthalmology, orthopedic surgery, otolaryngology, pain management, pediatric surgery, physical medicine and rehab, plastic surgery, psychiatry, pulmonology, rheumatology, sleep medicine, sports medicine and urology.

Other

Research elective; Quality / Process Improvement elective; Institution Quality Improvement / Patient Safety elective; Pediatric Advocacy, Resident Education, and Newborn Training (PARENT) elective. Options for away-rotations for specialties not available or for possible fellowship application readily supported. Additionally, any inpatient or outpatient required rotation can be taken again as an elective if the resident desires.

• Inpatient services utilize a night shift schedule, with a mix of PGY-1 as well as PGY-2 and PGY-3 residents covering the general pediatric, hematology/oncology and subspecialty services at Dayton Children's Hospital (DCH).
• PGY-2 residents provide five to six call shifts while on 4-week rotation at DCH Neonatal ICU, and PGY-2 and PGY-3 residents provide five to six call shifts while on 4-week rotation at DCH Pediatric ICU. PGY-2 and PGY-3 residents cross-cover either Saturday or Sundays at DCH while on elective rotations.
• We utilize a customized backup system to call in coverage if a resident is unable to work an inpatient shift due to illness or unanticipated emergency. While on elective or other outpatient rotations, residents will be assigned as backup coverage, averaged out over three years to be equal among all. On average, residents are only called to work back up 1-2 times per year.

Military pediatricians are also required to be officers who lead their teams not only to execute the patient care mission, but also to make sure every Airman can achieve their best potential. We have developed the Military Medical Officer Training and Orientation (MMOTO) Course for our PGY-3 military residents to give them the foundational information and resources to be military leaders. Course topics include general Air Force structure and regulations, leadership, financial wellbeing, additional duties and officership, leading the enlisted force, PCS and moving, and deployed medicine. The course culminates with a Heritage Dinner featuring a panel discussion with medical group leaders to share their experiences and mentor on becoming outstanding officers. We also visit US Air Force School of Aerospace Medicine to get an overview of Air Evacuation and Critical Care Air Transport (CCAT) capabilities and how they train to complete their missions.

Our residents take the Military Medical Humanitarian and Assistance Course (MMHAC) to gain critical exposure to principles of providing care in a humanitarian disaster response to maintain readiness to support humanitarian missions. Residents also complete the Pediatric Fundamental Critical Care Support (PFCCS) course to develop critical care skills to improve readiness for care in a deployed environment.

Many faculty in our program have had rich experiences in military missions: operational deployments, humanitarian assignments in response to Operation Allies Refuge, vaccine administration missions, and manning assists.

Military pediatricians have always supported military families and directly contribute to the operational support mission by maximizing a service member’s family readiness – his or her family’s readiness to adapt rapidly to a deployment, temporary duty, or permanent change of station in a healthy way. Pediatricians can build the member’s confidence and trust that their child will receive skilled, compassionate care. If the member must be away – perhaps suddenly – our community provides medical support for the family remaining behind. If the family must relocate away from their known, stable community, skilled pediatricians provide top-notch, worldwide medical care which will ensure that children have reliable medical access. General and specialty pediatricians uniquely enable families with children enrolled in the Exceptional Family Member Program to remain operationally ready at smaller duty stations. They can also identify children and families that are at high medical risk and require re-assignment to larger military treatment facilities to provide complex or chronic care. These qualities enable the service member to focus on the garrison or deployed mission and contributes to member retention through consistent family support for the health, wellness, and development of their child. We strive for every outpatient clinic month and continuity clinic to be opportunities where we can reinforce in our residents the importance of our mission and how to ensure holistic care for our patients and their families so the warfighter can know their family is well cared for while they execute the mission of our armed forces.

We train residents daily with mission readiness in mind. We cultivate curiosity and operational planning during routine patient care by intentionally asking “how would we manage this patient in a resource limited setting?”. We seek out opportunities to enrich critical thinking and staff management with lessons from staff who have served as department/clinic chiefs or flight commanders. As a department and GME program, we aim to build military readiness into the fabric of our culture, and when new opportunities are available, we incorporate those and adjust to fit our pediatric model to build better responses for training exercise, mass casualty events, and humanitarian aid.

