Curriculum
Scott & White Internal Medicine Residency Program
Journal Club
Journal club/QI group consists of monthly noon meetings in which residents and staff review articles chosen by the residents. Residents first discuss the articles, and the staff later offers additional commentary. The focus of this conference is to learn critical appraisal of the literature.
The QI portion of this group is to discuss an area of improvement in the hospital or clinic. After this is found, the team will develop a plan to correct this and methods to implement the plan. The group presents this project at the end of the year in conference in front of the department.
Ward Rounds
Ward rounds are conducted daily at Scott & White and at the VA hospital. In addition to the teaching points covered on these rounds, residents have a minimum of 4.5 hours per week of dedicated teaching rounds conducted by faculty members who have a strong interest in resident education. Whenever possible, these rounds are at the patient's bedside in order to teach physical examination and review findings that are pertinent to the patient's diagnosis and care.
Procedural Skills
Residents will generally find plentiful opportunity for developing procedural skills. Each specialty includes "their particular" procedure's instruction as part of their didactic teaching (e.g. pulmonary-thoracentesis, gastroenterology-paracentesis) in discussing indications, complications, techniques, etc. We have a formal central-line training program for all residents. