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Children's Wisconsin

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At Children’s Wisconsin, we believe that kids deserve the best. We provide the highest-quality primary and specialty health care for children in the state, while supporting educational and research initiatives to bring that care to the next level.

That’s why we want you here. We need people like you who understand our passion and know how to put patients and their families first. It’s what we look for in every person we hire — from the faculty, who bring the academic expertise we need and the residents and fellows we train, to the nurses, who strengthen everything we do, and the administrative and support staff who make it all possible. 

At Children’s Wisconsin, our singular focus is providing the best care possible for every child and family that comes through our doors. Kids deserve to be physically and mentally healthy. Kids deserve to feel seen and heard. Kids deserve the best. 

Children’s Wisconsin has been named a Top Workplace by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel every year since 2010. 

Learn our story

Since the day we were founded in 1894 as Milwaukee’s Free Hospital, we’ve always been there for Wisconsin’s kids — and we always will be.

But that’s not our whole story.

Our story includes 9-year-old Takiya, whose emotional outbursts and social struggles were getting in the way of learning until she got mental health care right down the hall from her classroom in one of our school-based mental health clinics. 

Our story includes our pediatric pulmonary medicine team, who first recognized the signs of vaping-related illness in teenagers, setting off a national health alert about e-cigarettes. 

Our story includes 15-year-old Ashana, who was adopted
by her forever family through our foster and adoption care services. 

Our story includes 100+ primary care physicians in the Children’s Primary Care practice, who have re-visioned the well-child appointment to include a visit with a mental and behavioral health provider. 

Our story includes 8-year-old Milosz, who gets support from our Educational Achievement Partnership Program through our Herma Heart Institute, helping his teachers understand the connection between his heart defects and behavioral struggles to ensure academic and social success.

Our story includes care for kids in so many ways: in the hospital and in primary care, in the Emergency Department and in a therapist’s office, through a digital health offering or at a school nurse’s office, through our child advocacy effortsor our health insurance plans. It includes the parents who work alongside us and the donors and advocates who support our work.

We are more than a hospital and a health system; we are a community of caregivers dedicated to making Wisconsin’s kids the healthiest in the nation. 

We need you to help us continue our mission.

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Children's Wisconsin by the numbers, stats and facts about Children's Wisconsin.

Children’s values and guiding behaviors

Our five values guide and inspire us. The guiding behaviors describe how we pursue our vision and mission. These actions demonstrate our passion, and show how much we care for and about children and families.

Purpose

We act in service of children and families.

Collaboration

We work together to care for and about children, families and each other. 

Integrity

We build confidence and trust in all interactions.

Health

We are at our best.

Innovation

We commit to improvement with breakthrough ideas and solutions. 

The Medical College of Wisconsin

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Since 1893, the Medical College of Wisconsin has been a leader in patient care, research, education and community engagement. MCW brings together the most inquisitive minds in science, medicine, education and community engagement to solve the toughest challenges in health and society today. Academic medicine is at the core, where scientists, physicians and students work hand in hand with the community to ask the questions no one else is, and fuel the continuous cycle of knowledge that’s shaping the future of medicine.

The Medical College of Wisconsin by the numbers, stats and facts about The Medical College of Wisconsin.

Pediatric Residency and Fellowship Programs

The Medical College of Wisconsin’s Pediatric Residency and Fellowship Programs offer a unique training opportunity designed to help you become an accomplished pediatrician who can deliver patient-centered, quality care.

Our programs provide deep learning and experiences in all areas of children’s health, yet still ensure that our residents have the time and support to pursue their individual interest in one of six tracks: primary care, hospital medicine, global health, subspecialty, career identification and hybrid (which combines elements of several tracks).

When you come to MCW for your residency or fellowship, you will encounter the full range of pediatric practices, from large, community-based general practices to inpatient subspecialty teams providing cutting-edge care. You will work with a world-class faculty of clinicians, educators and physician-scientists pursuing basic, translational and clinical research. 

