Wards
UF Health Shands Children’s Hospital is a busy quaternary care center in north central Florida with more than 10,000 patient discharges a year. In our newly renovated unit, residents encounter a robust inpatient experience as they rotate through various teams with general pediatric and subspecialty patients. All teams follow a multidisciplinary, patient-and-family-centered approach with residents working hand-in-hand with physician assistants, nurse practitioners, social workers, case managers, staff nurses, pharmacists and attendings to care for our patient population.
Newborn Nursery
More than 2,800 infants are delivered annually at our institution. During the newborn nursery rotation at UF Health Shands Children’s Hospital, residents have the opportunity to care for newborns, as well as educate parents in areas such as breastfeeding practices and preventative health care. Additionally, residents get valuable procedural experience performing both circumcisions and frenotomies starting in their intern year. A first-year resident is responsible for the newborn nursery and is supervised by a second-year resident and a general pediatrics faculty member.
Neonatal Intensive Care Unit
The UF Health Shands Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) is a 72-bed state-of-the-art facility that can care for patients that are in need of level I up to level IV care. In the NICU, residents are exposed to the full range of medical and surgical disorders of premature and term newborns, as well as to the latest technological modalities including extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO). First and second-year residents are given responsibilities in primary patient care in the NICU. Neonatology faculty and fellows are also present 24 hours a day for teaching, supervision, and consultation.
Pediatric Intensive Care Unit
Patients with complex conditions are cared for in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU), a 24-bed unit located at UF Health Shands Children’s Hospital. The PICU provides residents with valuable experience in invasive cardiovascular monitoring, complex fluid management, ventilatory assistance, critical postoperative management, and all other areas of pediatric intensive care. The care team includes second and third-year pediatric residents. Pediatric critical care faculty and fellows are available to supervise and teach residents 24 hours a day. UF Health Shands Children’s Hospital also houses a 22-bed pediatric cardiac ICU, which residents may elect to rotate through to further their cardiology education.