The pediatric critical care experience at Naval Hospital Guam: suggestions for critical care training during residency

OBJECTIVES

To determine the critical care experience encountered by three recently graduated military pediatricians at an overseas military hospital and present one model of maximizing allowable critical care training time during residency.

METHOD

Retrospective reviews of all admissions to the special care nursery and intensive care unit at U.S. Naval Hospital Guam were performed for a 3-year and a 2-year period, respectively. Age, diagnosis, birth weight (if applicable), level of nursery care, invasive procedures performed in the nursery (endotracheal tube, umbilical artery, and umbilical venous catheter placement), patient outcome, and the need for medical transport were recorded.

RESULTS

During a 3-year period, there were 122 admissions to the special care nursery (7.1% of all deliveries). In addition, pediatricians performed a total of 53 invasive procedures on these patients, and 29 infants required medical transport to an off-island neonatal intensive care unit for additional care. During a 2-year period, 70 pediatric patients were admitted to the adult intensive care unit, representing 10.2% of all intensive care unit admissions during this period. Fourteen of these patients required medical transport to an off-island referral hospital.

CONCLUSION

Graduating military pediatric residents may be faced with caring for a wide range of critically ill neonatal and pediatric patients depending on their assignment. Residency training programs, with the recent increased emphasis on primary pediatric care, will need to streamline instruction in pediatric critical care to provide maximal benefit to the resident while maintaining compliance with Residency Review Committee guidelines.