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Electives

Residents choose from a wide range of electives. The number of elective blocks increases yearly, allowing residents to tailor the educational experience to their career goals. First-year residents get four weeks of elective time; second-year residents get 16 to 18 weeks; and third-year residents get 28 to 30 weeks.

Subspecialty Electives

Each traditional subspecialty of internal medicine is represented by a large and active clinical service at Strong Memorial Hospital. Some electives can also be taken at Highland Hospital. Residents doing electives work side by side with subspecialty fellows. They evaluate patients and present them directly to faculty members for review and discussion. Residents also see new and follow-up patients in subspecialty ambulatory clinics, perform inpatient consultations, get hands-on experience with procedures, and take call in rotation with the fellows.

The educational goal is to provide the resident with the subspecialty knowledge and skills needed by the practicing general internist. All residents participate in most subspecialty electives at some time during the second or third year.

Several of the subspecialties offer more than one elective. Gastroenterology offers three: GI for residents planning a GI career; GI for residents planning a career in primary care; and hepatology. Cardiology offers inpatient and outpatient cardiology electives, as well as advanced electives in heart failure and hypertension. Infectious Diseases offers an inpatient consultation elective and an elective in outpatient HIV care.

Other Elective Experiences

Ambulatory general medicine electives are available in the faculty-resident firm practices at Strong and Highland; in private general internal medicine practices in Rochester; and in rural practices affiliated with the medical center.

Recent additions to our elective curriculum include Evidence-Based Medicine, Health Care Systems, and a Bedside Scholar elective that combines inpatient general medicine care with a quality-improvement project. Electives are also available in a wide variety of clinical areas outside of traditional subspecialties. A few of them are Sports Medicine, Women's Health, Dermatology, and Adolescent Medicine.

Residents may also choose a four-week elective outside of Rochester during the PGY-2 or PGY-3 year. "Away" electives require approval by the program director. In recent years residents have done electives in the Indian Health Service and at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Others have done electives in Argentina, China, Cuba, France, Indonesia, Ireland, and New Zealand.