Educational Conferences

Ambulatory Block Education Thursdays

Every Thursday morning all of the residents in ambulatory block come together for "Education Thursdays." During these half-day sessions all of the residents participate in a variety of different types of high yield educational activities. Some of the highlights are: ambulatory morning report, EBM training (from our most enthusiastic EBM experts), small group case-based ambulatory curriculum emphasizing ambulatory illness diagnosis and management, skills sessions (e.g., practice performing specific physical exam techniques), social determinants of health, and quality improvement/patient safety teaching and discussion. Breakfast is always served.

Senior Resident Morning Report

Every weekday morning at both Strong Memorial Hospital and Highland Hospital, all second- and third-year residents on general medicine inpatient rotations meet for an hour to discuss two recentlyadmitted patients. Each case is presented by the admitting resident. As the case unfolds, other residents comment on differential diagnosis, work-up, and management strategy. Senior resident morning report is run by the inpatient Chief Resident. Also on hand are the program director or department chair, as well as other faculty members selected by the residents. Breakfast is always served.

Intern Report

Every Thursday at noon, all first-year residents assigned to inpatient and ambulatory rotations meet for one hour to discuss one or two patients with the Chief Resident, the program director, and another key faculty member. Patients are presented by the intern who initially evaluated them and are either recently admitted or recently seen in an ambulatory setting. The format is similar to senior resident morning report.

Inpatient Attending Rounds - Strong Memorial Hospital

Attending rounds on all inpatient services at Strong Memorial Hospital are combined teaching and management rounds. On the general medicine teaching service, each resident team rounds daily with their hospitalist attending, seeing most patients at the bedside. History and physical findings are reviewed and a proposed management plan for each patient is presented by the residents for discussion with the attending and the patient. Teaching focuses on bedside skills and on basic science and clinical knowledge relevant to each patient's unique situation. Similar teaching/management rounds with appropriate subspecialty attending physicians are held daily on the inpatient hematology-oncology service and in the MICU and CCU.

Inpatient Teaching Rounds - Highland Hospital

Resident teams are paired with hospitalists and conduct bedside rounds similar to at SMH. As a smaller hospital, Highland offers a complementary experience for residents. Additional unique features include the significant geriatrics presence (as a Geriatric Fracture Center of Excellence), deliberate emphasis on clinical reasoning training in morning report and noon conference, and smaller resident teams (typically 1-resident, 1-intern, 1-student teams).

Sign-Out Rounds

Every Monday through Friday at 4 PM residents on inpatient services at both Strong Memorial Hospital and Highland Hospital gather to sign out their sicker patients to the evening team before going home. During these sign-out rounds, the inpatient Chief Resident makes a brief educational presentation on a topic related to a patient currently on service, often related to the discussion from morning report.

Noon Conferences

Noon conferences, which always include substantial lunches, are held five days a week at both Strong Memorial Hospital and Highland Hospital. Each year, the series begins with coverage of common medical emergencies, such as “Chest Pain,” “Septic Shock,” “Approach to Shortness of Breath.” For the remainder of the year, the conference series covers core topics in internal medicine. Also included are EKG conferences, Morbidity & Mortality conferences, and “Professors Rounds,” in which a master subspecialty teacher is presented a case in their field as an unknown that they “think out loud” through, while involving residents in the thinking process. On the first Friday of each month, noon conference at Strong is a Residency Program business meeting, so residents can discuss issues and concerns with the Program Directors and Chief Residents. One Friday noon conference each month is devoted to a wellness curriculum (including, for example, mindfulness, resiliency, and financial health).

Medical Grand Rounds

Department of Medicine Grand Rounds occurs Tuesday mornings at Highland Hospital and Tuesday at noon at Strong Memorial Hospital. Local and national presenters teach clinically relevant and cutting edge topics.