Loma Linda University Health Education Consortium Program

Program Identity & Fit

Loma Linda's pediatric residency is a faith-based academic program (Seventh-day Adventist affiliation) built around a large tertiary children's hospital with one of the largest NICUs in Southern California, serving as the sole children's hospital for 1.2 million children in the Inland Empire and treating a heavily underserved, high-acuity population from bread-and-butter cases to complex chronic and "zebra" presentations. The program explicitly frames training through a "whole person care" lens integrating medical, social and spiritual support, and offers a dedicated Riverside-based Primary Care Track alongside the categorical program for residents committed to community pediatrics, health management and underserved populations. Research is available and supported through faculty mentorship and QI projects tied to the resident-run SAC clinic, but it is not positioned as central to the program's identity, which instead emphasizes clinical breadth, teaching, advocacy and service to vulnerable children. The program values applicants with strong pediatric clinical acumen, a demonstrated sense of calling to underserved and whole-person care, teaching orientation, and teamwork with a sense of humor.