Rotations

The Internal Medicine Residency Program offers a variety of rotations and experiences to residents.

Inpatient Medical Experiences

General Medicine Wards

This is the mainstay of our internal medicine inpatient teaching. Residents will be assigned to one of 2 general medicine wards, staffed by one of our general medicine faculty. The residents will learn about a diverse group of patients with interesting pathology. They will be exposed to both “bread and butter” medicine as well as to rare and unique cases. We provide inpatient care for our own patients assigned to the internal medicine center and patients who do not have a private physician when admitted through our emergency services. While residents provide the initial and subsequent care for these patients, attendings are readily available 24-7 to assist and answer questions. We truly believe in team-based care for our patients and providing exemplary and high-quality care.

Night Float

Night float is a very important part of our residency program. Currently, no resident works longer than a 16-hour shift, no matter the rotation. This is in large part due to the work of our night team. One resident and one intern will work to perform admissions and cover the patients admitted to our general medicine wards. During this time, residents also serve as the initial Code Blue medical responders and learn to run and assist in ACLS scenarios in the hospital.

MICU

Our ICU rotation is diverse and integral to the education of the program. Our community based critical care physicians work in 4 different ICUs at the Moses H. Cone Memorial Hospital. The residents will work in one of the 2 medical ICUs during this rotation. This experience allows residents to learn about the care of the critically ill, medically complex patient from the subspecialist’s perspective.

Renal Inpatient Consults

This rotation is led by an exceptional group of nephrologists. During this 2-week rotation, usually during the PGY 2 level, residents will manage patients requiring inpatient dialysis and consult on a wide variety of interesting renal pathology.

Outpatient Medicine Experiences

Internal Medicine Center

The Internal Medicine Center is conveniently located within the hospital and provides care from a multidisciplinary team including physicians, nurses, a nutritionist, a diabetes educator, a health coach, a behavioral health counselor, telehealth behavioral health, an embedded clinical pharmacist, and a warfarin clinic. Every resident and attending provides primary care to their patient panel during their weekly continuity clinic. Additionally, each resident spends 2 months per year in our Acute Care Center, providing urgent care services to our patients. Principles of outpatient medicine are taught when residents review their patient encounters with a faculty member during the clinic session. A faculty psychologist provides insightful feedback on patient interviewing techniques, advice managing difficult social problems, and guidance on the management of psychiatric illness in the primary care setting.

Elective Rotations

There is a wide choice of electives, including: cardiology, rheumatology, endocrinology, hematology/oncology, gastroenterology, neurology, pulmonary, infectious diseases, geriatrics, dermatology, rehabilitation medicine, radiology, palliative care, psychiatry, orthopedics, ENT, gynecology, sports medicine, ophthalmology, hospital medicine, nephrology, invasive procedures, POCUS as well as research rotations. We have been very fortunate to develop a Point of Care Ultrasound Elective, popular among our residents as these technological advances are becoming integral to the practice of general medicine. We also have virtual electives which are a week-long and teach topics such as high value care and acute pain management.

Emergency Medicine

The emergency service line is a Level II Trauma Center with 23 full-time ED staff members (spread over four campuses) who are Board-certified in emergency medicine. The Emergency Department has 100,000 annual visits and offers a broad and deep variety of clinical problems.

PGY-1 residents have a one-month rotation to get exposure to the full range of emergencies, such as minor trauma, cardiovascular and pulmonary emergencies and toxicologic problems.