Curriculum

The curriculum is designed to cover topics in increasing depth over the course of three years and to provide the knowledge base and background for practicing general internal medicine. Members of the Division of General Medicine and subspecialists within the Department of Medicine contribute the majority of the diverse learning experiences offered, supplemented by surgical colleagues and guest lecturers from outside the university.

PGY-1 Year    PGY-2 Year    PGY-3 Year

A Year in the Life

Three months of primary care experience

The specific curriculum of the primary care months covers ambulatory medicine in a systematic way. A typical month in primary care involves four distinct parts. The first part --a planned curriculum of lectures and conferences-- addresses the skills, knowledge, and attitudes related to outpatient medicine. Teaching conferences take place each day from 7:30-8:30AM, and at noon. The conferences cover preventive medicine, episodic illness, management of chronic diseases, critical appraisal of the literature (e.g., diagnostic studies and outcomes research) medical psychiatry, health policy, managed care, and practice management (i.e., the "business" of primary care). The topics of sociology, anthropology and medical ethics are folded into an extensive psychosocial curriculum designed to foster better doctor-patient relationships.

Second, the residents will spend time working in a general internal medicine setting different from that of their usual continuity care clinic (read below) and involving a new group of faculty preceptors. This phase of the learning will offer residents an in-dpeth look at diverse training experiences in ambulatory general medicine, with options including Crawford Loing Hospital, the Emory Clinic, HMO's, and other managed care sites.

Third, the residents will rotate through various subspecialty clinics relevant to general internal medicine, such as dermatology, endocrinology, rheumatology, gynecology, officer orthopaedics, sports medicine, and adolescent medicine (both acute care and chronic settings). Residents also will get procedural training in splinting, excercise treadmill testing, Pap smears, colposcopy, skin biopsies, joint aspirations, flexible sigmoidoscopies, and other procedures important for internist of the future.

Finally, the residents will have a continuity-of-care-clinic woven into the three years of their residency. In this, the resident --working with a preceptor --follows his or her patients in the primary care setting of a half day each week. During the resident's primary care months, he or she will have additional continuity care clinic sessions designed to facilitate the resident's integrated care of patients discharged from the wards, emergency room, or urgent care clinic. This experience takes place in the Medical Clinic of Grady Memorial Hospital, under the direction of Drs. Joyce Doyle and Clyde Watkins.

 

Five months of in the general wards

These experiences will be at Grady Memorial Hospital, The Emory Clinic, Crawford Long Hospital, and the Atlanta Veterans Affairs Medical Center. In these settings, the resident will care for a diverse population while working with attendings, other residents, and students.

One month in the ICU

This rotation provides experience in the general mediacl and cardiac intensive care units, including instruction on ventilator and pressor management, central lines, pulmonary catheters, transvenous pacemakers, and other aspects of critical care.

Two months in the subspecialty wards

Here, residents choose from various services: e.g., cardiology, gastroenterology, geriatrics, hematology-oncology, neurology, nephrology and pulmonary diseases.

One month in the ER

This time is spent at Grady Memorial Hospital Emergency Care Center, which has more than 250,000 visits per year, entailing a full spectrum of diseases and providing opportunities to learn many procedures, including intubations and suturing.

Years two and three will provide more ambulatory sub-specialty training and outpatient generalist practice. A wide array of settings and preceptors will ensurea program tailored to each individual's needs. Residents will self-direct their learning with the help of a faculty mentor. Opportunities will also exist to pursue work with some of the general medicine faculty.