Inpatient Clinical Locations

Children's Nebraska Inpatient

Children’s Nebraska is a free-standing children’s hospital located just 3.4 miles west of the University of Nebraska Medical Center. It has over 200 beds and yearly admissions average over 7,000. Our new Hubbard Center for Children opened in August 2021, which added over 70 new beds in a 10-story tower. The original hospital tower, the Wiebe Tower, is an 9-story tower that contains our general med/surg wards. During their 3 years, residents spend 9 months on these wards. There are 4 inpatient teams. The residents routinely admit 10-20 patients in a 24 hour period and the resident service caps at 56 patients total. Children’s Nebraska provides a good mix of bread-and-butter pediatric patients as well as more medically complex subspecialty patients, including cardiothoracic surgery patients.

Interns spend 5 months here, with at least one month on each floor. They are primarily responsible for 5-10 patients depending on the patient census. Interns arrive at the hospital at 6:00am, pre-round, and write notes on their patients. They then perform family-centered, multidisciplinary rounds with various services which include hospitalists, subspecialists, and private pediatricians from the community. Afternoons are generally used to follow-up on issues from morning rounds and admit new patients. Check-out occurs between 5 and 6pm. Call during these months is arranged based on a rotating night float system, with residents scheduled for 6 consecutive shifts from 5pm to 7am.

As a second year, residents spend 2 months on the wards supervising the interns, with a portion of that time spent as the night float supervisor. The daytime supervisors arrive between 6:00-7:00 am and spend the morning seeing the new and sick patients on their floor and supervising their 2-3 interns as well as medical students. The supervisor organizes and runs rounds. The afternoon is used to follow-up on issues from morning rounds, admit new patients and work on educational activities. Check-out occurs between 5pm and 6pm. The night float supervisor works 5 days per week from 5pm to 7am.

As a third year, residents spend two months at Children’s as a supervisor. One of these months is similar to their month as a second year (described above). The other month the resident is designated as the senior supervising resident. This is an educational month designed to assist the 3rd year in transitioning from resident to attending physician. The senior supervisor spends time participating in triage phone calls with the on-call hospitalist in which they help determine patient placement within the hospital.

Children's PICU

The PICU at Children’s Nebraska has 26 beds and over 950 admissions annually. There are 2-4 residents each month in the PICU as well as 2 nurse practitioners during the week. Residents are responsible for 2-6 patients depending on the census. The PICU has both medical and surgical patients, including post-operative neurosurgical patients. The Children’s PICU has an active ECMO team which on average is activated about one time per month. There is a new, separate Cardiac ICU (CICU) in the Hubbard Center for Children. Residents spend one week here during their PICU rotations. The rest of the PICU rotation is spent on two weeks of PICU days and one week of PICU night float.

Residents spend 1 month in the PICU during both their second and third years. (Additionally, residents have an additional ICU month during the third year.) The residents arrive between 6am and 7am to round on their patients. The residents round with the entire PICU team. The afternoon is spent with new admissions and teaching. The PICU attendings have developed an active curriculum that occurs every Wednesday afternoon. Residents usually check-out between 4:00-5:00 pm.

UNMC Inpatient

As a second year, residents spend 1 month of days on the UNMC inpatient service. The pediatric resident service at UNMC admits approximately 1,000 patients yearly with an average daily census of 5-10 patients. The census is composed of general pediatric patients, as well as subspecialty patients including pulmonology, nephrology, and hematology/oncology (along with the bone marrow transplant team) patients. UNMC provides residents with more independence and autonomy. Smaller patient numbers also allow for more daily teaching than is often available with the busy pace at Children’s.

Third year residents spend 1 month of night float on the UNMC inpatient service. The resident will work 5 nights per week, arriving at 5:00pm and working until 7:00am. They cover the patients on the floor as well as the PICU service, including solid organ transplant patients.

UNMC NICU

The UNMC NICU is a level III, 36 bed unit with approximately 350 admissions annually. Roughly 15% of admissions are newborns weighing <1500g and over 70% of NICU patients require mechanical ventilation during their stay. The University of Nebraska Medical Center has 2600 deliveries annually and residents in the NICU are responsible for attending the delivery of all preterm and high-risk births.

During the intern year, residents spend 1 month in the NICU at UNMC. They are generally responsible for 7-10 patients. They work closely with the nurse practitioners who cover the NICU 24 hours/day. The NICU team is composed of an attending, 1-2 interns, 1 second year resident and a number of NNP’s, as well as many ancillary staff including RTs, dieticians, nurse case managers, social workers, and pediatric pharmacists. The interns arrive around 6am to see their patients, attend conference, and then round with the entire NICU team. The interns also do one week of nights while on the NICU. Call is q4 for the second year resident. The afternoon is spent with new admissions, simulations, and teaching. Check out generally occurs between 4:00-5:00 pm. There are no fellows, and attendings take call from home.

Bergan NICU (selective)

During their third year, residents do an ICU selective rotation .They may choose to do any extra month in the Children’s PICU (described above), or they may do a month at Bergan Mercy’s NICU. The NICU at Bergan is level III. It is staffed by neonatologists and neonatal nurse practitioners. The residents arrive between 6am and 7am to pre-round on their patients. Multidisciplinary rounds occur in throughout the morning. The afternoon is spent with new admissions and teaching. Residents usually check-out between 4:00-5:00pm. Call is Q4.