Dr. First
Dear Future Pediatricians:
As Chairman of the Department of Pediatrics and as Senior Associate Dean for Educational and Curricular Affairs at the University of Vermont College of Medicine, I am delighted with your inquiry into our Residency Training Program. Our Department is able to offer each house officer the unique opportunity to serve not just the community of Burlington, but the entire state of Vermont and a large part of upstate New York. Similarly, the physicians throughout our state are extremely receptive to involvement in your training and, as you will learn, pediatric rotations in rural settings throughout the state are one of the strengths of our training program. Our incredibly talented faculty, who have come from all over the country, have the same vision I do, in that they view our Department as a focal point for designing future models for both academic subspecialty as well as generalist care. Because of the extensive programs, nationally recognized faculty and important partnerships we have established over the past 50 years, a few years ago our health care system named us Vermont Children's Hospital at Fletcher Allen Health Care. This new name has allowed us to further develop our programs that provide comprehensive, coordinated care to children and fully renovate our inpatient facility so that it is truly child-friendly and family-centered. This year we have recently opened a state of the art Children's Specialty Center in our new Ambulatory Care Center building that will be a focal point for thousands of families of children with chronic diseases and a superb environment for residency training. A newly opened Medical Education Center and Library at the College of Medicine that connects with our hospital now enhances the teaching and learning methods we use to implement the competency-based curriculum we offer. Needless to say, you can see how excited I am and only hope that you can begin to sense that excitement as you review our materials. The residency program has been and will continue to be a major strength and important priority for our Department and has been a key reason why the University of Vermont College of Medicine has named us Department of the Year three out of the past seven years (and runner-up the other four years).
As you will note after reviewing our website, the Residency Training Program is designed to provide you with a broad based general pediatric educational perspective and therefore allow you to be extremely well prepared for whatever your career goals might be, ranging from a competitive academic fellowship to an equally competitive place in a community practice. In addition, we focus a lot of attention on developing teaching, research and advocacy skills in our house staff so that house staff are prepared to be pediatric leaders as we enter the 21st century. As Chairman, I am committed to making sure that our residency program meets each house officer's particular goals and objectives in training. In fact, one of my responsibilities, in addition to overseeing the department, is to serve as an in-patient and out-patient attending on our general pediatric floor and in our department's primary care practice. This brings me in close contact with each of our house officers on a daily basis, something that I enjoy doing and view as a priority in regard to my own job description.
The rest of the Department and I look forward to meeting you should you have the opportunity to visit our program.
Sincerely,
Lewis R. First, M.D.
Professor and Chair
Senior Associate Dean for Educational and Curricular Affairs
