Welcome from the Program Director

Dr. KiddThe fellowship offered by the Division of Nephrology provides an opportunity to pursue advanced training in clinical nephrology and to undertake training in research. The program is designed for trainees who wish to receive outstanding educational training in order to pursue a career in either academic medicine or private practice.  The program aims to produce physicians who possess habits of life-long learning in order to build upon their knowledge and skills developed here. The fellowship involves two years of training that integrates six core competencies (patient care, medical knowledge, practice based learning and improvement, interpersonal and communication skills, professionalism, and systems based learning). Each fellow will participate in clinical training, teaching and scholarly activities. The training experience includes inpatient consultation services, management of end-stage renal disease, renal pathology, transplantation nephrology, and outpatient nephrology clinical activities. Our sites of practice include inpatient and continuity clinics at VCUHS, inpatient and continuity clinics at the Richmond VA Medical Center, as well as the home dialysis clinic at the Mechanicsville Dialysis Unit. 

During your first year of fellowship, you can expect to rotate through the inpatient Renal Consult service at VCUHS (subdivided into ICU and floor consults), the Renal Transplant service at VCUHS, the inpatient consult service at McGuire, and outpatient Dialysis service at McGuire. During the second year, fellows rotate through each of these services, but will also receive more elective time. Each fellow has 3 weeks of vacation each year plus 5 “bonus” days around either Christmas or New Years. The available electives include: Pediatric Nephrology, Interventional Radiology, Hypertension Clinic, Plasmapheresis, and Research. Fellows also rotate in an ambulatory elective where they gain experience in the management of glomerular diseases, resistant hypertension, management of kidney stones and home dialysis modalities.

After two years of clinical training, our goal is for each fellow to have confidence in evaluating and managing patients with a wide variety of kidney disorders. Each trainee will have had in-depth training in acute and chronic hemodialysis, continuous renal replacement therapy, renal biopsy, and dialysis catheter placement.

Jason M. Kidd, MD
Program Director, Nephrology Fellowship