Hospital Medicine Fellowship

Fellows will also attend both the annual fall Pediatric Hospital Medicine Fellows Conference and the summer Pediatric Hospital Medicine Conference.

Each fellow must complete a scholarly project as outlined by the American Board of Pediatrics subspecialty program requirements. Scholarly activities are those in which the fellow develops and tests a hypothesis or participates in a project of substantive scholarly exploration and analysis that requires critical thinking.  Fellows must gather and analyze data, derive and defend conclusions, and present their work in oral and written form. Each scholarly project must result in a specific written work product.  Fellows have a specific research curriculum, mentorship, scholarly oversight committee and dedicated research months as outlined in the curriculum.

Areas in which scholarly activity may be pursued include:

• Basic, clinical, or translational biomedicine
• Health services
• Quality improvement
• Education
• Advocacy & Public policy

Examples of acceptable activities:

• Biomedical research
• Critical meta-analysis of the literature
• Systematic review of clinical practice
• Critical analysis of public policy
• Curriculum development with an assessment component

Examples of written work products:

• Peer-reviewed publication
• In-depth manuscript describing the completed project
• Thesis or dissertation written in connection with an advanced degree

The scholarly activity must be at or near completion during the fellow’s final year of training. The fellow may also choose to participate in more than one project that meets the guidelines for the scholarly activity. 

Year One

• Select research area of interest and identify mentor
• Develop research question or topic
• Develop study or project design
• Conduct relevant literature review
• Obtain IRB Credentials
• Obtain IRB approval for project, if applicable
• Project initiation

Year Two

• Data collection and analysis
• Abstract preparation and submission
• Manuscript preparation and submission
• Preparation of written work product
• Presentation of project

Advanced Degree

Fellows have the ability to explore the potential of an advanced degree.  Ideally, interest should be identified at the onset of the fellowship.  Approval from the Program Director, Section Chief and Department Chair are all necessary.  Option for extending fellowship to a 3rd year may also be a possibility and necessary if an advanced degree is pursued.

Pediatric hospital medicine is a rapidly evolving and growing field. 2015 data estimates 5,000 pediatric hospitalists in the U.S. Membership in the AAP Section of Hospital Medicine has tripled between 2005 and 2015 with more than 1,500 current members.

Significant progress has been made with the development of pediatric hospital medicine core competencies as well as discipline specific research, quality improvement, textbooks and journals. Pediatric hospitalists assure the best care of hospitalized children and various literature has demonstrated a positive impact on children’s health via efficiency, cost, quality of care, generation of practice guidelines, immediacy of access, and provider/patient satisfaction.

More recently, in 2016, the American Board of Pediatrics (ABP) along with the American Board of Medical Specialties endorsed and approved Pediatric Hospital Medicine with subspecialty certification. This certification will assure the public that the title ‘Board Certified Pediatric Hospitalist’ indicates a proficient level of skill and knowledge has been attained and validated.

Certification will improve standardization of curricula and consistency of hospitalist fellowship training and result in a better definition of hospitalists’ scope of practice, thus supporting public accountability. It will further accelerate improvements and innovation in quality improvement science as applied to pediatric inpatient care and enhance development of professionals skilled in addressing child health safety issues within the context of health care systems. Certification will raise the level of care of all hospitalized children by establishing best practices in clinical care and disseminating them to all caring for hospitalized children, whether in academic or community hospital settings.

Meet our Hospital Medicine Fellowship faculty. 

Click here to meet our faculty.

Meet Our Fellow - Dr. Melanie Marsh

Dr. Melanie Marsh is from Gainesville, Florida. She attended the University of North Carolina- Chapel hill for her undergraduate degree in Ancient/Medieval History with a minor in Chemistry. She moved to join her family in Chicago, IL for medical school.

After graduation, she returned to North Carolina to initially pursue a residency in Family Medicine/Sports medicine. But the kids stole her heart and she ultimately transferred to Wake Forest Baptist to complete a residency in Pediatrics. She is excited to join Nationwide Children's as a hospitalist fellow for the 2018/2019 year. Her interests include teaching, traveling, running, biking and swimming.

Our Fellows are hospital employees, and as such, they are eligible for the same benefits other full-time staff receive (with the exception of paid time off, which is outlined.)

Click here to learn more about Fellowship benefits.

Fellowship candidates will be expected to graduate or have graduated from an ACGME accredited Pediatrics or Internal Medicine-Pediatrics Residency Program and be pediatric board eligible or certified. Pediatric Hospital Medicine has a centralized uniform application and participates in the National Resident Matching program (NRMP) and specifically the fall match.

Fall NRMP applications open in September with rank orders due in November and a December match day. Interested and eligible candidates will complete the standardized application and enter the match process thru NRMP. A fellowship recruitment committee will screen applications, invite candidates to interview and rank and submit a final rank order list.

Pediatric Hospital Medicine currently uses a Common Application, which can be found here.

For more information, please contact:

Program Coordinator
Karen Sweitzer
(614) 722-4998
Karen.Sweitzer@NationwideChildrens.org

Program Director
Scott D. Carney, MD, FAAP
Scott.Carney@NationwideChildrens.org

Division Chief
Ryan S. Bode, MD, FAAP
Ryan.Bode@NationwideChildrens.org