Pediatric Residency 

You will also benefit from:

  • Excellent career opportunities. We believe that it is imperative that residents have plenty of time to enjoy family, friends and life outside the hospital, that residents have significant input into the future direction of the program, and that the unique needs and career aspirations of each individual resident are encouraged and supported. Our residents leave our program extremely well-prepared to work in primary care, practice hospital medicine or enter fellowship. Our graduates obtain positions in the most competitive practices and fellowships in the country.
  • Personalized training for Board exams. Our Board pass rate is higher than the national average thanks to our SURFboards (Strategic Unified Regimen for Passing the Boards) program: a seven-element comprehensive Board preparation curriculum that spans your three years of training.
  • Supportive research infrastructure. This includes the ability to spend up to three months on research electives; access to a mentor database to identify projects and faculty support; research opportunities through the Children’s Research Institute; an annual Resident & Fellow Research Day to present your work and stipends to travel to national meetings.
  • Patient Safety and Quality Improvement Training. This includes a three-year comprehensive curriculum, your choice of a mentored small group Quality Improvement project that you can handpick, an annual Resident Quality Improvement Day to present your work and stipends to travel to national meetings.
  • Advocacy training. Through the Center for the Advancement of Underserved Children and a resident-led/program-supported advocacy committee, you receive training to perform community advocacy for your patients, their families and their neighbors.
  • Comprehensive mentorship team. This team comprises faculty advisors, career mentors, program directors and chief residents. They provide individualized support to help you meet and exceed your goals.
  • Emphasis on self-care. You can’t care for your patients if you don’t first care for yourself. That’s why we offer an innovative, evidence-based wellness program.
Doctors performing surgery.

Advanced Practice Provider Fellowship Program

About our program

At Children’s Wisconsin and MCW, nurse practitioners, physician assistants, anesthesiologist assistants and certified nurse anesthetists commonly referred to collectively as Advanced Practice Providers (APPs), are pediatric clinical providers who provide specialized, expert care to all patient populations at the hospital and within the pediatric enterprise. 

We employ more than 300 APPs across a variety of 38 subspecialties at the Children’s Wisconsin Milwaukee Hospital, Fox Valley Hospital and 9 regional locations. APPs provide care within the intensive care units (ICUs), inpatient medical and surgical units, operating rooms (ORs), Emergency Department (ED) and all outpatient subspecialty clinics within the pediatric enterprise, including primary care, urgent care and specialty care centers.

All APPs must complete a master’s or doctoral degree program and have advanced clinical training to prepare them with specialized knowledge and clinical competency to practice in all health care settings. To ensure the highest quality of care, APPs are required to undergo rigorous national certification, periodic peer review, clinical outcome evaluations and adhere to a code for ethical practices. Self-directed continued learning and professional development is also essential to maintaining clinical competency.

Additionally, to promote quality health care and improve clinical outcomes, APPs lead and participate in both professional and lay health care forums, conduct research, work on quality improvement initiatives and apply findings to clinical practice.

APP Centralized Pediatric Fellowship

The APP Centralized Pediatric Fellowship is an innovative 12-month training program that teaches APP fellows to become highly skilled in the multidisciplinary, collaborative and evidence-based management of a variety of pediatric patient populations. It attracts NPs and PAs seeking a structured educational program to support and guide their development of proficient clinical decision-making and their application of specialized skills in the care of the pediatric patient through in-person didactics, online classrooms, simulation, proctored procedures and mentored clinical experiences.

