Overview of Curriculum for Applicants

In addition to our categorical internal medicine residency program, we offer a preliminary medicine residency for students interested in a year of internal medicine training as a prelude to further training in another specialty.  This program, based primarily at the Long Beach Veterans Affairs Health Care System (LBVAHCS), includes rotations at the LBVAHCS, UC Irvine Medical Center (UCIMC), and Long Beach Memorial Medical Center (LBMMC). Preliminary medicine residents fill the same roles as their categorical colleagues, including a significant teaching involvement with the university's medical students, and are fully integrated in the academic and social environment of the program.

A typical schedule for a preliminary resident this year is as follows:

Our preliminary residents have been well prepared for ongoing training in a number of different specialties. Recent graduates have specialized in anesthesiology, dermatology, emergency medicine, neurology, ophthalmology, physical medicine and rehabilitation, psychiatry, radiation oncology and radiology.

We plan to match for 16 preliminary medicine residents to enter in June 2011. Application is through ERAS. For more information please contact:

Teri Lynn Wheeler at teri.wheeler@med.va.gov  or

Robert A. Kaplan, M.D., at robert.kaplan@med.va.gov  or by phone at 562.826.8000, ext 3832.

Rotation Curricula

Each rotation has a curriculum document that includes contacts, key learning objectives, specific responsibilities and other important information, including key articles from medical literature.

View the curriculum document for each rotation.

View the core literature and access to actual full text articles for each discipline. (Password protected for copyright regulations.)

Electives and Research

Nearly a third of the program is devoted to flexible time for electives, research, externships, and international rotations.

            View a list of local elective opportunities.

The core curriculum is structured so that all residents receive the same basic educational experience.  We believe strongly in the core of knowledge, skills and attitudes of Internal Medicine that form the basis for the way internists look at the world. We also believe that a residency program must provide sufficient flexibility so that residents can achieve their own career objectives. Therefore, nearly one third of the program is flexible to allow residents to set their educational objectives.

The core rotations are four weeks each and consist of:

PGY1 Year

PGY2 Year

PGY3 Year

Whether aiming for a subspecialty career or general internal medicine, internists must feel comfortable practicing in the ambulatory environment. Clinics at both our continuity sites were recently redesigned to exceed the SGIM ambulatory task force’s recommendations on reforming continuity clinic educational experience for the residents in training. The clinic experience has been structured to encourage building long term, continuous healing relationships with patients throughout the three years of training.

Each resident spends a half-day per week in their continuity clinic, based at Long Beach Veterans Affairs Medical Center or UC Irvine Medical Center. At the clinic, residents work in small teams that are consistent across all years of training in terms of site, faculty preceptors, staff and patient panels, thus ensuring continuity of care. Residents have a designated patient panel with a mix of chronic disease conditions. The mix of diseases is monitored and adjusted for each resident. The clinic curriculum has been designed to impart the knowledge, skills and attitudes needed to care for patients with chronic diseases, incorporating an interdisciplinary approach with the patient as the central focus. Each clinic half day is preceded by a 30-minute workshop. Topics range from case-based interactive discussions to issues in the business of medicine, communication skills or telephone triage. Methods of resident evaluation include chart audits based on health indicators, peer review, patient satisfaction surveys and Video CEX.

The final important feature is our commitment to innovation. We plan on piloting projects like education through continuous quality improvement, providing patient centered care through concepts like “advanced medical home”, group visits and chronic disease panels.

Sample Pre Clinic Conference Curriculum

AUGUST & SEPTEMBER:

Complementary Disciplines

Also included in the curriculum are emphases in rotations or conferences on

• Women’s health
• Pain
• Palliative care
• Quality, Safety, and Process Improvement
• Evidence-based medicine
• Sports medicine and office orthopedics
• Ethics
• Business of medicine
• Adolescent medicine
• Psychiatry
• Ophthalmology
• Occupational medicine
• Otolaryngology
• Geriatrics
• Behavioral science
• Emergency medicine
• Diversity

The program presents a comprehensive, three-year curriculum that covers all the core topics in internal medicine. Topics are presented over three years at each of our major training sites. They are updated yearly and learning objectives with references are available for each topic. These conferences cover not only traditional medicine topics but also such disciplines as geriatrics, legal issues in medicine, ethics, medical economics, behavioral medicine, ophthalmology, otolaryngology and occupational and environmental medicine.