Your Education

We provide a broad curriculum and clinical experiences that allow our fellows to develop the knowledge and skills necessary to care for children of all ages.

Core rotations are:

• Cardiac operating room/catheterization lab: 26 weeks
• Cardiac intensive care medicine: 2 weeks
• Perioperative echocardiography: 2 weeks
• Perfusion: 1 week
• Electrophysiology: 1 week

Fellows may choose another two-week rotation from the core list or choose from: 

• Adult congenital heart disease
• Research/Quality Improvement
• Interventional cardiology
• Neonatal Intensive Care Unit

Scholarship

The fellow will be fully integrated into the academic mission of our division. Our group participates in the anesthesia component of the Society of Thoracic Surgeons Congenital Heart Surgery Database and has access to a large national dataset for quality improvement research.

Beyond the cardiac service line is the Child Health Research Institute, an innovative partnership between UNMC and Children's Nebraska. The institute is a unique multidisciplinary pediatric research enterprise that provides study coordination, grant-writing assistance, biostatistical support and other infrastructure, and project start-up funding.

Didactics

• Self-directed reading: We provide a copy of Anesthesia for Congenital Heart Disease, 4^th Edition to trainees, with a reading plan to work through this fundamental text in alignment with our didactic conference sequence

• Congenital Cardiac Anesthesia Society (CCAS): We provide a membership in CCAS for our fellow, affording them access to high-quality online lectures on congenital cardiac anesthesia as well as a subscription to a monthly webinar targeted at all cardiac fellows in the country.

• Congenital Cardiac Anesthesia Seminar (bi-weekly): Problem-based discussion seminar covering the full curriculum. We begin with foundational sessions on cardiac embryology, coagulation and hemostasis, cardiopulmonary bypass, neuroprotection, hemodynamics, and arrhythmias, and progress to focused sessions on specific categories of lesions, as well as intensive care, mechanical support and other ancillary topics. Some of these ancillary lectures are co-taught by our content-expert colleagues from other relevant disciplines.

• Cardiac Care Conference (weekly): This multidisciplinary conference is a forum in which upcoming surgical and interventional patients are discussed in detail for procedural planning. It is attended by cardiac surgeons, cardiologists, intensivists, and anesthesiologists, and is a dynamic and high-yielding opportunity for the fellow to learn the nuances of surgical decision-making.

• Cardiac Section Meeting (monthly): This is a standing meeting of the cardiac operating room team, where surgeons, nurses, perfusionists, and anesthesiologists discuss operational issues and quality improvement initiatives.

• Cardiac Journal Club (quarterly): This is a wide-scope, multi-specialty forum for the entire cardiac operating room team. We review current literature on controversial topics, often leading to process changes within our practice.

• Collaborative Multidisciplinary Assessment of Performance (CMAP): Weekly heart center-wide discussion of the previous week’s surgical cases, focused on performance improvement.