Curriculum

The Stanford Pediatrics Residency Program offers state-of the art curriculum for training pediatric residents. Our curriculum is based on clinical experiences, educational conferences and activities and self-directed learning.  

Clinical experiences include block rotations that align with the ACGME competencies as well as continuity clinics.

Educational conferences and activities include clinical topics as well as longitudinal curricular threads (see below). Self-directed learning occurs through a variety of methods, including resources on our robust rotations website, the breadth of materials from our medical library, and through social media-supported education.

Curricular Threads

  • Anti-racism curriculum
  • We are committed to creating a culture of openness, acceptance, and celebration of our collective differences and experiences. We have developed a longitudinal curricular thread in anti-racism to actively promote an inclusive, racially-just residency program to address structural racism within our institution, our community and our country.
    • This curriculum includes:
    • Resident training in diversity, inclusion and unconscious bias during new resident orientation
    • Conferences that discuss health care disparities, the role of race in health, and discrimination in healthcare
    • Rotation-based teaching in health care disparities, health equity, advocacy, cultural awareness, immigration and health, human trafficking, health insurance, ACES, toxic stress, trauma-informed care, environmental health, and more
    • Training on structural racism, racism in medicine, framework for debriefing/responding to microaggressions
    • Training on de-escalation and responding to discrimination and mistreatment
    • Scholarly concentration sessions on the role of racism, inequities and social justice in research
    • A debriefing curriculum for senior residents
    • An annual Diversity and Inclusion Forum 
    • Optional training for residents through the LEAD program
    • For more information about our diversity and inclusion efforts, please click here.
    • For more information about our department-wide efforts, SPAARC: Stanford Pediatrics: Advancing Anti-Racism Coalition, please click here
  • Mental Health Curriculum
  • We seek to improve the mental health training of pediatrics residents to prepare pediatricians to help address the unmet mental health care needs of children and adolescents, including vulnerable children and adolescents who have difficulty accessing mental health care due to insurance status or other barriers. We provide a longitudinal curriculum in mental health that includes:
    • Conferences that discuss mental health topics including depression, anxiety, postpartum depression, early psychosis symptoms
    • Rotation-based teaching in ADHD, substance abuse, eating disorders, trauma-informed care, gender dysphoria, developmental delay, school-based health
    • Training on diagnosis and treatment of common mental health conditions 
    • Collaboration between the Department of Pediatrics and the Department of Psychiatry to provide clinical support and teaching
    • Child psychiatry elective
  • Wellness

  • We seek to support residents’ wellness through both structural and educational efforts. Our longitudinal curriculum and resources include:
    • Class Retreats and Class Dinners
    • Dealing with death resources
    • Debriefings
    • Fireside Chats
    • Mental Health support through WellConnect 
    • Schwartz Rounds
    • Senior resident training on leading emotional debriefings
    • Training on fatigue mitigation, burnout and substance abuse
    • Training on growth mindset and learning from failure
    • Wellness class representatives on Residency Council