O2089: Novel Critical Care Education Committee for Pediatric Resident Education Supplementation

Background: New Pediatric Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) Common Program Requirements will go into effect in July 2025 and pediatric programs have been preparing to implement these guidelines over the past year. At our program, changes to reflect the new requirements include individualizing and broadening general pediatrics training and reducing the total amount of critical care time in both our NICU and PICU. Pediatric residents who are interested in or considering critical care fields may desire to supplement their pediatrics training with additional critical care experiences. In response to the new requirements, our program has strengthened our resident-led Critical Care Education Committee (CCEC) to supplement required residency training. The initial intention of the CCEC was to create a network of support for residents interested in critical care medicine. As our program continues to evolve, the CCEC has expanded to meet the needs of its residents. The goal of the CCEC is to support residents interested in critical care fields through extracurricular opportunities, clinical experiences, mentorship, and scholarly activity.

Methods: These goals were achieved by improving four key areas: academic engagement, community growth, resource distribution, and fellowship preparedness. The following figure illustrates the methods by which these areas were subject to improvement.The CCEC increased mentorship and community by expanding its alumni and faculty base. Alumni and faculty are encouraged to come to bi-monthly CCEC meetings and bring their ideas, news, and clinical pearls. Our new journal club also reinforces academic engagement. The CCEC has started a newsletter to ensure the members are up to date with critical care news, hospital-specific activities, events, alumni and faculty spotlights, and a novel “help wanted” section for research projects looking for resident involvement. The creation of the Critical Care Curriculum has become a resource for residents wishing to personalize their residency training. This curriculum includes a guide of possible Individualized Learning Curriculum (ILC) choices that could be pursued to supplement critical care interests.

Results: While this continues to be a work in progress with an evolving curriculum that represents the needs of our residents, we have seen an increase in resident engagement and scholarly activity. Since its conception, the committee has grown from 7 founding members to the current roster of 22 resident members and 6 faculty advisors. Scholarly activity has increased from 4 projects per year to last academic year’s total of 18 projects.

Conclusion: Our program has fostered a successful and novel Critical Care Education Committee for residents interested in pursuing critical care. With the continued growth of ACGME changes, our committee continues to expand to meet the academic needs of our residents. We have seen tremendous growth and engagement through these changes and anticipate continuing to grow while continuing to supplement resident education.