AdventHealth Florida Program

Program Identity & Fit

AdventHealth for Children (Orlando) is a faith-based, university-regionally-affiliated (Loma Linda) pediatric residency built around a single, mid-sized children's hospital that functions as the sole referral center for 13 AdventHealth hospitals across Central Florida, giving residents an unusually broad and undiluted pathology mix (200+ beds, 22-bed PICU, 9-bed CVICU, 91-bed NICU, ~8,000 admissions, ~30,000 ED visits) without competition from fellows, since the program currently has none. Its identity centers on procedural autonomy and hands-on ownership (simulation bootcamps for lumbar puncture, intubation, umbilical lines, chest tubes, etc.) alongside a structured scholarly-activity requirement supported by an institution-wide CARE research infrastructure, reflecting a program that treats research/QI as a required competency rather than a purely academic pursuit. Career orientation is fellowship-forward in practice (100% fellowship match rate over four years, with recent grads going into EM, cardiology, hematology-oncology, neonatology, PICU) despite being a general/community-based training environment rather than a large academic quaternary center, and the program explicitly allows individualized elective time, away rotations, and international electives to support whichever path a resident chooses. Distinctive features include a small resident complement (12/class), close faculty-resident relationships used to broker fellowship interviews, an Adventist mission emphasis on whole-person/faith-integrated care, and active regional advocacy work through the Florida AAP chapter.