Residents must keep up-to-date certifications in Basic Life Support, Pediatric Advanced Life Support (PALS), and Neonatal Resuscitation Program (NRP). Residents have the opportunity to become PALS instructors and complete the PALS Instructor Course during residency. They will also complete S.T.A.B.L.E. Course, the Military Medical Humanitarian Assistance Course, and the Pediatric Fundamentals of Critical Care Skills course. All of these are funded through the hospital.

We have monthly sessions in the WPMC Simulation Center to maintain life-saving resuscitation skills through structured Pediatric Advanced Life Support (PALS) and Neonatal Resuscitation Program (NRP) scenarios. The Simulation Center offers high fidelity simulations and audio/visual support with trained staff, and our core faculty pediatricians facilitate code simulations along with our chief residents. Furthermore, our newborn nursery, Neonatal ICU and Pediatric ICU rotations utilize planned simulation to cover critical care skills in their environment of care.

Our mission and vision explicitly aim to develop not only the best pediatricians, but also leaders who embrace the responsibilities that come with officership. Leadership principles are regularly discussed in educational sessions and intertwined with expectations on all rotations of growing personal ownership of patientcare that rises in responsibility from medical student to intern to senior resident.

We invite residents to lead their classes either as a representative for the Resident Advisory committee, representative to American Academy of Pediatrics, or to take active roles in program activities such as medical student recruiting, social event planning, wellness committee events, residents as teachers sessions, annual resident retreat planning, and end-of-year graduation celebration planning. We spend multiple sessions of the MMOTO course covering officership and leadership principles. Finally, we encourage residents to participate as members on the many committees at Dayton Children's Hospital.

All residents participate in scholarly activity as part of graduation requirements, which can be fulfilled in a variety of ways, including case reports, quality improvement projects, and educational conferences. While our program does not have an official requirement for publication of a manuscript to graduate, many of our faculty at Dayton Children's Hospital (DCH) as well as WPMC are active in clinical and educational research. We host an annual Research Kick-off Day event in the fall to allow residents who are interested in medical research to meet with faculty conducting research and work with them to develop and complete projects, and all residents have a chance to showcase their scholarly work in the end-of-year Megan Wenker Research Symposium at DCH.

Residents can pursue a research elective for 2-4 weeks, developed in conjunction with their research mentor, to have dedicated time to advance their project towards completion.

• Avenues for presentation residents have used in the past include:
• American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) National Conference and Exhibition
• AAP Section on Uniformed Services National Meeting
• Ohio AAP Annual Meeting Shark Tank competition
• Dayton Area Graduate Medical Education Consortium (DAGMEC) Annual Research Symposium
• Pediatric Academic Societies National Meeting
• Integrated Pediatric Residency Research Symposium

Residents complete Resident Quality Improvement Curriculum (RQIC) at Dayton Children's Hospital (DCH) as well as receive a foundational lecture on quality improvement during their orientation. All residents meaningfully participate in a 6-month ongoing resident driven outpatient quality improvement project with at the WPMC AFB pediatric clinic. Previous successful projects have included initiating a process for fluoride administration at well exams, firearm safety counseling, and Women Infant and Children (WIC) screening.

At DCH, there are multiple opportunities to work on quality improvement projects through the RQIC program or with different departments. The residents have been integral to some projects such as the diabetes calculator for patient with insulin-dependent diabetes admitted to the hospital.

The Healer’s Art and Finding Meaning in Medicine groups serve to help form a holistic professional identity as well as a strong community within the program. All residents are provided a professional development stipend to spend on books or additional training to advance their professional development. Faculty Development sessions at WPMC through Uniformed Services University aim to give faculty additional training in creating professional learning environments for faculty, and our third-year residents are invited to participate in those sessions. Dayton Children's Hospital (DCH) Subcommittees have resident representatives, and our residents are encouraged to seek out opportunities for participation based on their professional healthcare interests. Beyond our institution, the American Academy of Pediatrics has a Section on Uniformed Services, as well as Uniformed Services East and West Chapters; residents have opportunities to volunteer for junior leadership roles in those organizations.

