We encourage resident involvement on a wide variety of hospital and university committees as well as national organizations. Here are a few examples of additional opportunities within our program and university.

Resident Leadership Council

Comprised of Pediatric and Med/Peds residents who are elected by their peers, the members of this council act as liaisons between the residents and the Office of Medical Education (OME). These residents meet with the chief residents monthly, where they bring feedback from their fellow residents to the attention of the chief residents and program director. They directly participate in problem solving of any issues that arise during these meetings and also help relay important information from the OME to the residents.

House Staff Council

Two residents are elected to serve as Pediatrics representatives on a university-wide graduate medical education trainee council. More information.

Infection Control Committee 

The Infection Control Committee is responsible for implementing the hospital infection control program. This includes the review and analysis of nosocomial infections and infection potentials, the promotion of a preventative and corrective program designed to minimize infection hazards and the supervision of infection control in all phases of the hospitals' activities. The infection Control Program shall be designed to meet or exceed the current national standards in hospital infection control. 

Antimicrobial Stewardship Committee

Optimizing the use of antibiotics is critical to effectively treat infections, protect patients from harms caused by unnecessary antibiotic use, and combat antibiotic resistance. Antibiotic Stewardship Committee can help clinicians improve clinical outcomes and minimize harms by improving antibiotic prescribing.

Asthma Task Force

The Asthma Task Force monitors adherence to asthma guidelines, implements policies and procedures aimed at improving outcomes for patients with asthma within our healthcare system and our community.

Neonatal Services Committee

The Neonatal Services Committee shall be responsible for the appraisal of the newborn services at Norton Children's Hospital and the review of policies and procedures as it relates to this service. 

Pharmacy and Therapeutics Committee

Serve in an advisory capacity to the Medical Staff and hospital Administration in all matters pertaining to the use of drugs, including investigational drugs. Develop the formulary of drugs accepted for use in this hospital and provide for its constant revision. Establish suitable educational programs for this hospital's professional staff on matters relating to drug use. Study problems relating to the distribution and administration of medications, including medication incidents. Review adverse drug reactions occurring in the hospital. Advise the Pharmacy in the Implementation and review of drug distribution and control procedures. Reviews the appropriateness, safety and effectiveness of the empiric, therapeutic and prophylactic use of all drugs determined by assigned members of the Medical Staff to be pertinent to the age population that the hospital services. Evaluate and approve protocols concerning the use of investigational drugs. 

Rescue Committee

This committee reviews all "Code 300" events and Rapid Response Team calls. The committee determines if the action taken was appropriate. The committee assesses the circumstances surrounding the event and determines if a further Root Cause Analysis is necessary. The committee also reviews all policies, procedures and equipment involved in Code 300 or Rapid Response Team events. 

Reaching for Zero Committee

This committee is composed of physicians, nurses, and administrative representatives from diverse backgrounds and specialties. The members of the Reaching for Zero team have significant responsibility in moving patient safety and outcomes initiatives forward. This committee develops an agenda and solutions to help improve service. 

Bio-Ethics Committee

Offer confidential case review and non-binding recommendations for clinical situations in which family, staff or physicians are in conflict. Request for case review may be made by any member of the care team, patient or patient's guardian. Attending physician will be notified at time of such request. Provide a forum for review of hospital by-laws and policies and creation of new policy in order to rectify reoccurring conflicts, clarify current procedures and address emerging ethical concerns with the approval of the MEC. Create educational opportunities to allow discussion and review of pertinent ethical issues

Unit Specific Clinical Practice Teams (Upper Levels Only)

Multi-disciplinary inter-professional unit-specific teams that monitor quality improvement metrics, unit procedures, and unit sensitive patient safety initiatives. Clinical units include: Emergency Department, PICU, CICU, and NICU.

ULH-Nursery Advisory Committee

This committee is multi-disciplinary and is a forum used for discussing problems and investigating issues, as well as educational updates which will impact the care of the mother and newborn at University of Louisville Hospital. 

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee

Our vision is that this group will write our program policies on diversity and inclusion, inform our recruitment and orientation processes, and engage with the medical school and the great work already underway. We are looking for broad representation with this committee. Members do not need to identify as an under-represented person in medicine to participate. The call for participation will go out with the general committee interest above. 

Student Education Committee

This committee discusses issues surrounding the Pediatric rotations for medical students. They discuss and create educational initiatives to improve the medical student experience during Pediatric Clerkship. 

