Skip to McMaster Navigation Skip to Site Navigation Skip to main content
McMaster logo

Faculty of Health Sciences

Department of Pediatrics

Pediatric Neonatology

Fellowship Program

Message from Program Director, Shikha Gupta-Bhatnagar

The Neonatal Perinatal Fellowship Program at McMaster University is based in the Department of Pediatrics at McMaster Children’s Hospital. Founded in 1988, our program has an unparalleled track record of training leaders in academic and community neonatology. Our alumni have held positions within Canada and internationally including leadership positions as medical directors, division chiefs, and program directors. Our two-year program has a well-established structure is flexible and can accommodate trainee’s needs in order to achieve their educational and career goals.

Pediatric Neonatology Overview

Overview

There are two Neonatal Fellowship Programs at McMaster including a two-year, Royal College accredited neonatal perinatal medicine program (July entry), and a one-year clinical experience program in clinical neonatology (varied entry). There is a formal curriculum and scholarly activity in the neonatal perinatal medicine program, and experiential clinical training focus in the clinical neonatology program.

Our programs have a well-established structure and are flexible to accommodate the trainee’s needs to achieve their educational and career objectives. We strive to provide a learning environment that supports our trainees’ personal well-being by providing wellness and mentorship programs. We aspire to create a nurturing environment where our trainees will explore, develop, and succeed as medical experts and become leaders in care for the mother, fetus, and neonate.

Scholarly activity, research, and quality improvement experience are tailored to trainees’ interests and are supported through mentorship from highly engaged and experienced faculty within our department.

This fellowship program is accredited by the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada and satisfies the requirements for subspecialty training in neonatal-perinatal medicine of the American Board of Pediatrics.

We accept applicants who are Canadian medical graduates (CaRMS) and International Medical Graduates (IMGs) including externally sponsored candidates. Applicants must Canadian citizens or Permanent Residents to apply through CaRMS. Current residents who will be completing PGY-3 training in core pediatrics on or before the end of the academic year are eligible. Please visit the CaRMS website to review a full list of their requirements and to submit your application. Residents who will have completed their PGY-4 year prior to the July 1 start date are not eligible for MOH funded positions.

Off-cycle residents: PGY-3 residents with completion dates between July 1 and December 31, are eligible but must declare their completion date on the application form and request a late start. You may only apply to the match one time.

International Medical Graduates

International Medical Graduates apply to the program through the two-step application process outlined below:

Step 1: PGME application

CaRMS Application Deadline

The 2026 CaRMS Match will take place in the spring of 2025. Visit the CaRMS website for more information.

IMGs Application Deadline

The deadline for the academic year beginning July 1, 2026, is January 15, 2025.

McMaster Postgraduate Medical Education (PGME) provides an environment where learners can develop the skills to become expert physicians and leaders in health care.

Pediatric Neonatology Education

Education

The length of training is two years.

As of July 2021, all neonatal perinatal medicine fellowship programs in Canada will transition to a Competence By Design (CBD) model of coaching and assessment. As such, the traditional end-of-rotation evaluation model will be retired June 30, 2020, and multiple small assessments at least once a day for different professional and clinical activities will be introduced. Coaching in the moment and feedback will be provided with every assessment.

For a greater understanding of CBD, please visit the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada website.

The goals of our program are to provide trainees with:

  • A solid foundation in clinical neonatal pediatrics with a strong emphasis on evidence-based practice
  • Research and quality improvement methodological skills
  • The program provides the prerequisites for the trainee’s continuing contribution as a clinical subspecialist, teacher, and scientist

Trainees gain broad exposure?to clinical neonatology through serial rotations in our NICU, level II nursery, labour and delivery suite, high risk maternal fetal medicine (MFM) Clinics, prenatal diagnosis clinical and neonatal follow up clinics as well as neonatal transport by dedicated McMaster regional neonatal transport team.

Trainees can choose two elective rotations during their training period. Trainees have access to echo and ultrasound machines in the unit to learn and optimize their targeted neonatal echocardiography (TnEcho) skills and point of care cranial and abdominal ultrasounds during their training period. Our program has high-fidelity manikins for NRP and?PICC insertion simulations.?Trainees get access to our extensive online educational modules, digital libraries, mock written exams and practice OSCE exams to prepare for neonatology examinations.

Our structured curriculum includes academic half days that are scheduled on Thursday afternoons which are pager protected. ?We have weekly journal clubs, seminars, cross-Canada rounds, combined half days with other subspecialties, MFM rounds, pediatric surgery rounds, pediatric grand rounds and monthly morbidity and mortality rounds. Trainees have an opportunity to present at these rounds which provides a chance to improve presentation skills, and learning how to deal with challenges to knowledge and ideas. Fellows have lots of opportunities to teach their juniors and pediatric residents at the bedside as well as at scheduled resident teaching sessions.

Pediatric Neonatology Clinical

Clinical

The neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) at McMaster Children’s Hospital provides specialized care for newborn babies and infants who have a variety of health conditions that require intensive care. The NICU has 63 beds and provides care for over 1,500 babies and their families every year. We serve a broad geographic area within southern Ontario.

The program is designed for trainees to gain a comprehensive clinical experience in neonatal perinatal medicine through our 56-bed, level III NICU and 16-bed, level 2C NICU at a single site within McMaster Children’s Hospital in Hamilton. Trainees gain broad exposure to clinical neonatology through serial rotations in the level III NICU, level II nursery, labour and delivery suite, high risk maternal fetal medicine clinics, prenatal diagnosis clinic, growth and development neonatal follow-up clinics, as well as opportunities to be involved in neonatal transport runs by dedicated McMaster regional neonatal transport team.

Pediatric Neonatology Research

Research

Our program is committed to teach research skills through research methodology, biostatistics,?and evidence-based medicine?workshops that are?conducted every year for all fellows. Trainees have protected time for research activities. Trainees are encouraged to present their work at national and international conferences and supported with sufficient?funding from the program to meet their travel costs.

The scholarly activity and research experience are focused on individual’s interests and trainees are mentored by highly engaged and experienced faculty members.

Pediatric Neonatology Contact Us

Information Box Group

Contact Us

We invite you to learn more about the Pediatric Neonatology Fellowship Program and the opportunities that are available at McMaster University. Please feel free to contact us with any questions.

Faculty Directory

Information Box Group

Shikha Gupta-Bhatnagar

Pediatric Neonatology Fellowship Program Director

Faculty

guptas37@mcmaster.ca McMaster Experts Profile

Staff Directory

Information Box Group

Julissa Sosa Rodriguez

Senior Program Administrator

pedsneo@mcmaster.ca