Educational Options
What elective experiences are available during the residency?
Categorical residents are allocated 5 months of elective time during their PGY-2 and 5 months of elective time during their PGY-3 residency. Of those 10 months, 2 must be spent in Ambulatory Care Block rotations, 2 in Neurology and non-IM specialties and 1 in Geriatrics, which includes a two week experience in home-based health care. In the remaining 5 months, residents can select subspecialty experiences as well as experiences in "outside" disciplines such as radiology, obstetrics and gynecology, anesthesiology, otolaryngology, ophthalmology, and dermatology. Internal medicine subspecialty electives include:
- Allergy and Immunology
- Cardiovascular Diseases
- Clinical Nutrition
- Endocrinology and Metabolism
- Gastroenterology
- Geriatrics
- Hematology
- HIV Medicine
- Infectious Diseases
- Medical Oncology
- Nephrology
- Pulmonary Diseases
- Rheumatology
Can residents pursue research interests during their training?
The Residency in Internal Medicine is designed to accommodate the personal goals of all residents. Research interests are encouraged and supported; residents may elect to do up to 2 months of research in the second and/or third year of training. At the present time, a variety of clinical and basic research is being conducted in the Department of Medicine, including specific research in our Clinical Pharmacology and Molecular Biology divisions.
How are residents evaluated during postgraduate training?
Using the American Board of Internal Medicine (ABIM) evaluation scale, the Internal Medicine Residency Program generates monthly evaluations for each resident. PGY-1 residents are evaluated by the attending faculty, chief resident, and supervising resident. PGY-2 and PGY-3 residents are evaluated by the attending faculty and chief resident.
At the end of each rotation, written performance feedback is provided to each house officer. The Program Director meets with each resident on a semi-annual basis to review evaluations. A Clinical Evaluation Exercise (CEE) is conducted during the first year of training, and multiple times during the second or third postgraduate year. The in-service examination is a nationally administered examination that is mandatory for all PGY-2 Internal Medicine residents and optional for PGY-1 and 3 residents.
We also value information from residents about their experience in our program. Residents are asked to evaluate their attending faculty and clinical rotation on a monthly basis. Each year, a House Staff Council is appointed with representation from all three years of training; the council provides feedback on the training program and meets monthly with the program director and chief residents.
