Frequently Asked Questions

1. Tell me a little about Scott & White Hospital.
2. Is there sufficient emphasis on primary care pediatrics?
3. Will I have adequate experience in the ambulatory setting?
4. What is the call schedule like?
5. Will I be given sufficient responsibilities?
6. Will I have much contact with faculty?
7. How will I be evaluated?
8. What type of formal learning opportunities does your program offer?
9. What is the pass rate for your graduates on the Pediatric Board Certification Examination?
10. Since your program is not based at a free-standing pediatric hospital, do your residents see enough pathology to prepare for practice and the boards?
11. What if I decide to pursue a fellowship?
12. What do residents do after completion of their residency?
13. What are the advantages of living and working in Temple?
14. What qualities do you look for in resident applicants?
15. What changes have occurred in the program in the past five years?
16. Are new faculty being added to the department?
17. How does it feel to be a resident in this small of a program?
18. Can my spouse find employment and educational opportunities?

Tell me a little about Scott & White Hospital.

Scott & White is a large teaching institution with over 300 residents and fellows training in almost every field of medicine.

As the primary teaching hospital for Texas A&M Health Science Center College of Medicine, it serves as the site of clinical rotations for more than 100 medical students per year. Scott & White Hospital has been named one of the Top 15 teaching hospitals in the United States for the last three years.

Is there sufficient emphasis on primary care pediatrics?

The resident curriculum at the Children's Hospital at Scott & White devotes 21 of 36 months to rotations in primary care pediatrics. These rotations include acute care clinics, continuity care clinic, general inpatient ward, newborn care, emergency department, child development, adolescents and community health. Nine months are allowed for subspecialty training, however the majority of the time spent on these rotations is in the outpatient setting as well.

Will I have adequate experience in the ambulatory setting?

Yes. As outlined in the curriculum, there are ample ambulatory pediatric exposures.

What is the call schedule like?

The call schedule is manageable, sufficient for training, but not so exhausting as to interfere with learning the lessons of providing care. Residents take in-house call on the wards, NICU and PICU. There are seven months of ward call for interns on average every fourth night. PL-2 and PL-3 take ward call as a night float system in two-week blocks.

The PICU month (one month per year) and ER month (one month during the PL-1 and PL-3 years) are considered “call” months with night shift work. During elective months, residents are either cross-covering on the ward during the weekends or taking home call as triage telephone/backup call (night chief). The PL-1 and PL-2 are granted one call-free month per year and two call-free months the PL-3 year.

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Will I be given sufficient responsibilities?

Pediatric residents have first contact with patients and when consulted in the ER assumes responsibility of triaging the patient for possible admission. The upper level resident on call is the most senior Pediatrician in the house after hours and manages issues on the ward, and assists the PICU house officer if necessary. The faculty is readily available to assist with any inpatient issue.

Will I have much contact with faculty?

Residents in our program have a close working relationship with faculty. Most faculty members will know the residents by first name within a few months. Outpatient rotations are essentially a one-on-one experience. Sub-specialists encourage calls whenever necessary to discuss the management of their patients. Each resident has a faculty advisor that can provide advice and counseling.

How will I be evaluated?

Written evaluations are completed by supervisory faculty, nursing and peers each rotation and discussed with the resident by staff or the program director. General evaluation categories include the following competencies: patient care, medical knowledge, professionalism, interpersonal/communication skills, practice-based learning and self-improvement, and systems-based care. The American Board of Pediatrics In-Training exam is administered each year to help the resident and the program director assesses his/her progress in pediatric knowledge accumulation. The program director meets with each resident quarterly to discuss evaluations, exams, general performance, and future plans.

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What type of formal learning opportunities does your program offer?

Residents attend a 4 hour afternoon once a week conference which includes lectures, simulation experience, workshops and board reviews. The curriculum is designed to cover Nelson’s pediatric text twice within the three years of one’s residency. Grand Rounds occur once weekly during which time a Scott & White specialist or visiting faculty will lecture on their topic of interest. Teaching sessions also occur daily during morning report, teaching rounds in each designated hospital area, and in continuity clinic. The residents are also required to attend 8 hours of mandatory study hall each month.

What is the pass rate for recent graduates on the Pediatric Board Certification Examination?

The pass rate has exceeded 75 percent over the last 10 years.

Since your program is not based at a free-standing pediatric hospital, do your residents see enough pathology to prepare them for practice and the boards?

