Curriculum Overview - Internal Medicine Residency, St. Joseph

The St. Joseph Internal Medicine Residency utilizes an array of diverse conferences and didactic experiences to provide residents with all the tools necessary to become competent and compassionate physicians. The R1 year is foundational and designed to focus on the pathophysiology of common diseases and provide the basis for excellent clinical knowledge and acumen. The R2 year will build on this and transition to development of critical leadership principles necessary to lead medical teams. Finally, the R3 year will build on the previous years, and introduce the concept of physicians as educators. At the end of 3 years our hope is you will graduate with not only exceptional clinical knowledge, but will have developed leadership and educational skills to become a leader in health care.

Noon Conference: This conference is held Monday-Thursday from noon – 1 p.m. and consists of a resident led case presentation or sub-specialist teaching.

Friday Rewind: Held on the last Friday of each rotation during noon conference, this session will turn key learning points from the previous month’s didactics into board review style questions. This conference will use repetition to further the learner’s educational journey while also helping prepare each resident for the ABIM examination.

Morbidity and Mortality: This conference is designed to provide a safe venue for residents to identify areas of improvement and self-reflection with regard to death and complications which are sometimes unpredictable and unavoidable in the practice of medicine. Medical errors and omissions in patient care are also explored, along with professionalism and how it pertains to the practice of being a physician. Attending physicians and other medical staff who have experience in pertinent areas and who participated in the patient’s care are encouraged to attend.

Primary Care Curriculum: Our primary care curriculum takes place once per week and is attending physician led. Here, common primary care topics are taught and discussed in small groups with ample time for robust discussion.

State of the Residency: This is a program director led conference which takes place once per month. This conference is a time to review common program initiatives, reinforce common program requirements, elicit both open and confidential feedback, assess for generalized resident wellness and safety, and update residents on upcoming events.

Legends Series: As part of our commitment to wellness and resiliency, this conference brings in experts and champions from the field of medicine in addition to non-medical fields to discuss success, failure, resiliency, overcoming disappointment, how to improve and persevere, and living a full life.

Morning Report: This is a resident led conference which is held twice per week and is designed for residents on outpatient services. During morning report, residents share case presentations geared to stimulate critical thinking.

Journal Club: Attending or resident led, journal club has at its core goal to engage in discussion of evidence-based medicine and how to critically appraise and incorporate medical literature into clinical practice.

Parker Power Half Hour: This conference is led by our program director, Dr. Joey Parker. This conference ranges from interactive medical cases, to board review questions with board examination pearls.

Change My Practice: Medicine is continually changing with a “medical doubling time” that continues to shrink. Held monthly, the purpose of this conference is to provide residents with dedicated time to dive into the latest literature with the goal of discussing why or why not the article might impact their practice.

Intern Academy: This series is designed specifically for interns in the beginning of the year and geared toward accelerating their progress into high functioning residents. Topics include how to increase efficiency, reinforcing medical knowledge surrounding common medical problems, practicing giving complete and efficient patient presentations, how to call consultants, how to sign patients out correctly to enhance transitions of care, proper medication reconciliation, and to openly discuss other challenges interns may have.

Senior Academy: The transition from intern to senior resident can be challenging and anxiety provoking. The transition to becoming a senior resident is thought to happen organically, but rarely is there intentional teaching on the intricacies of this transition. In this series, rising senior residents learn how to diagnose their learner, teach efficiently, provide feedback, communicate clearly and effectively, and learn the importance of mentoring interns.

Simulation: Residents will have the opportunity to practice their rapid response and CODE BLUE skills in a controlled environment.

Physical Examination and Communication Skills: Time spent at the bedside performing a thorough physical examination and communicating important updates, diagnoses, and treatment plans to the family are becoming more difficult given the demanding schedule physicians face in modern medicine. Throughout the year aspects of the physical examination will be taught by faculty or senior residents on either simulated or live patients. We will also incorporate point of care ultrasound (POCUS) throughout this didactic series. In addition, teaching basic principles of difficult conversations with patients will be taught and then simulated, providing the resident with a strong framework to deal with any difficult situation.