Department of Pediatrics Interview Handbook
The Department of Pediatrics at Quillen College of Medicine is dedicated to improving the health and welfare of over 230,000 children in Northeast Tennessee and the surrounding Appalachian Region. Our commitment extends to providing excellent education to our residents, medical students, and other graduate level professionals including nursing, public health, social work and psychology. The department consists of 37 fulltime faculty, numerous clinical faculty, and multiple staff that support the educational and research programs. We have a full range of clinical pediatric divisions including Adolescent Medicine, Cardiology, Community Medicine, Critical Care, Child Neurology, Development/ Behavior, Endocrinology, Gastroenterology, General Pediatrics, Genetics, Hematology/Oncology, Hospital Medicine, Infectious Disease, Neonatology, Nephrology and a Research Division. Our Hematology/Oncology Division is an affiliate of St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee, allowing us to provide the latest cancer treatment and research within the St. Jude system. The Neonatology Division is the nucleus of Northeast Tennessee’s Regional Perinatal Center. We service high risk pregnancies and offer premature newborn care for eight counties in Upper East Tennessee, as well as ten counties in Southwest Virginia, North Carolina and Kentucky. We have a close affiliation with Niswonger Children’s Hospital, a state-of-the-art 69 bed children’s hospital. At Niswonger, residents will have their rotations in pediatric emergency medicine, inpatient pediatrics, pediatric ICU, neonatal ICU, normal newborn nursery and hematology/oncology. Outpatient specialty services are provided in clinics adjacent to and across the street from the hospital. Resident continuity clinic is embedded in our outpatient clinic which has 36 exam rooms and provides high quality medical home services that include behavioral health, social work and care coordination. The ETSU Quillen College of Medicine Pediatric Department offers a three year, fully accredited pediatric residency program. We offer two tracks: general pediatrics and a specialty track. We provide opportunities for residents to do clinical and population health research and global health rotations. We place particular emphasis in training residents on the social determinants of health and how to advocate for the health and welfare of children in society. I would be pleased to answer any questions you might have. Feel free to contact me at: Tuell@etsu.edu.
Dawn S. Tuell, MD Professor and Department Chair Department of Pediatrics
Greetings! Welcome to East Tennessee! We are pleased you chose to interview with the Department of Pediatrics at Quillen College of Medicine. Our mission is to train pediatric residents in the art and science of pediatrics. We achieve our mission through a challenging academic curriculum and family centered patient care in a nurturing environment. Our academic curriculum is based off the Nelson Textbook of Pediatrics which serves as a primary resource for our residents throughout their training. We have system-based themed months in which residents will participate in didactics, team-based learning, simulation training and a monthly exam and review. This curriculum has proven very successful since its implementation. In addition, our faculty is known for their excellent teaching. Five out of the last six years, the medical students at Quillen College of Medicine have elected our department as the “Clinical Clerkship of the Year” because of our faculty and residents’ dedication to education. Our residents and faculty are outstanding. East Tennessee is a lovely place to live. We really hope you discover all of this and more during your interview day. Let us know if we can do anything to assist you during your visit. Feel free to contact us anytime if you have any further questions about our program. Best wishes throughout the match process and we look forward to getting to know you on your interview day.
Lauren Swift, MD Program Director Assistant Professor of Pediatrics swiftln@etsu.edu
Dawn S. Tuell, MD Department Chair Professor of Pediatrics tuell@etsu.edu
Andrew Wilt, MD Associate Program Director Assistant Professor of Pediatrics wiltas@etsu.edu
Jodi Gage, MD Associate Program Director Assistant Professor of Pediatrics gagejb@etsu.edu
Candelaria Deimundo Roura, MD Chief Resident
Sarah Nichols, DO
Nathan Beasley, MD
Ishita Patel, MD
Pediatric Residents 2020-2021
Travis Johnson, MD Chief Resident
Amy Parker, MD
Amanda Shoubaki, DO
Sukhvir Singh, DO
Meredith St. Clair, DO
Ianna Blanchard, MD
Leanna Hollander, DO
Natasha Khan, MD
Pooja Kumar, MD
Leslie Thompson, MD
Karen Adkins, MD
Kacie Denton, MD
Jessica Jones, MD
Lindsay Lancaster, DO
Cassandra Saunders, DO
Kara Shafer, DO
Sarah Tolliver, MD
Resident Life
Our training is intense and challenging, yet the environment is supportive and nurturing. Our residents regularly get together outside of the hospital, for both educational and recreational activities. We hope to attract a group of people with interesting and diverse backgrounds, who can come together and work well as a team. To this end, the department hosts many events to encourage our residents to get to know each other outside of work.
Past events have included:
Kayaking
Bubble soccer
Bike riding
Holiday Parties
Paint Night
Recent Graduates-Where are they now? Our residency graduates have pursued a variety of career paths, including general pediatrics, pediatric subspecialty fellowships, and academic general pediatrics. Over the past 10 years, our residents have entered private practices from New York to California, and fellowship training programs all across the country.