• Wright Patterson Air Force Base Medical Center, Wright Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio
• Dayton Children’s Hospital, Dayton Ohio
• Kettering Main Campus Nursery, Dayton, Ohio
• Miami Valley Hospital Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, Dayton, Ohio

Because of high demand for 4th Year Medical Student rotations, we schedule on a first-come, first-served basis.   

All fourth-year students must have completed a basic clinical pediatric clerkship prior to a fourth-year clerkship or sub-internship. All students must be on active-duty orders OR have a Training Agreement (TA) in place between your school and our hospital. Third year student rotations are managed on a one-by-one basis with the program coordinator.

Medical student rotations are typically 4 weeks in length and are a mix of inpatient and outpatient medicine divided by week. Sub-internships at Dayton Children’s Hospital (DCH) on the pediatric ward, NICU, or other specialties are 4 weeks in length. Program Coordinator will assist student in contacting POC at DCH for coordination of sub-internships. Rotating medical students on sub-internships should expect to approach intern-level responsibilities by the end of the rotation, independently seeing patients and developing assessments and plans of care. Other rotation exposure options include general pediatrics clinic, Adolescent Medicine, Cardiology and/or Immunizations at our facility. Our students can experience newborn nursery exposure via the Kettering Health Network while observing our residents at these facilities.

Medical students are expected to come with solid knowledge of history-taking and physical exam skills and fundamental pediatric medical knowledge from prior third year clerkships. Students will be allowed to participate in the care of pediatric patients under the direct supervision of residents and faculty pediatricians. Each student will present a knowledge-level 15-minute presentation during morning didactics to the entire program. Guidance is provided during orientation from the Clerkship Director/Coordination

During orientation, students will be provided with detailed duty schedules, learning resources, tour of the hospital, and tour of our civilian partner institutions. Residents and faculty host evening social events through the month.

For additional info or to schedule a rotation, please contact our program: dha.wright-patt.wright-patt-88th-mdg.list.wpafb-peds@health.mil.

Interviews are offered during application season from July through mid-October. Each applicant will have two separate interviews: one with the Military Program Director and one with either the Program Director or an Associate Program Director at Dayton Children's Hospital (DCH). Applicants will be provided a tour of DCH and lunch with resident hosts. Family members are invited for portions of the interview process.

If the student is on an active duty tour we require service dress uniforms for the Program Director (PD) and Associate Program Director (APD) interviews. If not on an active duty for training (ADT), then Business Formal attire is appropriate. For interviews with Chief Residents, the Uniform of the Day is appropriate.

Students are invited to come for an in-person one-day interview if not rotating with us. Virtual interviews are offered to students who are unable to come in person. Both one-day and virtual interviews will be with the Military Component Program Director at the hospital. We require Service Dress Uniform both one-day and virtual interviews.

To schedule an interview, please email dha.wright-patt.wright-patt-88th-mdg.list.wpafb-peds@health.mil and prepare an updated CV and Letter of Interest.

Program graduates take the American Board of Pediatrics (ABP) General Certifying Examination in October after graduation to become board-certified. This exam is offered annually. For residents who require an extension in training, residents must graduate no later than September 30th to sit for their board exam in October of the graduation year. The ABP’s policy establishes a seven-year limit to the time that can lapse between a pediatrician’s successful completion of training and achievement of certification – after that time, a candidate is no longer board-eligible.

Wright Patterson Air Force Base is a core clerkship site for students from Uniformed Services University and Wright State University Boonshoft School of Medicine. Dayton Children's Hospital (DCH) is a core clerkship site for Wright State University Boonshoft School of Medicine. Residents frequently have opportunities to teach and supervise 3rd and 4th year students in both the inpatient and outpatient settings. Our general pediatric clinic at Wright Patterson Medical Center (WPMC) commonly hosts nurse practitioner students, physician assistant students, podiatry residents and medics in advanced training, all of whom may work alongside resident pediatricians. At DCH, family medicine and psychiatry residents rotate on inpatient teams, emergency medicine residents rotate in the Pediatric ICU and all pediatric PGY-2 and PGY-3 residents will supervise these rotating learners.

