Ambulatory Training | Pediatric Residency Program | Academic Programs | Department of Pediatrics | UC Davis Health

Ambulatory Training

Pediatric Emergency Department

Pediatric Emergency Department with doctors, nurses, and 2 pediatric patients laying in hospital beds.

The UC Davis Pediatric Emergency department is the only Level 1 Trauma Center in the region. Residents, under pediatric emergency medicine faculty supervision, see a wide range of emergency medical problems, including major and minor trauma, acute medical illnesses, poisonings, obstetrical and gynecologic emergencies, and community referrals. Senior residents learn how to resuscitate patients brought in for injuries related to trauma. Residents often have opportunities to perform laceration repairs, procedural sedation, lumbar puncture, and other common pediatric procedures. Pediatric residents play an indispensable role in providing high quality, prompt emergency care to the children of Sacramento and Northern California. The ED does not have pediatric ED fellows, so residents learn directly from ED attendings. The quality of this experience is outstanding, with residents having the opportunity to manage an extraordinary range of problems, perform many procedures and supervise medical students.

Continuity Clinic: Resident Practice Clinics

Residents may choose to have their continuity clinic experience at a Federally Qualified Health Center (Sacramento County Health Center) or an academic health center (Resident Group Practice at Glassrock). All residents spend 3 - 4 half days during their Y-week in their resident practice where they provide longitudinal primary care for their own panel of patients. In this role, residents develop the skills necessary to deliver well-child and acute care including managing common pediatric illness. Developmental screening and health promotion, and longitudinal care for children with complex chronic conditions.

Resident Clinics

Sacramento County Health Center

Sacramento County Health Center Clinic building against a bright blue sky with fluffy white clouds.

This Federally Qualified Health Center is located a quarter mile from the UC Davis Children’s Hospital. The focus of the Sacramento County Health Center is to provide primary care and behavioral health services to the underserved, Medi-Cal, and uninsured /underinsured residents of Sacramento County. The County’s Refugee Clinic is housed in the same building; a third of the patients in Sacramento County Health Center are Dari or Pashto-speaking refugee children from Afghanistan and Pakistan. The healthcare team consists of medical and office assistants, nurses, medical students, physician assistant and nurse practitioner students from UC Davis School of Nursing, pediatric residents, and UC Davis pediatric faculty. Our goals for our residents in this clinic are to become familiar with leading an interprofessional health care team, learn general outpatient pediatrics, understand how social determinants of health impact a child’s overall health, develop skills in caring for the underserved, and deliver culturally and linguistically effective care to help our patients achieve their full potential.

Resident Group Practice at Glassrock Clinic

Glassrock Clinic building against a bright blue sky.

The Glassrock Resident Group Practice is a continuity clinic two blocks from the UC Davis Children’s Hospital. Clinic patients include 60% who are privately insured and 40% who have Medi-Cal, including patients insured through the foster care system. There is a higher degree of medically complex patients at Glassrock Resident Group Practice than other sites. UC Davis general pediatric faculty provide supervision in the clinic. The clinic space is shared between General Pediatrics (resident and faculty practice) and pediatric subspecialties.

Teaching Modules

Residents participate in the Yale Primary Care Pediatrics Curriculum case-based discussion facilitated by a resident with input from general pediatrics faculty before each continuity clinic. Residents complete this 18-month curriculum covering common general pediatrics topics twice during their residency. Residents also participate in a pediatric clinic longitudinal quality improvement project throughout their residency, directly applying QI teaching to a clinic wide QI project at each clinic site.

Behavior and Mental Health Education

Residents have the opportunity to learn from Behavior and Development Pediatricians, Child Psychologists and Child and Adolescent Psychiatrists during their continuity clinic at the Resident Group Practice and Sacramento County Health Center. Specialists are present twice per week in each clinic providing education regarding screening, identification, managing and referring patients with developmental, behavioral and mental health concerns in a general pediatrics clinical setting. All residents have a longitudinal 5 week behavior and mental health rotation throughout residency.

Additional Ambulatory Care Opportunities

  • Kaiser Permanente Medical Center

    Kaiser Permanente is one of the largest and most established Health Maintenance Organizations in the United States. During the last two years of residency, senior residents spend two 4-week rotations practicing general pediatrics in one of three Kaiser outpatient clinics in the Sacramento region: Kaiser South Sacramento, Kaiser Point West, and Kaiser Roseville. The Kaiser outpatient general pediatrics rotation provides a unique opportunity for residents to experience the "cutting-edge" of managed care and to function in an environment providing significant autonomy.

  • Shriners Hospitals for Children

    In June 1997, Shriners Hospitals for Children, which focuses on neuromuscular conditions, burn injuries and other special healthcare needs in children, opened the largest and most complete of its 22 hospitals next to the UC Davis Medical Center campus. All residents spend four weeks at Shriners during their second or third year, where they gain a unique exposure to pediatric orthopedics, genetics, rehabilitation medicine and outpatient burn management.

  • MIND Institute

    Residents spend 2 weeks on their Developmental Behavioral Pediatrics rotation as PGY1s, 2 weeks as PGY2s, and 1 week as PGY3s. Developmental Behavioral Pediatrics are an integral part of the MIND (Medical Investigation of Neurodevelopmental Disorders) Institute. The MIND Institute brings together a broad range of UC Davis faculty with expertise in developmental-behavioral pediatrics, neurology, psychiatry, genetics, and basic science who all share a common interest in neurodevelopmental disorders. Residents are introduced to developmental screening tools and their use, as well as community resources available to families with children who have or are at risk for developmental and behavioral disorders.

Seniors jumping picture
How to Reach Us

Contact Information

Residency Training Program
Department of Pediatrics, UC Davis Health
2516 Stockton Boulevard
Sacramento, CA 95817

Phone: 916-734-2428
Email: HS-pedsresidency@ucdavis.edu