About the Program
The Burn‑Focused Surgical Critical Care Fellowship at University of Iowa Health Care offers an immersive, high‑intensity training experience centered within Iowa’s only American Burn Association–verified burn center. As a one‑year, ACGME‑accredited training pathway, the program provides fellows with comprehensive exposure to the full spectrum of burn and surgical critical care—from initial resuscitation and operative management to complex reconstruction, critical illness, and long‑term rehabilitation.
Fellows train as integral members of a multidisciplinary team that includes burn surgeons, intensivists, anesthesiologists, advanced practice providers, nurses, rehabilitation specialists, psychologists, and social workers. This collaborative environment ensures that trainees gain expertise in both the clinical science and the human dimensions of burn care. The fellowship’s structure emphasizes mastery of advanced critical care principles; operative and procedural proficiency; leadership in multidisciplinary burn management; and evidence‑based, patient‑centered decision‑making.
As Iowa’s statewide burn resource, the University of Iowa Burn Treatment Center serves a diverse and expansive patient population—from high‑acuity thermal, electrical, and chemical injuries to complex critical illness requiring sophisticated ICU care. Fellows benefit from high case volume, 24/7 acute care exposure, and dedicated educational time, including simulation, didactics, and research mentorship. Opportunities for scholarly productivity, quality improvement initiatives, and participation in regional burn outreach and education further enhance the training experience.
Graduates will emerge prepared to serve as independent burn surgeons or surgical intensivists, equipped with the clinical skill, professional maturity, and leadership capacity to advance burn care in academic centers, regional burn facilities, or community‑based critical care settings.
Volume of Surgery
The University of Iowa Healthcare has performed over 41,000 major surgical operations as a whole, with a recorded over 40,000 inpatient admissions and 54,000 emergency department visits in fiscal year 2025. The preponderance of surgical cases involve acute burn surgery, complex wound care and burn reconstruction procedures of which the fellow will be participating in at least 200 of those cases throughout the year for both adults and pediatrics. Procedures such as escharotomies, bronchoscopies, and conscious sedation are all performed throughout the fellowship year.
Burn Treatment Center & Surgical & Neuroscience ICU (SNICU)
The Burn Treatment Center at the University of Iowa Health Care is a newly renovated 21-bed unit that consists of three faculty members, one burn fellow, one mid-level resident and one intern as well as Advanced Practice Providers.
The SNICU is a 34-bed unit that consists of a multidisciplinary of staff physicians, nurses and nursing assistants, social workers, registered dietitians, physical therapists, respiratory therapists and pharmacists.
Fellow Educational Program and Teaching Conferences
Multidisciplinary educational lectures are held weekly, providing instruction on burn resuscitation, inhalation injuries, electrical and chemical burns, necrotizing acute soft tissue infections, and wound care. Fellows also participate in the Core critical care didactic series that cover essential ICU topics such as cardiovascular, respiratory, renal, neuro, endocrine, GI pathophysiology, sepsis & shock, trauma and emergency general surgery management as well as pharmacology in critical illness.
Morbidity and Mortality conference is held weekly within the Department of Surgery. The Division of Acute Care Surgery holds a monthly Morbidity and Mortality conference where Burn Surgery Service cases are discussed, and there is also participation in SNICU/CVICU Morbidity & Mortality.
Journal Club is presented once a month as is the Research Conference.