[MUSIC PLAYING] JASON COLE: Pediatric cardiology fellowship training is challenging. There's a lot of long nights and a lot of experience that has to be had in those three years. The fellows that come in with an open mind and know that they're going to be exposed and stretched to their limits as far as their training goes I think really do well here. 

CHRISTOPHER CURZON: Having the affiliation between Children's and University of Nebraska Medical Center, I think, gives us the best of both worlds. We have all the academic support and the strength behind that of the major academic center. It also opens up a whole lot more avenues for alternative training pathways. 

We're not huge, but I think that's one of our strengths, actually, is that we are able to accommodate the fellows and to help in a more personalized manner. I think that having the affiliation and the clinical relationship here at Children's gives us a flavor of what that's like outside of a university hospital and some of the resources that sometimes aren't always at those bigger university hospitals. 

JASON COLE: But our affiliation with them allows for us just to be a more well-rounded training program and gives us more access to the academic and research resources that our fellowship needs. 

CHRISTOPHER CURZON: We have phenomenal faculty with a wide breadth of coverage through all the different subsections within cardiology. They're anxious to teach. They want to teach. And I think that that really adds a lot to the fellowship program. 

AARON CLEM: One of the other greatest strengths we have is the size of the program and the volume of patients, procedures. And yet we don't have all that many fellows. The amount of opportunity for every individual fellow is very high. 

CHRISTOPHER CURZON: We have a lot of support and opportunities for research here within the cardiology fellowship, specifically because of our affiliation and ties with UNMC, as well as a relationship here with Children's. We have the Children's Health Research Institute. That has a lot of support, both in terms of staffing but also funding support that the fellows can tap into and apply for grants within that. 

JASON COLE: And during the course of their three-year fellowship, we also provide financial support for our fellows to go to regional and national meetings to present their research and to be exposed to research that's being done across the country at other institutions as well. 

CHRISTOPHER CURZON: Some of the characteristics that would make a fellow successful with us are some of the basics that you would expect anywhere. First of all, I do think that you have to be hard working. What we do is hard. We take care of tough, sick kids, and you need to expect that you're going to work hard. I think also that a fellow that's driven and that knows what they want to do and is driven in their education and can take the bull by the horns and can seek after educational opportunities. 

AARON CLEM: One of the most important characteristics is having a strong internal drive to learn more and do more and see more. There's enormous volume per fellow, and so whether you want to do cardiac catheterization, fetal cardiology, advanced imaging, ACHD, there's no fourth-year fellow who's competing for those patients, and so you are first in line. 

And there's a lot for us to see and learn. And as a fellow, we have an excellent opportunity to not only provide patient care, but also teaching to residents and medical students. 

Omaha is a great city to have a family in. I have a house that's less than 10 minutes from the hospital, which is not something you can find at most training programs. There's also a lot of great opportunities at the zoo, botanical gardens, arboretum, things that are nice and family friendly to do in town. 

CHRISTOPHER CURZON: When you've completed fellowship program here within us, I would tell you that you should feel comfortable and confident that you are ready to go out. And if your goal and your desire to be is a general pediatric cardiologist, you'll be ready for that. We will help prepare you for that. 

If your goal is you want to subspecialize, you want to go into something else, again, whether that's imaging, electrophysiology, cath, pulmonary hypertension, we can support that. We can actually gear your fellowship training over the three years that you're here to give you a little bit more niched exposure to those things, if that's what your desire is. 

JASON COLE: All of our cardiology fellows have all had 100% board pass rate with all of our trainees as well, which is something we take great pride in. 

AARON CLEM: In my three years of training here, I've had enough volume of experience doing transesophageal echo, fetal echo that I'll actually be certified. So for me to exit this three-year program knowing I'm that well-trained makes a big difference to me. 

CHRISTOPHER CURZON: When you're done with fellowship training here, you can expect to graduate and be ready to go out and be a general pediatric cardiologist and be capable and competent and feel comfortable with that no matter where you go. Our goal is to make you be successful, to help you achieve your goals and what you want to do with your career.