Nephrology Fellowship
Geisinger’s Nephrology Fellowship, which immerses you in an active transplant program, prepares you to succeed in any clinical or academic setting.
About us
Do you want to become a nephrologist and train in a state-of-the-art program in a diverse community with faculty dedicated to your success at a world-class health system? Geisinger’s two-year Nephrology Fellowship is for you.
Our program, based at Geisinger Medical Center, will provide you with comprehensive training in clinical and academic nephrology. Whatever your career goals are in the field of nephrology, we can help you reach them. Our fellow graduates have an excellent success record on board exams, and practice in a variety of settings.
Our nephrology fellows are exposed to all aspects of general nephrology and transplant nephrology. As our nephrology fellow, you’ll train in a learning environment balanced among inpatient rotations, outpatient clinics and dialysis centers, didactic conferences, workshops and lectures, and research.
Our program distinguishes itself by attention to fellow well-being, a balance between inpatient and outpatient experiences and innovative teaching methods such as simulation, standardized patient programs and case-based learning.
By the end of your training, you’ll be competent in all aspects of inpatient and outpatient nephrology, including transplantation and acute and chronic dialysis therapy. The robust home dialysis curriculum in your second year will guarantee your competence in prescribing and promoting home dialysis therapies in your future career.
Our program’s board pass rate is above the national average. Many of our graduates enter clinical practice and academic nephrology, and some have pursued additional fellowship opportunities, including at Geisinger. Opportunities after graduation from our program include critical care, hospice and palliative medicine, and clinical informatics.
Outpatient rotations include:
- Nephrology clinic
- Transplant clinic
- Outpatient hemodialysis
- Home hemodialysis
- Peritoneal dialysis
Inpatient rotations include
- General nephrology consults
- Inpatient dialysis service
- Transplant service
Our department has a strong culture of research and innovation, and faculty will mentor you in conducting original research. You’ll have a dedicated research rotation, and we’ll collaborate with you to submit your research for presentation at national conferences and for publication in major journals.
We sponsor H1B visas for foreign medical graduates. We also accept exceptional foreign medical graduates who haven’t completed an ACGME approved internal medicine program on a case-by-case basis.
We hope you’ll join us.
Ion Dan Bucaloiu, MD, program director
Program overview
You’ll learn the skills that will make you a competent, compassionate, well-rounded nephrologist who makes a difference in the lives of patients with kidney disease. Our curriculum is updated each year by the faculty to include high-yield topics with an emphasis on clinical reasoning and interactive learning. All rotations are divided into two-week blocks. This allows for a healthy balance between inpatient and outpatient experiences.
As a first year, you’ll have more inpatient rotations, including general nephrology consults and inpatient dialysis, which will allow you to develop foundational skills in nephrology. You will also have significant exposure to outpatient nephrology, including outpatient hemodialysis. You’ll be paired with one faculty member and round with them in the dialysis unit twice a month during your outpatient rotations. You will have your own panel of outpatient dialysis patients. And you’ll have your own continuity clinic for one day every two weeks, allowing you to build your own panel of patients.
As a second year, you’ll have more outpatient, transplant and research rotations. You will participate in specialty clinics including transplant clinic, multidisciplinary transplant clinic and kidney stone, polycystic disease, hypertension, glomerular and vasculitis clinics. This will give you a broad exposure to all aspects of nephrology. You’ll take a more active role in your outpatient dialysis clinic and will participate in the Facility Quality Improvement program. You will also be paired with one faculty in the peritoneal and home hemodialysis clinic and follow your own patients.
You’ll participate in simulation for procedures, including temporary dialysis catheter insertion, renal biopsy and various simulations around dialysis therapies. You’ll also participate in workshops and simulations for communications skills training about breaking bad news, shared decision making, consent and how to provide dialysis options education.
As our trainee, you’ll participate in internal and external workshops and learning experiences such as:
- Annual Mid-Atlantic First Year Renal Fellows’ Symposium at the Gift of Life Institute in Philadelphia
- Annual Postgraduate Medicine Course Renal Biopsy in Medical Diseases of the Kidneys, Columbia University
- Nephrotalk: Annual Communication Workshop for Nephrology Fellows
- Fundamentals of critical care training at Geisinger
- Simulation training
- Standardized patient sessions, designed to enhance communication skills
- Central line simulation course
- Renal biopsy simulation course
- Bioethics seminar
- Cognitive skills courses
- Patient experience training
- Patient safety workshops
- Baxter Health Care: PD/CRRT workshops
- Curriculum vitae writing workshops
- Annual Resident and Fellow Scholarship Day
| # Blocks PGY4 | # Blocks PGY5 | |
| Inpatient consults | 8 | 4 |
| Inpatient hemodialysis | 6 | 6 |
| Inpatient transplant | 2 | 6 |
| Outpatient nephrology | 6 | 6 |
| Research | 2 | 6 |
| Elective | 2 | 2 |
In our program, call is one weeknight a week and one weekend a month. We have strict rules to prevent fellows’ calls from being more frequent than this.
Working national holidays are reimbursed with another free day.
We have four advanced practitioners who supplement the call schedule and who help adhere to strict ACGME 80-hour rules.
We have a robust didactic schedule that covers all nephrology topics. During your training, you’ll have a didactic lecture or other learning experience every day.
Monday didactics
- Case-based learning, including weekly presentations/group discussions on interesting cases encountered by fellows
- Board review sessions
- Simulation workshops
Tuesday didactics
Core didactics on various nephrology topics including:
- Acid base
- Acute kidney injury
- Continuous renal replacement lecture series
- Chronic kidney disease
- Hemodialysis
- Peritoneal dialysis
- Primary and secondary glomerular disorders
- Vasculitis
- Pathology
- Hypertension
- Diagnostic testing in kidney disease
- Transplantation
- Cystic and tubulointerstitial kidney disease
- Renal genetics and inherited kidney diseases
Wednesday didactics
Transplant multidisciplinary committee meeting:
- Transplant eligibility
- New transplants
- Transplant topics
Thursday didactics
- Renal journal club
- Renal M&M
- Renal grand rounds
- Renal pathology conference
- Rheumatology renal vasculitis multidisciplinary conference
Friday didactics
- Medicine morbidity and mortality conference
About Geisinger
Geisinger serves more than 1 million people in central and northeast Pennsylvania. We’ve been nationally recognized for innovative practices in quality, delivery models such as ProvenCare® and the use of an award-winning electronic medical record, Epic®. Our physician-led system has about 24,000 employees, including nearly 1,700 physicians, 10 hospital campuses, two research centers and a health plan with more than half a million members, all of which boost our hometown economies by $7.1 billion annually.Location
Danville, Pa., is a unique and wonderful place to train. Opportunities for outdoor recreation are endless, the cost of living is low and traffic is almost nonexistent. We’re also close enough to Philadelphia, New York City and Washington, D.C., to make weekend getaways easy.
Frequently asked questions
Yes, all faculty members are board-certified in nephrology.