Although Temple is a relatively small town of 55,000 people, Scott & White serves a much larger region of nearly 1,000,000 people. We receive patients from across the state as well as many neighboring states and Mexico. We admit patients whose parents are stationed at Fort Hood, the largest military base in the world. The surrounding area also has many medical foster homes, housing children with multiple medical problems requiring care from our tertiary institution. In summary, a wide variety of disease processes are diagnosed and managed by our faculty and residents.

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What if I decide to pursue a fellowship?

The residency program at the Children’s Hospital at Scott & White provides exposure to all areas of pediatrics. For both the future general pediatrician and the prospective subspecialty fellow, a solid background is essential. Our graduates are highly competitive for fellowships nationally. Recently, pediatric graduates have secured fellowship training in Emergency Medicine, Hematology/Oncology, Allergy, Gastroenterology, Intensive Care, Neonatology, Nephrology and Pulmonology. The Children’s Hospital does currently offer a Hospitalist fellowship, and there are plans to have Neonatology, Pediatric Gastroenterology and Endocrinology within the next five years.

What do residents do after completion of their residency?

Our residents are trained to be excellent general pediatricians or to begin fellowship in any subspecialty field. On average, twenty-five percent of graduating residents pursue subspecialty training and the remaining two-thirds enter primary care positions either in outpatient clinics or Hospitalist positions.

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What are the advantages of living and working in Temple?

Although it is located in a relatively small town of 55,000 people, Scott & White Hospital serves a much larger region of approximately 1,000,000 people. The residents here are exposed to a diverse patient population. Through the General Outpatient Clinic, they see privately insured patients, as well as those on Medicaid. Residents also see indigent patients through their work in the Holland Community Clinic, a school-based clinic in a rural neighboring community.

In addition, our residents are exposed to active duty military dependents who are admitted for problems that can't be treated at Carl R. Darnall Army Medical Center, which is located on the largest military base in the world, at Fort Hood.

Residents in our program enjoy this diverse patient population without having to deal with the complexities of big city life. Busy residents greatly appreciate a short commute to work (10-15 minutes for most), without significant traffic.

The crime rate in Temple is low and most families feel comfortable sending their children to public schools. They have been rated or recognized by the State of Texas. There are also high-quality, private schools and Montessori schools available. Because the cost of living is relatively low and the real estate market is flourishing, many residents are able to purchase homes at the beginning of residency.

For those who enjoy the advantages of larger cities, Temple is centrally located to all of the major cities in Texas, making it very easy to take a day/weekend trip out of town: Austin (1 hour), Dallas (2 hours), San Antonio (2.5 hours) and Houston (3 hours). Airports are located in all these cities, as well as in Killeen which is only about 35 minutes away.

The advantages of life in Temple, paired with the diverse patient population, make our residents feel that they have the “best of both worlds” here at the Children's Hospital at Scott & White. The Temple/Belton area has an active community in terms of recreation. There is the Belton recreation lake for fishing, boating and camping, as well as water parks, children activities, active parks and recreation centers for children and adults.

What qualities do you look for in resident applicants?

The ideal applicant for the Pediatric Residency Program here at the Children's Hospital at Scott & White should recognize the unique value of our unusual situation - a large (over 500 physicians) multi-specialty physician group, a hospital with a reputation for quality, a mature health plan and a medical school. He/She should value the personal relationship with fellow residents and faculty in a small town atmosphere. He/She should value participating in care instead of observing fellows direct care. He/She should value faculty who are busy clinicians, who value patient care as the top priority and integrate research into the clinical day.

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Are new faculty being added to the department?

The Department of Pediatrics continues to grow each year. Over the past two years, many new faculty members have joined our team. These new faculty members include general pediatricians, allergist/immunologist, cardiologist, child developmentalist, nephrologist, hematologist/oncologist and a forensic pediatrician. Efforts are currently underway to recruit more faculty both in general and sub-specialist pediatrics.

How does it feel to be a resident in this small of a program?

There is a strong sense of community among the residents, faculty and staff here at the Children's Hospital at Scott & White. Residents benefit from a very close working relationship with faculty. Patients and parents may be encountered in the community, at church, concerts or sporting events. Parents may be one Scott & White's 9,000 employees, or non-medical business participants in the community. The presence of a tertiary medical facility in a small town atmosphere is unusual and very attractive to some applicants for the family support it provides.

Can my spouse find employment and educational opportunities?

There are numerous educational opportunities for spouses in the Central Texas area. These include Temple College, the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor, Central Texas College and Tarleton State University - Central Texas. Larger universities in the area include Baylor University and the University of Texas at Austin.

Employment can be found in a variety of different areas. Positions are available in education, healthcare, business and manufacturing right here in Temple. Many spouses of residents are employed in Austin or its surrounding areas; especially those in the computer and electronic industries.

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