Curriculum Overview

Our program is organized into a 6+2 block scheduling system that applies to all of our interns, as well as our categorical residents. These house staff spend up to 6 weeks on inpatient services, followed by 2 weeks in the ambulatory or elective setting (called Interactive Learning Modules (ILMs)). This system simplifies scheduling, makes it predictable, and separates inpatient from outpatient responsibilities. We feel that it increases house staff camaraderie by creating cohorts that travel through the year together. It helps ensure outpatient continuity by making our resident providers available to their patients at regular intervals. Additionally, the regularly scheduled breaks from more intense inpatient rotations helps to mitigate fatigue and burnout.

There is a robust curriculum on all of our rotations.

While on the Wards

• Morning Teaching – rotation specific topics usually 8:30-9:00.
• Mid-Day Conferences – occur on weekdays at all 3 hospitals and is usually a case-based presentation emphasizing clinical reasoning. At HUP, interns have a dedicated intern-level conference twice per week. Food is provided.
• Night Curriculum – usually at midnight, residents lead a discussion/chalk-talk with content that is provided to them.
• Ultrasound Curriculum – both on the wards and electives, occurs in multiple settings – watch the video.
• Quality Improvement and Patient Safety Longitudinal Curriculum

While on the +2:  Ambulatory Block

• Outpatient general internal medicine continuity practice, with 3 sessions weekly as a partner in a faculty / resident outpatient practice.
• Concentrated outpatient office-based exposure to medicine specialties.
• Theme-based small group didactics that cover topics within internal medicine and its subspecialties.
• Core curriculum didactics which include topics such as quality improvement, evidence based medicine, and communication.
• One half-day per week for personal wellness (protected time for residents to attend to self-care needs including healthcare appointments).
• Program funding for each group on ambulatory block to participate in an out of hospital get-together.  Events have ranged from pumpkin carving to rooftop dinners.

Research Training

All categorical housestaff are required to engage in a scholarly project, which can be broadly defined as participation in clinical or basic science research, critical reviews of the literature, case reports and series, book chapter or community service activities. Residents are encouraged to both publish their work and present at national meetings which is sponsored by the Department of Medicine.