• Train physicians with expertise in evaluating children for all types of child maltreatment
• Train the next generation of CAPs to critically review research and contribute to the advancement of science and research in the field
• Mentor fellows to become educators about child maltreatment for the next generation of physicians and for the community
• Cultivate clinicians who are skilled at working with a multidisciplinary team including other providers, law enforcement, child protective services, children’s advocacy centers, and the attorney general’s office
• Continue to be a Center of Excellence for Child Abuse Pediatrics

Fellows rotate weekly between outpatient clinic, consultations and scholarly activity/research throughout the 3-year fellowship.

Outpatient Clinic

• Child Safe Clinic
  • Provides comprehensive medical evaluations for children and adolescents when there is concern for sexual abuse or sexual assault, as well as Domestic Minor Sex Trafficking (DMST) screening and follow-up care
• Same Day Clinic
  • Patients are evaluated:
    • During active investigations by the state’s child welfare agency (RI DCYF) for allegations of physical abuse or neglect.
    • Following an acute sexual assault
    • When there are concerns for acute injuries

Consultation Service

• CAP fellows evaluate patients in the emergency department, inpatient units, pediatric intensive care units, or hospital based pediatric clinics
• CAP fellows provide phone consultation and recommendations to professionals across the state of RI

Other Rotations

• Community advocacy rotation: Fellows complete one to two weeks of a Community Advocacy Rotation during their fellowship. The goal of this rotation is to familiarize the fellow with other agencies working with families affected by child maltreatment.
• Forensic pathology rotation: Fellows spend one to two weeks with the Office of the Medical Examiner in Rhode Island. During this rotation, fellows learn about the role of the medical examiner in determining cause and manner of death, common post-mortem changes, and use of forensic toxicology in investigation of child maltreatment, autopsy protocols, and investigative techniques used by forensic investigators.

Electives

• Fellows are scheduled for 2-weeks of elective time during their fellowship based upon their individual areas of interest.
• Fellows have many options to choose from including but not limited to: Radiology, Toxicology, Hasbro Children’s Hospital Partial Hospitalization Program, Bradley Hospital Partial Program, surgical subspecialist outpatient clinics, Infant crying and behavior clinic at Women and Infants, MyLifeMyChoice (a social service agency in Boston, MA for sex trafficked children).

• CAP Weekly Rounds
  • All calls and consultations from the weekend are discussed to provide education and peer-review.  Scheduled cases for clinic that week are also reviewed to provide teaching and develop appropriate plans for care. 
• Colpo/PANDA Weekly Review
  • Fellows and attending physicians complete patient case presentations weekly, including detailed discussions about examination techniques, examination findings (including interpretations, differential diagnosis and mechanisms of injury), quality of colposcopic or photographic documentation, and identification of any quality improvement or systems issues. This review is used as peer-review, education, and occasionally as an informal debriefing.
• CAP Weekly Educational Seminars
  • This is a weekly scheduled conference including didactic education on clinical subspecialty content, journal club, clinical case review
• MDT meetings
  • Weekly Multidisciplinary Team (MDT) meetings include the entire child abuse pediatric team and community professionals to discuss RI cases of suspected abuse or neglect. 
  • Community members include RI DCYF, law enforcement, Attorney General’s Office, Children’s Advocacy Center, Office of the Child Advocate, advocates, etc. 
• Monthly debriefing
  • Monthly sessions to acknowledge the importance of secondary trauma recognition and its potential effect on a CAP professionally as well as personally.
• National conferences
  • Fellows will attend at least one conference related to the field of Child Abuse Pediatrics and will be encouraged and supported to present scholarly activity at national conferences

The scholarly activities training that a fellow receives in the Child Abuse Pediatrics Fellowship training program is a crucial component of training as an academic pediatrician. During the fellowship, each fellow will complete at least one scholarly activity project.

Scholarly activity and the final work product are overseen and assessed by a Scholarship Oversight Committee (SOC).