The center of our program is the Children's Hospital at OU Medical Center, located within the Oklahoma Health Center complex. The department is composed of 14 sections and 109 faculty members, seeking excellence in individual and shared goals.

The faculty is dedicated to the scholarly delivery of clinical service, the teaching of students and housestaff, and the development of applied and basic knowledge through their research efforts.
We share a common commitment to serving and protecting the well-being of the children of Oklahoma by ensuring the continuity and improvement of health care to future generations of children through the training of outstanding pediatricians.

Details of our educational program are provided in the pages that follow. There are, however, three philosophical points I would like to highlight. They may help you understand why I believe our program is a very special one.

First, the entire faculty of the Department of Pediatrics is committed to providing an exciting educational experience in which the pediatric house officer has the opportunity to learn how to become a competent and compassionate physician to the infant, child and adolescent. During their training, our house officers demonstrate increasing independence in their work with attending physicians to care for children with a variety of common and unusual pediatric problems. Thus, our program seeks the proper balance between scientific inquiry and empathic clinical care.

Second, our program welcomes the opportunities of a changing patient population in a changing world, in a changing profession. The house officer will be exposed to exciting career choices within our profession by working with outstanding pediatric role models who practice general pediatrics and subspecialty pediatrics, who are outstanding medical educators, and those who are physician scientists involved in clinical or basic research.

Third our program encourages an integration of the resident's personal life with his/her emerging professional life. This tenet is based on our belief that advocacy for residents supports their growth as individuals who are becoming compassionate physicians. Oklahoma is an ideal place for such an integration to occur. It is a warm and friendly environment that offers the opportunity for simultaneous personal and professional growth.

You may have additional questions about our program. I look forward to meeting you when you visit to see for yourself that our postgraduate educational program provides a conducive environment in which you can achieve your goal of becoming an outstanding physician to children.

Terrence L. Stull, M.D.