Educational/Clinical Experience - Pediatrics Residency Program

Our program uses the “4+1” block schedule, in which the year is divided into 10 five-week blocks (plus a two week intercession mid year). During each of your 10 blocks you spend four weeks completing a block rotation, and the “plus one” weeks are used to schedule longitudinal rotations. This is what the intern year looks like using the 4+1 schedule at Ochsner:

Experience tells us that some rotations work better with longitudinal experiences with the added benefit of increased exposure to mentors precepting you on those rotations. The added advantage of longitudinal experiences is to help you better understand how each subspecialty works in concert with the others to provide care for our patients.

For the intern year, we’ve selected development and advocacy/community pediatrics rotations as longitudinal experiences. As head of the Complex Care Clinic, Associate Program Director Dr. Bluett-Mills will work closely with you on these rotations to ensure you have an understanding of what resources are available to your patients in the greater New Orleans area. She is well connected with social workers, community health workers, and other colleagues that will show you the ways in which they connect patients with resources. In your Advocacy training, you will work with Program Director, Dr. Carlson, on the skills needed to effectively advocate for changes in the broader systems that affect child wellbeing. Dr. Voigt, our director of the Boh Center for Child Development, will guide you through the workup and management of children with developmental delays and disorders.

At the end of your first year, you select a clinical track, and your longitudinal rotations in the second and third year are determined by your track selection. Mornings on your upper-level rotations are in the clinics aligned with your clinical track, and in the afternoons you will work under the guidance of our faculty doing scholarly projects. The foundations learned during your intern longitudinal rotations will set you up for advocacy, quality improvement, and research experiences in your second and third year rotations.

Because through 2026, we will not have pediatric fellowships, you work directly with faculty on all rotations that are invested in your growth. The breadth and depth of training available at Ochsner will ensure that you are well trained for the career ahead of you.