Morbidity & Mortality Committee

Discuss recent cases with areas for improvement in patient care and chose an appropriate case for presentation at the monthly M&M conference. Identify specific learning points and systems issues that should be addressed. Contact, in writing, residents and faculty members that will be presenting. Introduce each case and supervise the discussion.

Program Evaluation Committee

This committee meets prior to the residency recruitment season to review feedback from previous candidates and recommends changes to the recruitment process. After completion of interviews and once the preliminary rank list has been generated, the subcommittee meets to discuss and approve it.  In late spring, this committee also convenes to review the results of the residents' assessments of the program (summaries of annual program reviews, ACGME survey results, and individual rotation evaluations, together with any other program evaluation results). These assessments are used to create an appropriate action plan to improve resident and faculty performance. The committee also reviews graduate performance on the certification examination to ensure compliance with local and national goals for taking the examination and passing it, modifying the action as appropriate. Activities of this committee are reported to the REC and program leadership every other month, including development, review, and follow-through on program improvement action plans. 

Recruitment Sub-Committee

Our recruitment champions help plan the interview day agenda; enlist residents to participate in candidate lunches and dinners; serve as key contacts for interviewees; and help determine key characteristics of residents in our program to target during interview day.

Pediatricians Urging Safety and Health (P.U.S.H.) Executive Committee - At Large Intern Member

PUSH is a resident-led and resident-driven program that is engages in both legislative work and community outreach. We have nine resident leaders elected by their peers yearly and four faculty advisors who are very involved in facilitation the program. This executive team provides leadership for the PUSH program as a whole and represents the PUSH team in the community as well. This group is seeks five interns to be at-large members of the PUSH Executive Committee team to encourage early involvement and leadership in advocacy.

Resident Wellness Committee

The goal of this committee is to improve the health, well-being and quality of life of all Pediatric Residents at the University of Louisville, Department of Pediatrics. Our aim is to empower each resident to promote their personal health and to model positive attitudes that will further strengthen our committee to lifelong wellness. This group aims to provide residents with quarterly noon conference sessions focused on nutrition, exercise, coping with grief, stress, and other topics related to personal wellness; Organize quarterly happy hour sessions to correspond with the date of the noon conference to allow available resident the opportunity to relax and socialize; Assist residents needing assistance from the OME due to burn-out, stress, depression, or other personal issues; Organize significant other support groups, orientation events, fitness challenges, and manage the Wellness Calendar. 

Resident Wellness

We're social beings and we require fun. Whether it's a resident-organized outing or a program event, our residents know how to have fun (but respectfully allow those who need to rest a pass). But we know wellness is more than fun outings; program leadership and the Resident & Faculty Wellness Committee work hard to make sure wellness is interwoven throughout curriculum and rotations.

Fun Fridays

Whenever there is a month with five Fridays, the fifth Friday is Fun Friday! Our noon conference is transformed into a social gathering for residents to have lunch, play games and relax.

Resident and Faculty Appreciation

Our trainees and faculty work hard every day, so we go out of our way to appreciate them throughout the year with encouraging notes, special treats, and giveaways.

Battle Buddies

Each year we pair our interns with their own Battle Buddy in hopes to combat anxiety, depression, and physician fatigue. We recognize intern year is difficult and many interns need help to get through the year. Through peer mentorship, our residents can help each other grow personally and professionally. 

The University of Louisville has a long history of engagement in Global Health, dating back to the early 1990's initially with work in Eastern Europe, Uniquely, the University of Louisville has a separate Division and Endowed Chair for Pediatric Global Health. In 2010, the Division of International Pediatrics in collaboration with the Office of Medical Education established collaborative agreements between the University of Louisville and academic medical centers in both Ecuador and Ghana for resident rotations abroad. In 2018, we launched our Distinction Track in Pediatric Global Health.

The COVID-19 pandemic and the international movement to decolonize our global health partnerships have led to significant efforts to re-evaluate our approach to global health. During the pandemic, travel was suspended, yet our global health team remained active and implemented a 2-week intensive "Domestic Global Health" elective experience. This unique elective includes a mix of discussions of health inequities and colonialism in global health, clinical tropical medicine topics, refugee health clinic sessions, a half day simulation exercise, ethics case discussions, and a practical hands on global health skills night. Now that international travel for residents has resumed, this elective has become our primary pre-departure orientation and training course for residents who wish to work abroad with our partners in Tamale Teaching Hospital in Northern Ghana. This course is open to all residents, both those hoping to work in Ghana as well as residents who wish to deepen their understanding of pediatric global health issues. 

