PICU Fellowship Training program

Overview

Since its inception, the Pediatric Critical Care Medicine PCCM fellowship at King Abdullah Specialist Children’s Hospital has been designed to invest in pediatricians who have the potential and the interest to pursue a future profession as Pediatric Intensivists.

The main training sites for the PCCM fellowship at MNGHA are the Paediatric Critical Care Medicine and Paediatric Cardiac Critical Care Divisions. The pediatric Critical Care Medicine (PCCM) division is within the Department of Pediatrics. The PCCM is composed of a medical unit and a surgical unit with a current capacity of 28 beds.

The Pediatric Cardiac Critical Care (PCC) division is based within the Cardiac Science Center, with a current capacity of 15 beds.

The fellowship provides exposure to transplant programs (heart, liver, kidney, and stem cell), trauma, and burn care. In addition, all units are fully equipped with state- of-the-art technology, including Continuous Renal Replacement Therapy (CRRT), Extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO), Therapeutic plasma exchange (TPE) and ventricular assist devices (VAD).

The program is fully accredited by the Saudi Commission for Health Specialties (SCFHS) With a total training capacity of 15 fellowship positions over three years (5 in each academic year)

Curriculum

The block schedule for the entire training program is weighted toward clinical time in the first year with more research time in the second and third years. We are committed to providing a supportive learning environment.

The pediatric critical care is a three-year training program is divided into 19 clinical months in PICU, 4 months in PCICU, 5 research months, 1 month of Anesthesia, 1 month in Adult ICU, and 3 elective months.

	First year	Second year	Third year
PICU	8	7	4
PCICU	1	2	1
Anesthesia	1	-	-
Adult ICU	-	-	1
Research	-	1	4
Elective	1	1	1
Vacation	1	1	1

Educational Program

Our PICU fellowship program has a well-established activities. The key features of our program include.

Clinical education: Daily rounds in each unit is led by an attending intensivist.
Academic half-day (Tuesday 11 am to 2:30 PM): Including:

Boarding winter series (A series of lectures presented by Consultants that cover vital critical care topics to first-year fellows).
Fellows presentations:

Basic Science with Clinical Correlation (Topics in Physiology/Pharmacology related to Critical Care)
Clinical Question (A clinical question that arises from our daily practice. Question to be presented in a PICO format. Presentation to include current evidence, interpretation and recommendations)
Clinical Topic Review (Review of a topic relevant to PICU)

Specialty streams (Ethics, ECMO, Quality, Artificial intelligence, Quality and Patient Safety)
Simulation research and training: provided by PICU Pediatric Simulation Training & Education Program (Pedi STEP). Include hands-on procedural sessions, Crisis Resource Management, bronchoscopy, ECMO, and CRRT.
Point-of-care ultrasound POCUS program

Journal club

Weekly grand round (Every Wednesday)

In addition, fellows also participate in mentorship and research programs.

The activity is protected, every Tuesday from 11 am to 2:30 PM, includes presentations by Consultants/Fellows covering basic science or clinical topics, followed by journal club/M&M and finaly core topic discussion between the fellows. With grand round every Wednesday in the afternoon.

How to Apply

Application is through the Matching system in SCFHS.

Application portal: https://fellowship.scfhs.org.sa/pages/default

Application requirements as per SCFHS:

Completing electronic form
Curriculum vitae
A copy of the Saudi specialty certificate in pediatrics or its equivalent, or passing the written test of the Saudi specialty certificate.

The application goes through stages: