Curriculum
Curriculum
Year One
The first year of residency! Interns usually spend six to seven months on general medicine floors, two to three months in the intensive care unit, and have at least one month of electives Each intern will spend no more than six weeks on the night float. Short call (3:30 pm –8:00 pm) is taken four to five times a month during medicine rotations. While on electives, interns take one weekend call during the month, which is usually a Saturday night float on floors. The night float starts at 8:00 pm and ends next day after the morning report at 7:30 am.
Years Two and Three
Senior residents have four to six months of electives per year, one to three months of ICU/CCU and the remaining months on medicine floors. All senior residents are required to take a short call which is usually four to five times a month. PGY-2 residents participate in the night float however PGY-3 residents do not, except for occasional Saturday night floats which come 2-3 times per year. Additionally, PGY-3 residents may moonlight and there are both internal and external moonlighting opportunities.
Prelim
The basic structure of the preliminary medicine schedule is similar to that of the internal medicine; however, there are obvious differences- interns are required to do a month of ED rotation and sometimes more nights (up to 8 weeks). For Prelim interns, ICU is not mandatory unless requested.
Internal Medicine Residency Overview
Saint Francis offers you a strong general internal medicine core and outpatient medicine curriculum where you will spend 35 to 40 percent of your time in the ambulatory setting. In addition to general internal medicine, you will gain experience in cardiology, critical care (ICU and CCU), endocrinology, gastroenterology, geriatrics, hematology/oncology, infectious diseases, nephrology, pulmonary medicine and rheumatology. Many non-medicine specialty opportunities are also available as electives or as part of your ambulatory rotations.
You will spend three years in a community outpatient clinic following a panel of patients dedicated to you. A dedicated faculty is available to assist you in hands-on clinical experience with patients from a variety of socioeconomic and geographic backgrounds. A diverse patient population ranging from the medically underserved in South Evanston to the more affluent residents of the North Shore will give you an opportunity to encounter common and uncommon illnesses in proportions that will greatly assist you in future practice. There is a research month for PGY-2s and PGY-3s for full-time research with no clinical responsibilities. This gives residents who are interested in fellowships and academic careers to start and finish projects. Our residents regularly participate in regional and national conferences like ACC, AHA, CHEST, ACP and SGIM. We have numerous awards for posters and research projects.
A Day in a Resident’s Life
A typical day at Saint Francis Hospital starts at 7:00 am with an hour-long morning report. First-year residents meet Tuesdays and Thursdays and primarily discuss the admissions from the previous evening. Second- and third-years meet Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays and discuss interesting cases and topics in subspecialty medicine, ambulatory, general internal medicine. Interns are encouraged to attend resident morning reports.
CME lectures are presented twice each week at 7:00 am, a Clinical Pathological Conference once a month and monthly “Institutional Curriculum” lectures cover topics such as sleep deprivation and stress reduction, patient safety, practice management, cultural sensitivity and effective communication, sometimes in very innovative ways! All these conferences are protected learning time — nurses know to page residents only for true emergencies.
Then the residents hit the floors. In general internal medicine, teaching rounds are conducted with an attending physician between 10:00 am and 11:30 am, three days per week. On other rotations, residents will round with their attendings, see inpatient consults, attend clinics and participate in procedures. We have three hospitalist teams on the floor that see patients and round with the hospitalists.
Conferences are held daily between noon and 1:00 pm. Afternoons are spent on the floors, in subspecialty clinics, at the continuity clinic (access at Saint Francis Hospital, Resurrection Medical Center, and private attending physician offices).
Residents will also spend time in our simulation lab, giving them the opportunity to learn and practice critical procedures before working on patients. Recent acquisitions include a central line simulator with articulating head, Sono Man, Trauma Man, difficult airway simulator, and shoulder and knee joint injection simulators. Residents are required to participate in at least one clinical research project during the course of their training at Saint Francis, and all are encouraged to present their findings at regional and national meetings.