The following is a list of fellowship matches from the last 5 years:
Hematology/Oncology at University of California San Diego
Neonatology at East Carolina University, Vanderbilt, University of Kentucky, UT Health Science Center, TX and Wake Forest
Pediatric Emergency Medicine at Vanderbilt
Gastroenterology at State University of New York
Allergy and Immunology at University of Mississippi
Pulmonology at UPMC Children’s Hospital, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Here’s the breakdown of graduate destinations over the past 10 years:
General Pediatrics: 70%
Fellowship 30%
Locations of our Graduates over the past 10 years
Community Pediatrics
Residents complete a 1-month community pediatrics rotation during their first year and receive longitudinal advocacy training and experience during residency. Our residency program, in conjunction with our state AAP chapter, was awarded an AAP Healthy Active Living grant in 2011. This funding supported development of the ReadNPlay for a Bright Future initiative that forms the basis of much of our residents’ advocacy work. Subsequent funding from the Tennessee Department of Health and an AAP-MCHB Healthy Tomorrows grant have allowed expansion and dissemination of this program in the region. With this funding, residents have the opportunity to partner with community organizations to address issues including healthy eating, active living, injury prevention, and early childhood literacy. Our residents’ leadership in advocacy was recognized nationally by the AAP in 2013 with an Anne E. Dyson Child Advocacy Award. A project funded by an AAP CATCH Resident Grant in 2015 for Improving outcomes in infants with Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome in Northeast Tennessee was instrumental in building a new multidisciplinary clinical program called Baby Steps to enhance support and coordination of care for drug-exposed infants and infants with neonatal abstinence syndrome. A unique clinical tool for enhancing counseling about healthy behaviors during well child visits in the first two years of life, developed through support of an AAP Healthy Active Living grant awarded to our residency program in 2012. ReadNPlay builds upon our clinic's on-going Reach Out and Read initiative for early childhood literacy with a collection of books, support groups, and events with community partners for supporting healthy active living.
Starting in 2016, our ETSU Pediatrics Residency Program launched new global health opportunities for residents.
Current Opportunities:
Global Health Topics are currently integrated into the Core Nelson’s Pediatric Lecture Schedule
Current Global Health Elective Abroad Options: -Haiti (St Damien Hospital Academic Collaborative) -Ecuador (ETSU Timmy Global Health) -Belize (Body and Soul Ministries) -India (Himalayan Health Exchange)
Several of our involved faculty have extensive experience and contacts in the field of global health and are available to advise interested residents in any of the elective sites noted above. Other sites for global health experiences are also being explored.
Option for an Intensive Global Health Elective: This is a month long, US based elective with instruction in global health and tropical medicine, and designed to prepare residents for future international endeavors. The structure is a combination of lectures, journal article discussion, case based scenarios, lab based parasitology experience, ethics discussions, independent reading, and global health simulation experiences. Our planned global health simulation will include time at Project EARTH at Valleybrook learning lab in conjunction with the College of Public Health (http://www.etsu.edu/cph/earth.php)
Future Directions: Multi-Disciplinary courses are available through several colleges within the ETSU family. In fall of 2017, ETSU launched an inter-disciplinary, online course titled “Global Healthcare: Disease Treatment & Prevention” taught by faculty from the college of medicine, pharmacy, public health, and nursing.
Additionally, this inter-disciplinary group is working to develop a formal certificate course in global health, which will be a combination of online learning, global health seminar sessions, and an international field experience.
For more information, please contact Varun Kumar, MD at KUMARV1@etsu.edu
Global Health
Salaries & Benefits Salaries (2020-2021) PGY-1: $53,155 PGY-2: $54,744 PGY-3: $56,703 Paid Leave
Paid leave includes 15 days of vacation, up to 12 sick days, and up to five educational days per year. There are also five administrative leave days during the entirety of the program to use for job or fellowship interviews. Insurance Residents are eligible for health, dental, vision, life, disability, and professional liability insurance. Premium costs are shared between the University and the Resident for health coverage for the resident and their family. Please visit http://www.etsu.edu/com/pediatrics/residency/Benefits.aspx for coverage details. Meals & Housing
Meal ID cards are provided to residents while on inpatient rotations and call shifts. Lunch is provided at noon conferences. Overnight accommodations are available in the hospital for on-call residents. Education & Licensing All residents have an education fund to be used for meetings, books, journals, and other educational materials. Residents are encouraged to participate in research projects and are allotted up to $1500 for travel expenses to attend scientific meetings to present their work. Tennessee State Medical License Exemptions are paid by the department. Other Benefits Other benefits include Nelson’s Textbook of Pediatrics, Med Study Board Review Curriculum, monogrammed lab coat, American Academy of Pediatrics Membership, ETSU tuition discounts for children and spouse, and free membership to the Center for Physical Activity.
Curriculum
Conferences
Morning Report Monday and Friday (8:00 a.m. - 8:30 a.m.)
Resident Conference Schedule Wednesdays and Thursdays (11 a.m. - 1 p.m.)
Swift Sesh Evidence-Based Medicine Journal Club Team Based Learning Neonatal Lecture Morbidity & Mortality Quality Improvement Tuesdays with Tolliver Inpatient Pediatrics Outpatient Pediatrics Research Ethics Simulation Lab Grand Rounds Nelson Curriculum Yale Primary Care Pediatrics Curriculum
Please visit our website for full descriptions of our conferences.
Research
Johnson City City in Tennessee Surrounded by beautiful mountains and rivers, Johnson City offers the perfect balance of nature and city. Whether you look to the outdoors for recreation, or you prefer cultural experiences, dining, or shopping, Johnson City and the region have something to offer. Population:
66,778 Johnson City based on the 2018 census data
125,546 Washington County
309,793 Metropolitan Statistical Area
Climate: Johnson City's elevation is 1525 feet above sea level, which provides a moderate temperature range.
Summer average temperature: 76 F (average high in July is 86)
Winter average temperature: 41 F
Must do’s in the area:
Appalachian Caverns
Appalachian Trail
Blue Hole Falls
Beech Mountain Resort
Boone, Watauga, or South Holston Lake
Buffalo Mountain Park
Tannery Knobs Bike Park
Visit http://www.johnsoncitytnchamber.com/ to learn more about our area!
Notes
Notes
East Tennessee State University Quillen College of Medicine Pediatric Residency Program PO Box 70578 Johnson City, TN 37614 Phone: (423) 439-6763 Fax: (423) 439-8066
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THANK YOU FOR VISITING!