University of Tennessee College of Medicine Program

Program Identity & Fit

UTHSC's pediatric residency is a large, tertiary-care university program anchored at Le Bonheur Children's Hospital, with additional training at Regional One Health (a safety-net hospital serving Memphis's Medically Underserved Areas) and St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, giving residents unusually deep exposure to complex subspecialty and oncologic disease alongside underserved general pediatric populations. The program is resident-run on inpatient services with a night-float structure, an X+Y (4+2) scheduling model that separates continuity clinic from inpatient/ICU months, and substantial individualized curriculum time that expands yearly to let residents pursue fellowship-track interests (from complex care and palliative medicine to transport and culinary medicine). Research is institutionally supported but not obligatory beyond a single required scholarly project, backed by the Children's Foundation Research Institute and access to St. Jude's research infrastructure, reflecting a program that treats research as an accessible option rather than a defining identity. With nineteen in-house fellowship pathways, a combined Med-Peds track, dedicated community/advocacy rotations (firearm safety, safe sleep), and rural incentive funding, the program values residents who want broad clinical autonomy and can commit to serving a high-acuity, resource-limited regional population while keeping fellowship or general pediatrics both open.