One Pediatric Surgical fellow is selected by the members of the Division of Pediatric Surgery every two years through the National Residency Matching Program. The fellow then proceeds through a structured two-year program leading to eligibility for a Certificate of Pediatric Surgery from the American Board of Surgery.

The educational program for Pediatric Surgery takes place within the larger context of medical education sponsored and supervised by The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University, Rhode Island Hospital and the Departments of Surgery and Pediatrics. The General Surgery Residency at Brown is structured as a five-year program, leading to Eligibility and Certification by the American Board of Surgery. General Surgery is currently accredited to finish seven Chief Residents. The clinical Pediatric Surgery service is led by the Pediatric Surgery fellow and is composed of two PGY-1 and one PGY-3 surgical residents and four mid-level practitioners (one physician assistant and three nurse practitioners). Collaborative academic relationships have been developed by the Division of Pediatric Surgery to assist The Warren Alpert Medical School and the Pediatric Residency program. Brown medical students rotate on the Pediatric Surgery service in their 3rd year, either as part of their surgical rotations or as an elective.

The Pediatric Surgery fellow leads a team of house officers and cares for an average daily patient census of 20 patients; weekly hospital evaluations average 60. The operative experience is extensive with close to 2,000 general pediatric surgical cases per year available for the fellow. Additional case volume in special areas of otolaryngology, head and neck, endocrine, transplant, and orthopedic surgery adds significantly to the richness of the exposure. Pediatric urology is a mandatory rotation. Rotations in neonatology and pediatric critical care medicine are part of the first-year curriculum.

The pediatric surgical attending, the pediatric surgical fellow, and the residents have formal daily teaching rounds in Hasbro Children's Hospital, giving the residents an opportunity to participate educationally in diagnostic and perioperative care. Hasbro Children's Hospital's Emergency Room evaluates all forms of pediatric trauma and burn cases. As was confirmed with the tragic Station Night Club fire in 2003, where all 50 patients admitted to this institution (with burns of up to 85% body surface) survived, Rhode Island Hospital and its burn service are a nationally recognized facility offering state-of-the-art burn care and results that meet or exceed current standards. Rhode Island/Hasbro Children's Hospital is an American Burn Association-Verified Burn Center.

The majority of admissions to the Neonatal Special Care Unit (NICU) originate from the hospital's own Labor and Delivery Unit which, with close to 9,000 births each year, is the largest in Rhode Island and the second largest in New England. In the NICU, the fellow and on-call attending are primarily responsible for premature and full-term neonates with surgical conditions, and co-manage neonates with multi-system problems. Since 1994, the Hasbro operating suite has grown from 4 to 6 operating rooms. There is a scheduled operating room for pediatric surgery every day of the week with an ample one-room extension to two or more rooms every day a week.

The Pediatric Surgical fellow and General Surgical residents attend and take an active role in presentations at interdisciplinary conferences throughout the Academic Medical Center. The Division meets separately for its specific Morbidity and Mortality conference, as well as its clinical and basic science conferences. The Pediatric Imaging, Urology, Gastroenterology, and Oncology Divisions all have individual conferences with the Division of Pediatric Surgery. The Multidisciplinary Pediatric Trauma Patient Care Committee meets once a month for quality improvement reviews. Pediatric Tumor Board with the residents and faculty of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology, Medical Imaging, Radiation Oncology, and Pathology meets twice a month. General Surgery, Grand Rounds, Morbidity, and Mortality conference are held weekly and are attended by the Pediatric Surgery fellow and faculty. Throughout the rotation, clinical or basic science presentations are required to be prepared by the PGY-1 and PGY-4 residents. These are then presented at the Pediatric Surgery conferences under the guidance of the faculty.

The Department of Surgery has four major lectureships each year under the direction of the Chairman. The Pediatric Surgery Fellow and faculty take the opportunity to present clinical and research presentations to invited leaders in American Surgery. Schedules are cleared to attend the lectures, rounds, and conferences. There is a funded Lectureship in Pediatric Surgery named for Frank Deluca MD. Past Lecturers have included Drs. Grosfeld, Altman, Touloukian, Donahoe, Krummel, Ziegler, Stolar, Caniano and Vacanti, Ford, Dillon, Wilson, Laberge and Brandt. The Division of Pediatric Surgery organizes a yearly conference on Pediatric Trauma, in conjunction with Brown University Health and the Emergency Medical Services of the Rhode Island Department of Health.

The performance of the pediatric surgical fellow is evaluated in a detailed and comprehensive manner. Pediatric Surgery uses an evaluation system that is similar to the one used for General Surgery, yet our evaluation involves other facets that are unique to our training program. Every six months all of the faculty complete a comprehensive evaluation. The fellow is then invited to formally meet with the Program Director and faculty to cover progress in the program. Prior to discussing the evaluations, the fellow is given ample time to fill out his own evaluation form. The fellow then discusses and compares his evaluation with that given by the faculty. This format allows for unique dialogue to discuss the fellow's strengths and weaknesses. These meetings enable both the fellow and the faculty to speak freely concerning the training program, the faculty, the pediatric surgery teaching curriculum, as well as the fellow's performance. All evaluations, papers written and other pertinent data concerning the fellow's performance are kept confidentially in a personnel file.