Specialty Care Advanced Practice Fellowship Overview

The UC Davis advanced practice fellowship program is designed to support new graduate nurse practitioners (NPs) and physician assistants (PAs) in the critical first year as they transition into practice. The programs’ primary goals are to help you develop relevant practical skills in critical thinking, evidence-based practice, and procedural skills in your area of interest. Throughout your experience, expert advanced practice professionals and physician colleagues will help you develop specialty specific skills and the confidence you need to begin a career in Burn Surgery, In-patient Glycemic, Neurology, Neurocritical Care, Neurological Surgery, Oncology, Orthopedic Surgery, Radiology and Trauma Surgery.

The UC Davis Advanced Practice Provider Transition to Practice Program, which includes both the Advanced NP-PRACTICE residency and the Advanced Practice Provider Fellowship program, are seeking accreditation through the Consortium for Advanced Practice Providers.

Visitors to our site are encouraged to provide public comment as part of our accreditation process. Please visit the Accreditation Status and Public Comment Website

• Direct patient care in a supervised structured environment
• An understanding of the mission, vision and advanced practice quality metrics at UC Davis
• Simulation training at our state of the art center for virtual care
• Didactic courses in topics related to your specialty
• Online-learning modules,
• Quality improvement conferences, grand rounds, journal clubs and complete other appropriate clinical rotations to assure comprehensive exposure to procedures and multidisciplinary collaboration along the entire care continuum. 

Through out the fellowship, experience surveys and peer feedback will be required to ensure that we provide a meaningful learning experience that prepares you to enter professional practice.

UC Davis Health Advanced Practice Fellowship Opportunities:

• Trauma Surgery/ Acute Care Surgery: As a level 1 trauma center, our advanced practice providers play a critical role in the day to day management of trauma patients including care in the emergency department, critical care areas, floor care management and clinic follow up.

• Neurology: The Neurology Advanced Practice Provider fellowship program will offer a breadth of clinical and didactic exposure designed to provide sufficient training in the diagnosis and management of various neurological disease processes in the inpatient and outpatient clinical settings. The learners will rotate through inpatient services including the Vascular neurology service, General neurology service, Epilepsy service and the Neurocritical care service. The learners will also have opportunities to work with outpatient providers from various subspecialties including headache, neuroimmunology, movement disorders and epilepsy. Additional educational opportunities include Departmental ground rounds, formal and informal didactic sessions, journal club, multidisciplinary patient care conferences, simulation-based learning and online learning modules.
  There will also be opportunities to gain experience in performing various procedures, such as lumbar punctures, EEG interpretation, vagal nerve stimulation (VNS) and deep brain stimulation (DBS) programming.
  Lastly, the learners will be able to engage in department-sponsored professional membership with the American Academy of Neurology (AAN), with the opportunity to attend the annual AAN conference, while taking advantage of the host of online educational resources and networking opportunities offered by the AAN.

• Neurological Surgery: Our neurosurgery team offers specialized care in a wide range of clinical sub-specialties including traumatic brain injury, complex cerebrovascular disease, spine, skull base neurosurgery, functional neurosurgery, pediatric neurosurgery, neuro-oncology, neurocritical care and more. The fellowship will include experiences in out patient and in patient management with rotations through clinical sub-specialties, in patient care teams and neurocritical care.

• Neurocritical Care: The neurocritical care (NCC) service provides comprehensive care to critically ill patients with neurological injury including traumatic brain injury, stroke, spinal cord injury, CNS infection, CNS malignancy, and status epilepticus. This service currently manages critical care for primary patients as well as critically ill patients on the neurosurgery and neurology services. The NCC service is staffed with 24/7 APP coverage, with APPs working top of scope collaborating with neurointensivists as needed. The service also supports research andrecruitment for several clinical trials. The APP fellowship includes rotations on days and nights as well as off service rotations with neurosurgery, neurology, and neurointerventional radiology. 

• Radiology/ Interventional radiology: The radiology experience offers an opportunity to work in both in patient and out patient settings with an emphasis on developing both procedural and clinical skills need to begin your career in a hospital based radiology group. Advanced practice rotations include interventional radiology with procedural experience in paracentesis, lumbar puncture, line placement as well as peri-procedural management of patients requiring imaging guided procedures.

