GOALS/MISSION

The mission of the Nephrology Fellowship training program is to transform health care for New Jersey and the nation through innovation and excellence in nephrology education, research, patient-and family centered care, and addressing the diverse needs of our community. Our goal is to produce physicians who are: (1) clinically competent in the field of nephrology; (2) capable of working in a variety of settings; and (3) possess habits of lifelong learning to build upon their knowledge, skills and professionalism.

CLINICAL TRAINING

The Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School (RWJMS) Nephrology Fellowship is an ACGME accredited program where fellows are exposed to a large diversity of cases through our clinical sites. The Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital (RWJUH) is the primary affiliate and clinical site. State-of-the-art clinical. A diverse patient population of all ethnicities, ages & gender is available for the fellow to have experience with a variety of clinical problems, stages of kidney disease, and kidney transplantation.

Fellows have appropriate supervised experience to develop skills in providing consultative services and communicating with physicians and other members of the health care team and being a professional advocate for the patient within the healthcare system. Fellows are guided by skilled faculty preceptors who emphasize education. There is inpatient exposure to the general nephrology patient, including management of acute kidney injury, glomerulonephritis, fluid and electrolytes, ICU nephrology, and extensive training in acute dialysis, including continuous dialysis therapy.

In recognition of the importance of outpatient medicine to the practice of nephrology, all fellows spend at least one half day per week for the entire 2-year period in an ambulatory care clinic in which both new and continuity care patients with nephrologic diseases are evaluated and managed and also rotate through the clinic at the RWJUH Kidney-Pancreas Transplant Center for exposure to patients at all stages of kidney transplantation. Training in outpatient hemodialysis, home hemodialysis, and peritoneal dialysis is done at the DCI North Brunswick Dialysis Center.

RESEARCH

The Division of Nephrology and the Department of Medicine are committed creating an environment conducive to inquiry for our fellows. As such research and scholarly activity are very important aspects of the fellowship. Fellows receive mentorship through faculty in their area of interest, who help them achieve their targets. Fellows are given time for research during research rotations in the second year. . To facilitate their efforts, the Program Director and the Division will provide the necessary technological and educational tools. Fellows are paired with faculty mentors to facilitate their research in a given area.

RECENT CHANGES

The nephrology division and the department of medicine have recently teamed up to recruit a faculty member who is interested in bench to bedside work on kidney stones and the biome. The faculty member will work closely with Dr. Martin J. Blaser, MD the Henry Rutgers Chair of the Human Microbiome in creating a research program that will be open to our fellows