Residents are engaged in routine formal, program-level teaching. Interns are responsible for crafting an hour-long adolescent didactic session as well as an AAP clinical practice guideline talk with guidance from staff pediatricians. Upper-level residents offer case-based morning reports on a regular basis and facilitate continuity clinic lecture discussions in general pediatric clinics. PGY-2 & PGY-3 residents design and give a total of 3-hour long case conference and/or morbidity and mortality conferences over 2 years. We have developed a longitudinal Residents as Teachers curriculum customized to our program that is given over 2 years. Residents are engaged in daily informal education and “chalk talks” on their rotations with their faculty and other learners. Residents are assessed on their teaching skills and given constructive feedback to polish their public presentation and organization skills. They are also encouraged to join program Faculty Development sessions in their third year to build their education, teaching, supervision, and evaluation skills.

Pediatricians are commonly called on to assist with school-based health clinics, parent-focused education classes, and local/regional specialty meetings for non-physicians. When opportunities arise, we aim to allow our residents to be involved and assist in teaching.

Our pediatric subspecialists are embedded in the subspecialty clinic and inpatient units primarily at Dayton Children's Hospital (DCH). The only pediatric fellowships associated with our program are the civilian Pediatric Hospital Medicine and Pediatric Emergency Medicine fellowships at Wright State/DCH. Some of their fellowship faculty are also engaged as residency faculty. Their faculty and fellows are enthusiastic about teaching, mentoring and supervising our residents.

While our program may not have an official structured mentorship program based on feedback from previous classes of residents, all of our faculty are invested in training and mentoring our residents and we have informal pathways to allow residents to identify and select mentors that will help them advance in their careers:

• Each resident has a clinical competency committee (CCC) mentor who meets at a minimum twice yearly for check-ins, coaching, aggregating feedback and advocating for them at the CCC meetings.
• Each resident is placed in a Finding Meaning in Medicine group with their peers and 2-3 group mentors who facilitate peer mentorship and ensuring their wellness at their meetings every 2-3 months.
• Residents are strongly encouraged to seek out multiple mentors for different aspects of personal and professional development – many faculty are available to be mentors for fellowship interest, research, clinical skills, military career development, operational experiences, and family balance.

We are proud of our heritage of creating a learning climate of collaboration and care for each other’s well-being. In fact, many of our faculty both on-base and off-base return after being stationed at other bases or other locations because of the people and community the program has created. Our resident wellness committee, comprised of members from all PL years, plans monthly activities to promote connectedness and wellness. Events can be anything from book clubs to game nights, sporting events or other physical activity challenges to promote staying healthy despite busy schedules. Wellness activities are regularly incorporated into the academic half days to boost morale. We also hold Townhall meetings every other month during the academic half-day to allow residents to bring to light any concerns or issues that could be developing so they can be formally addressed in a timely manner.

We encourage residents to seek behavioral health support when needed to avoid or mitigate provider burnout and compassion fatigue. We normalize this practice in our program through the Healer’s Art and Finding Meaning in Medicine programs as well as providing free access to counseling services through WPAFB and Wright State University. We provide time for resident medical and mental health appointments, and we support self-care and peer-support.

Resident and faculty social gatherings outside of work are a large contributor to wellness in the program. There are social food/drink nights, weekly Wednesday Wellness dinners or activities, a Monday night volleyball league, and every other month board-game nights, to name a few. Many residents have Broadway season tickets at the Dayton Schuster Center, memberships to a local rock-climbing gym, and a large group of Orange Theory Fitness enthusiasts. Residents enjoy going to Dayton Dragons games, hiking at all the Dayton Metroparks and taking day trips to Cincinnati and Columbus for sporting events/museums/concerts. The program hosts a holiday party in the winter, an off-site graduation celebration and farewell to celebrate the graduating residents, as well as an Intern Ice Cream Social to support new arrivals in June. We have class “skip” day or half days in the spring to celebrate the end of the academic year. Throughout the year, the program also hosts staff meetings, holiday parties, and resident appreciation events to build connections between residents, faculty, and department staff.