• Orthopedics: The advance practice providers on Orthopedics offers care to patients in the in-patient and out-patient setting. They cover multiple orthopedic subspecialties, including orthopedic trauma, spine, joint, hand, foot, tumor, sarcoma, sports, and pediatrics. The fellowship will include rotations through a majority of these subspecialities with both in-patient and out-patient care. The advance practice fellow will be mentored and integrated into the team and will participate in all aspects of the patients care, including but not limited to rounding, calling consults, discharging, pre-op exams, consults, wound care, splinting and casting, all with increasing independence. There are ongoing educational opportunities through Orthopedic Grand Rounds, daily Triage, and ongoing projects.

• Burn surgery: The Firefighters Burn Institute Regional Burn Center at the University of California Davis is an American Burn Association Verified Burn Center that provides burn care to thousands of people of Northern California and Nevada every year. We admit nearly 500 burn patients to the hospital yearly and see over 2000 visits in our clinic annually. Our advanced practice providers play a critical role in the day to day management of burn patients including ICU, med-surg and out-patient care. The advanced practice fellow will work closely with our multi-disciplinary team including burn surgeons, nurse practitioners, burn nurses, pharmacists, physical and occupational therapists, registered dietitians, social workers and discharge planners. The fellowship will include experiences in critical care, medical/surgical care, peri-operative care and clinic care. The fellow will participate in all aspects of the patients care with mentorship and increasing independence. There are opportunities for attending Grand Rounds, Morbidity and Mortality conference, research meetings and quality improvement sessions.

• Endocrinology/ In Patient Glycemic Control Team- The Advanced practice fellow works within a hospital setting providing care to patients with diabetes or hyperglycemia including the opportunity to work with specific patient population on steroids, enteral and parenteral nutrition, and the transplant population. We will provide comprehensive instruction and exposure to management of complex diabetic patients on Insulin pumps and Continuous Glucose Monitors (CGMs). The Advanced practice fellow will round with the in-patient glycemic control team and provide supervised consultation to medical and surgical teams, patients/families and nursing staff with increasing independence over time. The fellow will incorporate the mission, goals and objectives of UC Davis Health into a structured approach for opportunities to provide excellence in patient care and fiscal integrity. The APP fellow will work with the team to proactively identify via active surveillance patients that would benefit from consultation and provides vision and leadership for Diabetes care with attention to continuous quality improvement and cost-effective outcomes. The fellow will function in a team based environment and collaborate with Primary team in discharge planning to recognize barriers to discharge and offer solutions and adjustments in outpatient regimen based on current guidelines. Clinical decision making will be mentored overtime and the APP fellow will serve as the professional resource and liaison to the hospital’s inpatient diabetes care program and initiates planned change in healthcare delivery as needed. Coordinates the development and maintenance of inpatient diabetes protocols/care-paths/order sets. There will also be exposure to transition of care and integration of Outpatient Endocrinology Clinic to ensure continuity of care and the possibility of a transition clinic in person or via telemedicine. Throughout the fellowship, the fellow will be engaged in projects/programs designed to enhance service delivery and patient satisfaction and ensure patient safety and recognize opportunities for improved patient experience. The APP fellow will participate in the UC Davis Multidisciplinary Diabetes Care Committee to align institution with American Diabetes Association (ADA)

• Oncology- The UC Davis Comprehensive Cancer Center provides care for patients with all types of cancer and blood disorders with standard and leading-edge treatments, including clinical trials. Advanced practice providers are an integral part of our approach to patient care. The APP Fellowship in Oncology will include rotations through specialties including breast, gastrointestinal, genitourinary and lung cancers, leukemia, lymphoma and bone marrow transplant. The APP Oncology Fellow will gain experience in multiple settings including outpatient clinics, outpatient infusion room and inpatient services. Rotations will also include experience with procedures in bone marrow biopsy, lumbar puncture and intrathecal chemotherapy. There are educational opportunities through Hematology Oncology Ground Rounds, Fellows Didactics and ongoing projects.