Education

The medical curriculum within the Division of Nephrology and the University of Arizona includes educational and training opportunities for fellows, residents, and medical students alike. 

Fellowships

Our Nephrology Fellowship Program at the UA College of Medicine - Tucson is an ACGME-accredited program that offers two years of training in nephrology with an optional third year offered for training in transplant nephrology. The program has six fellows. They rotate through five services: Renal transplant, ICU consult, General Hospital Consult Main Campus, and South Campus Consult services. Elective months can be spent on rotations such as outpatient dialysis, transplant immunology, renal pathology, multidisciplinary stone clinic, interventional nephrology and research. Fellows are exposed to all aspects of our program described in the clinical nephrology section above. The program began in 1976, and more than 80 individuals have completed training. 

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Residency Rotation

The Division of Nephrology at the UA College of Medicine and Banner – University Medical Center (UMC) Tucson provides renal electives to internal medicine residents. These electives provide a complete exposure to all aspects of renal medicine from kidney transplantation to palliative care.

Both our residents and medical students are exposed to the following topic areas/procedures:

  • Inpatient evaluation of acute kidney injury
  • ICU Nephrology
  • Electrolyte and acid base disorders
  • Glomerulonephritis
  • Care of the End-Stage-Renal-Disease patient
  • Chronic kidney disease – treatment and prevention
  • Pharmacology – dosing for renal function
  • End-of-life care
  • Nephropathology
  • Transplant Nephrology
  • Transplant Surgery (participation in living or deceased donor kidney transplant)
  • Renal replacement modalities for the inpatient (continuous and intermittent)
  • Outpatient dialysis (in-center hemodialysis and home therapies; both hemodialysis and peritoneal dialysis)
  • Urine sediment evaluation
  • Didactic conferences three times a week

Medical Student Education

Amy Sussman, MD, Department of Medicine clerkship director, Nephrology Fellowship Program director and an associate professor of medicine, has recently initiated a novel and innovative medical student elective in renal medicine, which breaks away from the conventional inpatient nephrology rotation. Rather, this novel elective aims to provide a more global and holistic approach to renal medicine, in which the student goes to dialysis units, attends outpatient nephrology clinics, sees a kidney transplant and dialysis vascular access surgery, and also visits the research laboratories of the UA Kidney and Vascular Program to learn about innovative research initiatives.

In general, medical students at the UA College of Medicine – Tucson participate in a variety of clinical and educational experiences through our division both during the third-year Internal Medicine clerkship and during fourth-year elective courses relating to all of the subspecialties within the UA Department of Medicine.

A typical rotation for a third-year medical student involves exposure to Nephrology via the ambulatory clinic setting. An elective rotation for the fourth year medical student involves 2 weeks of inpatient consultative service and the last 2 weeks spending time in the ambulatory setting. This includes time spent in general nephrology clinic, transplant nephrology clinic, outpatient dialysis (both hemodialysis and peritoneal dialysis), participation in kidney transplant surgery, and in-depth evaluation of urine sediment.

Regarding clerkship and elective opportunities for third- and fourth-year medical students, please contact Kristina Waters at (520) 626-1574 or kew3@arizona.edu