Surgical Critical Care Fellowship

Pediatric Surgical Critical Care is an ACGME-accredited one year surgical subspecialty fellowship program which trains surgeons to: (1) manage the complex medical and surgical problems in critically ill pediatric surgical patients, (2) supervise a critical care unit, and (3) conduct scholarly activities. Patients range in age from the extremely premature neonate to adolescent and adult patients. The Surgical Critical Care (SCC) fellow manages trauma, thermal injury, ECMO, and critically-ill surgical patients before and after their operative procedures.

The Surgical Critical Care fellow benefits from the large volume of surgical patients at Children’s Hospital with greater than 3,600 general surgery operations per year. The Surgical Critical Care fellow attends to the majority of the approximately 325 surgical and trauma patients who are cared for in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit on an annual basis. In addition, the fellow is involved with the surgical patients in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit.

The Nationwide Children’s Hospital surgical critical care fellowship program attracts general surgery residents PGY3 and above with most candidates looking to pursue a career in pediatric surgery and enhancing their training in this field. The educational component allows the fellow to develop advanced training in the management of critically-ill surgical patients at Nationwide Children's and The Ohio State University (OSU) and prepares them to independently function as a board-certified subspecialist. The fellow is exposed to advanced training in all aspects of surgical critical care and clinical research techniques applicable in the critical care setting. Candidates choose the Nationwide Children's program due to the pediatric focus, high clinical volume and diverse faculty. The faculty have varied backgrounds and expertise and are at different stages in their careers. The hospital and especially the intensive care units exhibit multi-disciplinary collaboration with a multitude of health care providers. With 16 surgical faculty members, the fellow has multiple opportunities to engage in IRB-approved research projects, allowing them to publish and present their scholarly activities in peer-reviewed journals and at national conferences. A major focus of the surgical critical care experience is due to the accreditation of both an American College of Surgeons Level 1 Pediatric Trauma Center and American Burn Association Pediatric Burn Center. Nationwide Children's is one of very few institutions that hold dual accreditations.

Upon completion, the fellow will have acquired the knowledge, skills, and an enthusiasm for life-long learning, teaching and practice of the surgical critical care subspecialty.