Benefits of this program include:

  • An intense, quality onboarding and training experience in complex, quaternary pediatric subspecialty patient care providing the time, exposure, hands-on learning and mentorship for novice APPs to promote a successful transition to practice
  • Guided learning in mentored clinical rotations across many clinical areas, including inpatient and outpatient rotations in both medical and surgical specialties
  • Exposure to interprofessional roles, APP contributions to team-based care and a variety of pediatric specialty patient populations
  • Professional and leadership development to enhance confidence in transition to practice, promote resiliency, encourage personal growth and prepare APPs to navigate the complex and ever-changing health care environment
  • Opportunity provided to develop a wide range of clinical and critical thinking skills and professional development with application across diverse clinical specialties
  • APP fellows receive a stipend, educational funds, standard MCW APP benefits and post-fellowship recruitment opportunities.
Doctor listening to child at appointment.

Getting you where you want to be and beyond

Developing excellence requires investing in our students’ academic endeavors, mentoring them in their career trajectory and creating an atmosphere that encourages them to focus on both their health and well-being so they can continue taking care of others.

Opportunities include:

  • Professional coaching. These coaches support you in leveraging your strengths in your current role and planning for your future.
  • Career development program. This includes 360 evaluations, coaching and conflict resolution training.
  • Competitive salary and benefits. Including health, vision, dental, flexible spending for health care and dependent day care, EAP, 403(b) plan, vacation time, tuition reimbursement and more. 
  • Both Children’s Wisconsin and MCW were recently ranked among the Top 10 Best Places to Work in Wisconsin by Forbes.

Inclusion, diversity and equity

Doctor listening to child's heartbeat while parent holds in lap.

The challenge of health care disparities is real. That’s why inclusion, diversity and equity is imbedded in our core mission and why the Medical College of Wisconsin instituted several initiatives to bring this mission to life, including: 

  • Office of Diversity and Inclusion. Established in March 2016, the MCW Office of Diversity and Inclusion works with internal and external partners to foster and drive inclusion excellence. 
  • Vice Chair of Diversity and Inclusion. This individual partners with the MCW Office of Diversity and Inclusion to disseminate best practices for the recruitment and hiring of diverse faculty, including interview protocols and other practices to reduce bias in the candidate interview process.
  • Unconscious bias training. We provide at least two hours of training for faculty and staff around the issue of unconscious bias. Studies show this can reduce the impact of unconscious bias on patient/physician relationships and may help reduce racial disparities. 
  • Diversity Scholars. The Department of Pediatrics invests in scholars who will advance diversity, inclusion and health/social equity scholarship and practice in support of the mission and goals of the department and MCW.
  • NCBI training. The MCW Coalition Builders team regularly offers the National Coalition Building Institute’s (NCBI) award-winning Welcoming Diversity Workshop, which provides training in diversity, equity and inclusion customized for MCW. To date, more than 5,000 MCW employees and students have participated in these workshops.
  • Spring Festival of Cultures. This annual, three-day event encourages an increased awareness and celebration of the visible and non-visible identities among our MCW community to promote diversity, inclusion and unity.
  • President’s Diversity and Inclusion Award. This annual award recognizes the accomplishments of faculty, staff, students, residents, trainees and community members in contributing to diversity and inclusion.
  • Institute for Health & Equity. The Institute researches the root causes of health disparities in our communities and advances proposals to foster health equity throughout the world.

Children's Research Institute

Researcher filling pipette in lab.

Children’s Research Institute, a collaboration that includes Children’s Wisconsin, the Medical College of Wisconsin, Marquette University College of Nursing and the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee College of Nursing, represents the most powerful concentration of pediatric research in the region. Our researchers collaborate with experts and organizations on both a regional and national level to develop new treatments, interventions and diagnostic tools for congenital, acute and chronic pediatric conditions.

Our focus is on translational research so we can bring discoveries from the laboratory to our patients as quickly as possible. With annual averages of more than 1,000 active clinical trials and nearly $30 million in external funding, the researchers at the Children’s Research Institute are developing new treatments, methods and diagnostic tools for congenital, acute and chronic pediatric conditions.