Most recently, through the efforts of our Pediatric Global Health team, the University of Louisville will join the AMPATH Global Health Consortium in the summer of 2023. AMPATH (The Academic Model Providing Access to Healthcare) is one of the best regarded academic global health collaborative groups in the world. The University of Louisville will be making significant contributions to this group as the current leader of collaborative Pediatric projects in Tamale, Ghana. Joining this group will significantly expand the scope and depth of our partnerships in Ghana and beyond.

Domestic Global Health Rotation

Please Note: this is only a sample schedule template for our Domestic Global Health elective. Specific dates, times, and topics varies with each elective based on the specific interest of residents participating in the elective and faculty availability.

International Rotation - Tamale, Ghana

The primary goal of this rotation is to develop a global perspective on child health through the practice of medicine in a less financially resourced practice setting. Below are the specific goals we aim to achieve.

1. To provide hands-on experience in international child health for residents;
2. To encourage the development of professional values and skills as global pediatricians;
3. To develop a global perspective on child health through the practice of medicine in a resource limited healthcare setting;
4. To improve history taking and physical exam skills through clinical experience in a setting where there is less availability of diagnostic testing;
5. To build medical knowledge through exposure to a variety of infectious, gastrointestinal, nutritional and other diseases seen more frequently in historically exploited nations;
6. To experience a unique and different healthcare system;
7. To develop professional values through exposure to different philosophies of medical ethics, patient-provider relationships, and child rights.
8. To acquire the attitude and skills necessary to provide initial assessments of the health care needs of children from other cultural or ethnic backgrounds;
9. To acquire the knowledge to provide basic pre-travel care for patients traveling to other regions of the world (i.e. vaccinations, malaria prophylaxis, counseling regarding safe food and water, etc.)

The residents participating in this rotation will serve as health care providers at a level similar to their training in the United States. Residents will be supervised by both U.S. and Ghanaian Faculty Members. Residents will partner closely with our medical officers and resident physician colleagues in Ghana.

All residents participating in international electives will have the opportunity (and expectation) that they will complete our 2-week Domestic Global Health elective which serves in part as our intensive preparatory training course for residents working abroad. 

Residents will also attend post-trip debrief and reflection sessions led by our global health faculty members.

Eligibility

• Pediatric or Combined Medicine-Pediatric Residents having completed their internship;
• Pre-Departure "Domestic Global Health" 2 week elective course (must be completed prior to travel);
• All participants must currently be a "resident in good standing" as defined by our Clinical Competency Committee;
• Up-to-date on all aspects of compliance with resident requirements according to ACGME, including medical records, duty hours logging, evaluations, and conference participation.

Global Health Distinction Track

For residents with a more defined interest in global health, the residency program has offered a Global Health Distinction Track since July 1, 2018.

Goals:

• To gain a deep understanding of worldwide health and economic inequities, with an emphasis on the historic roots of these disparities.
• To develop a broad knowledge of the global burden of pediatric diseases, with special attention paid to common causes of pediatric mortality, vaccine preventable diseases, mosquito borne infections, and neglected tropical diseases.
• To gain an appreciation of issues related to public health, professionalism, and cultural sensitivity.
• To maintain and foster a passion for partnering with populations who face limited access to health care and health care resources.

Track Components and Requirements:

1. Elective rotations

2. Core Curriculum Noon Conference Topics (Rotating 18-month curriculum)

3. Optional Web-based modules (available if unable to attend our in-person educational sessions)

4. Travel preparation and post-travel debriefing

5. Global Health Seminars
Monthly noon conference series for track residents

6. Critical Reflections on Global Health Experiences 
This is a requirement of the Distinction Track and for any residents participating in international electives. Reflection question suggestions will be provided by our core global health faculty.

7. Scholarly Activity 
All residents participating in the Global Health Distinction Track are required to complete a scholarly project related to global child health, health inequities, or healthcare issues of marginalized populations. Scholarly activity may be related to our international programs or may pertain to local issues of health equity which affect populations here in Kentucky.

All Global Health opportunities are available to all residents, regardless of track participation. However, if there is limited space for some experiences (such as our international rotations) priority is given to our global health track participants.