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Curriculum

Neonatal intensive care work

Clinical training

During the Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine Fellowship, you engage in supervised clinical training in three areas at Mayo Clinic:

Neonatal Intensive Care Unit

Mayo Clinic Hospital, Saint Marys Campus

Licensed for 39 beds, the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) at Mayo Clinic Hospital, Saint Marys Campus, is the site at which fellows care for the most complicated neonates. Supervised by a member of the neonatal medicine faculty, each fellow gradually gains expertise and autonomy in the assessment and management of newborns with various medical and surgical conditions.

In-house call occurs at this site, with each fellow working in-house one night a week on average. A member of the faculty is available for consultation as needed.

Tour our new state of the art NICU

Labor and Delivery Service

Mayo Clinic Hospital, Methodist Campus

This fast-growing service currently delivers nearly 2,500 infants annually, with more than 1,000 considered high-risk due to fetal or maternal conditions. Fellows attend high-risk deliveries at this site, learning to lead a medical team, rapidly assessing the newborn patient, and providing necessary interventions quickly and effectively.

Mayo Clinic Hospital, Methodist Campus, is also the site of the Intermediate Special Care Nursery (ISCN). Each fellow spends one month on service in the ISCN during the final year of fellowship, learning to master the care of chronically ill neonates who are making the transition to discharge home.

Neonatal Developmental Follow-Up Program

Baldwin Building

Each fellow monitors longitudinally the development of 20 patients in this high-risk follow-up clinic. Through this experience, the fellow learns how to diagnose developmental delays and coordinate services for affected patients in order to optimize their developmental outcomes.

Rotation schedule

In total, there are 22 research blocks and 14 clinical blocks during the Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine Fellowship. You have three weeks of vacation each year.

MonthYear 1Year 2Year 3
1 NICU Research Research
2 Research Research NICU
3 Research NICU Research
4 NICU Research Research
5 Research Research NICU
6 Research NICU Research
7 NICU Research Labor and Delivery
8 Research Research NICU
9 Research NICU Research
10 NICU Research Palliative Care and Clinical Ethics
11 Research Research NICU
12 Research NICU Research

Call frequency

  • NICU. As an on-service fellow, you are responsible for just one night of call a week — Friday.
  • Research. The fellows assigned to research rotations are responsible for just one night of call a week — Sunday or Thursday, alternating week to week.
  • Labor and delivery. When you are assigned to the labor and delivery rotation, you assume the on-call responsibilities of the research rotation.

Fellow responsibilities

As a neonatal-perinatal fellow, you will have the following responsibilities:

  • Review rotation- and level-specific goals and objectives for each rotation. These are available from MedHub, which you access via the Mayo Clinic intranet.
  • Present twice a year at the Neonatal Clinical Consensus Conference. As a fellow, you identify a controversial patient management topic and lead discussion regarding evidence-based approaches to clinical problem-solving.
  • Present on an annual basis at the Neonatal Morbidity and Mortality Conference. You participate in discussion regarding patient outcomes and system improvements.
  • Select a research and neonatology mentor.
  • Meet with a research mentor biweekly during research rotations and meet with the neonatology mentor quarterly.
  • Develop curriculum to be taught at the Multidisciplinary Simulation Center.
  • Present your research at the Neonatal Fellow Research Symposium.
  • Present emerging evidence in the basic science and practice of neonatal medicine at journal club on an every-other-month basis.
  • Give specific feedback regarding the structure of the fellowship training program at the Neonatal Program Review once a year.
  • Identify members to participate in the scholarship oversight committee. You will schedule meetings with members of the committee and record minutes of the meeting.
  • Develop an individualized learning plan with guidance provided by the fellowship director and your mentor.
    • Semiannually, you are asked to complete a self-reflection tool, which guides you in evaluating your learning goals and actions required to meet those goals. The reflection tool is reviewed by the program director during your semiannual reviews. The reflection tool is part of your online portfolio and can be reviewed at any time.
  • Participate in a quality improvement project with the Quality and Safety Committee or Family-Centered Care Committee.

Didactic training

Mayo Clinic's Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine Fellowship offers extensive didactic training that includes:

  • A core curriculum that teaches current concepts in fetal and neonatal medicine
  • Regular perinatal review meetings that are held jointly with Maternal Fetal Medicine fellows and staff
  • Mentored development of clinical consensus statements
  • Morbidity and mortality conferences
  • Regular journal club seminars with neonatal medicine and invited faculty
  • The option to attend pediatric cardiology and medical genetics seminars relevant to fetal and neonatal medicine
  • Experience in the Multidisciplinary Simulation Center

In addition, informal clinical conferences are held with medical students, pediatric interns, and residents serving clerkships in neonatology.

See details on conferences for fellows.