Our research is divided into four units: 

  • Developmental genetics and genomics research. Researchers here seek to harness the power of the human genome to identify the underlying genetic contributors to diseases like diabetes and inherited kidney conditions, among others. 
  • Infection, inflammation and immunity research. This research ranges from basic science studies that dissect essential genetic programs to clinical studies that test new approaches to the diagnosis and treatment of immunologically mediated diseases. This includes translational research related to the gut microbiome and its connection to inflammatory bowel diseases.
  • Vascular biology and hematology research. Here, our researchers are bringing new understanding to the areas of bleeding disorders, sickle cell disease and congenital heart disease, as well as exciting work in developmental vascular biology.
  • Patient-centered research. This includes the MACC Fund Center for Cancer and Blood Disorders, which provides bench-to-bedside resources to transform cancer research for the next generation of children. The focus here is on clinical effectiveness, outcomes and community health and prevention. 

Getting the Grant
Research is the heart of academic medicine. But research cannot be done without funding. The Medical College of Wisconsin routinely ranks in the top 3% of total funding among organizations who receive funding from the National Institutes of Health. We want you to be part of that success. Thus, we are committed to providing grant-writing support, including semi-annual grant-writing retreats, where you can learn the latest about NIH grants, work on grant submissions and have the submission reviewed.

Our commitment to mental health

Therapist and teen talking.

Children’s Wisconsin is committed to addressing the mental and behavioral health crisis facing our children. Right now, one in five children is living with a serious mental illness and Wisconsin’s youth suicide rate remains significantly higher than most of the U.S. In fact, suicide is the second-leading cause of death among kids.

To help address this crucial need, Children’s has developed a number of programs to help kids across the state. Here are some of the things we are doing to help:

  • Craig Yabuki Mental Health Walk-In Clinic: Provides same-day care for children and teens experiencing urgent mental health issues as an alternative to traditional urgent care and emergency room services.
  • Project Shine Through: A years-long strategic vision with seven key initiatives aimed at improving mental and behavioral health in kids. This includes an emphasis on ease of access, universal screenings and robust emergency services.
  • Children’s Wisconsin plans to make mental health services available to kids at all Children’s Wisconsin primary care offices and urgent care locations by the end of 2023.
  • Project Ujima: This program works to stop the cycle of violent crimes through crisis intervention and case management; social and emotional support; youth development and mentoring; mental health and medical services.
  • Gender Health Clinic: Children’s Wisconsin offers gender health services for teens and young adults, including psychological care and social/spiritual support services.

About Milwaukee

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Image of skyline at Summerfest music festival in Milwaukee.

About Milwaukee

Located in the southeast corner of Wisconsin nestled along Lake Michigan and just 90 miles north of Chicago, Milwaukee has all the advantages of a large, vibrant city but without the stress or cost. Milwaukee is the largest city in Wisconsin and has an urban/suburban vibe, youthful population and low cost of living, all of which contributed to U.S. News & World Report ranking it as the 75th best metro area to live in the United States in 2022. It’s the perfect-sized metro area, with 1.6 million residents, a bustling nightlife, award-winning restaurants, lakefront museums and a thriving music and arts scene. In 2021, the median price for a home in Milwaukee was $225,312, nearly 40 percent less than the national median home price, while the average cost of living is 12 percent below the national average.

Milwaukee’s higher education system

Nationally recognized public and private school systems in the Milwaukee region are committed to accelerating student achievement and building positive relationships. International Baccalaureate, Advanced Placement, dual language programs, and charter schools focused on science/technology, arts, and environmental sciences provide additional options for students with specialized interests. More than 68,000 students are enrolled each year in the more than two dozen public and private four-year schools serving the Milwaukee region. These include nationally recognized universities, colleges, technical schools and specialty schools, including the Medical College of Wisconsin, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Marquette University, the Milwaukee School of Engineering and the Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design.

Photos by VISIT Milwaukee

Aerial view of Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

Visit our websites below to learn more about us
and apply for training and employment opportunities.