Our categorical training program is designed to provide a comprehensive experience in internal medicine. Residents practice in a rich training environment and are exposed to a diverse patient population in a variety of practice settings. You can customize your training by participating in a track(s) within our categorical training program: Clinician-Educator, Health Disparities, Primary Care, POCUS, and Women's Health . Each of the tracks offer experiences within the area of interest throughout the three years of residency training.
Inpatient shifts are scheduled at University Hospital (UH) and the Birmingham Veterans Affairs Medical Center (VA). The three year program is structured as follows.
Categorical Program Per Year
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PGY-1 Residents: Everything and Everywhere: Exposure to a range of practice environments
Everything and Everywhere: Exposure to a range of practice environments
Scheduling Model: (4) outpatient/consult weeks + (8) inpatient weeks
The first year of training is designed to introduce residents to the range of practice: general internal medicine and subspecialty care, inpatient and outpatient, wards and consult services. We pride of ourselves on providing trainees with an appropriate balance of autonomy and support, ensuring excellence in both patient care and resident education. Each service has a single attending physician who is a full-time faculty member. Attending physicians are always available to advise and assist. In addition, all medical and surgical subspecialty consultants are immediately available 24 hours a day.
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Tinsley Harrison Ward (UH)
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VA Ward
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Night Float (VA & UH)
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Cardiac Care Unit (UH)
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Medical Intensive Care Unit (UH)
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Subspecialty Ward (UH)
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Subspecialty Consult
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Geriatrics/Palliative Care
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Ambulatory Block
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Cooper Green
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PGY-2 Residents: Taking the Lead: Immersion in subspecialty practice
Taking the Lead: Immersion in subspecialty practice
Scheduling Model: (4) outpatient/consult weeks + (4) inpatient weeks
The second year of traning is aimed at expanding the breadth of the resident's knowledge base while providing in-depth exposure to state-of-the-art practice of the various medical subspecialties. The PGY-2 year is almost evenly split between inpatient ward rotations and consultation services, mostly in the subspecialties. The goal is to provide in-depth exposure to the fields within internal medicine so that PGY-2s develop the range of skillsets required to become well-rounded physicians.
Other rotations include neurology/palliative care, VA urgent care clinic, and an elective month. On subspecialty in-patient services, the PGY-2 resident serves as the team leader and further develops supervisory and teaching skills while working with PGY-1 residents and medical students. On consultation services, the PGY-2 resident initially evaluates patients and then presents the findings and recommendations to the consult attending physician for review and discussion. Consultation services also include participation in subspecialty clinics, conferences, and other activities of the divisions. Didactic and bedside instruction is provided in the special skills and techniques inherent to the various subspecialities.
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Medical Intensive Care Unit (VA/UH)
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Cardiology Care Unit (UH)
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Subspecialty Ward (UH)
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Neurology (VA/UH)
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Subspecialty Consult (UH)
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Urgent Care Clinic (VA)
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Ambulatory Block
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Elective/Research
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PGY-3 Residents: Tying it all together: Preparation for independent practice
Tying it all together: Preparation for independent practice
Scheduling Model: (4) outpatient/consult weeks + (4) inpatient weeks
Similar to the PGY-2 year, time is evenly divided between ward and consultation services. While the consult rotations are similar to the PGY-2 year, the majority of ward months for the PGY-3 residents are spent on the general medicine inpatient services at University Hospital and the VA. The intention is to match the most senior and experienced residents with the rotations that require more responsibility for patient care, supervising and teaching. Working closely with the attending physician, the PGY-3 resident coordinates work rounds and teaching rounds for the team.
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Tinsley Harrison Ward (UH)
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VA Ward
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Medical Intensive Care Unit (VA/UH)
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Urgent Care Clinic (VA)
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Night Float
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Emergency Medicine
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Subspecialty Consult
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Ambulatory Block
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Elective/Research
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Continuity Clinic Program Per Year
Residents will have one full day of clinic per week on non-ward months and no clinic on ward months. This allows residents to focus on their present service.
General Medicine Wards
Tinsley Harrison (UH) and VA Ward
Teams are comprised of a PGY-3, two PGY-1s, and two medical students. Residents admit patients on a Q5 cycle, with a night float (PGY-3 and PGY-1) admitting from 8pm-7am.
Subspecialty Ward
Hepatology and Oncology
Teams are comprised of 1-2 fellows, two PGY-2s and 3-4 PGY-1s. Call schedule is variable but never exceeds a Q4 cycle. PGY-1s and PGY-2s work 1-2 weeks of night float.
MICU/CCU
Teams are comprised of one fellow, 2-3 PGY-2s/PGY-3s and 2-3 PGY-1s. Residents take call during the day until 8pm Sunday-Thursday, and night float residents take call from 8pm-8am.
Subspecialty Consults
Gastroenterology/Hepatology, Hematology/Oncology, Pulmonary, Nephrology, Cardiology, Rheumatology, Infectious Disease, Endocrinology
A fellow and several residents from all levels work together to provide subspecialty consultative care under the direction of subspecialty faculty.
Ambulatory Block
Block months are rotations devoted to ambulatory training. This allows for concentrated time in ambulatory medicine without inpatient responsibilities. The resident has the opportunity to work one-on-one with an attending physician in various clinics chosen by the resident such as Gynecology, Allergy, Breast clinic, HIV clinic, Osteoporosis clinic, Dermatology clinic and various other internal medicine subspecialty clinics.
Cooper Green
All PGY-1s spend one month rotating at Cooper Green, a multispecialty facility committed to providing high quality healthcare for all residents of Jefferson County regardless of ability to pay. At our outpatient Cooper Green clinic, PGY-1s see established primary care patients who need to see a physician for an urgent issue as well as patients recently discharged from the hospital. This rotation provides focused experience learning about health disparities that continue to exist and the ways we can work to mitigate them.
Elective
Residents can participate in elective rotations to further pursue their particular interests. These include the following:
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Global Health:
PGY2 and PGY3 residents can spend up to a month on an international rotation that they receive funding for through the residency program. Over the past 5 years residents have gone to Cameroon, Honduras, India, Jordan, Kenya, Panama, Peru, and Zambia. Residents can also request exposure to pertinent clinics during their block month, such as Travelers Health Clinic, the 1917 HIV Clinic, and Tuberculosis clinic among others.
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Health Disparities:
The Health Disparities Track is an opportunity for residents interested in learning about and providing care to individuals of underserved populations. The rotation includes clinical work, didactics, and scholarly activity. Clinical work is done at Cooper Green Hospital, VA homeless clinic, and the Jefferson County Health Department. Didactics include one half day per week workshops in various subjects such as health policy, reducing physician bias, and disparities in health outcomes. The scholarly activity is conducted with one of the advisors for the rotation.
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Medical Education:
The medical education elective is a one-month rotation that aims to give residents a solid background in effective teaching. It is offered to PGY2/PGY3 residents. The course explores the history of medical education and the principles of adult learning. Residents will then participate in a number of interactive discussions, didactics, demonstrations, exercises, and practice teaching sessions aimed at making them more effective and efficient medical teachers.
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Point-of-Care Ultrasound
The point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS) elective is a one-month elective (or 2 weeks when combined with a pulmonary elective component) offered to PGY2/3/4 residents that aims to give the interested resident a more in-depth exposure to POCUS. The elective includes more advanced didactics, hands-on scanning, clinical time with the VA POCUS/Procedure consult team, image portfolio development, and image review with faculty mentorship. The elective offers customizable learning opportunities to support each participant’s individual career goals. Residents in the elective are eligible to complete the residency’s internal “POCUS Certification of Completion.”
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Quality Improvement/Patient Safety:
The QI/Patient Safety selective is a rotation offered to PGY2/PGY3 residents. This one-month rotation gives residents exposure to various aspects of quality control. Residents attend multi-disciplinary patient safety conferences, join a hospital patient safety team assisting with root cause analyses, perform patient safety rounds, and assist with Internal Medicine MMI conference.
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Women's Health:
The Women's Health (WH) Scholar Selective is rotation offered to provide residents a one month experience in Women's Health. Residents rotate through the Gynecology and Women's Health clinics at BVAMC and UAB, evaluate landmark studies in Women’s Health, attend the WH journal club and create a scholarly project with guidance from the Women's Health Track faculty.
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Other electives include:
Research, Medical Genetics, Allergy, Inpatient Hematology, Hospitalist Elective, Community Preceptorship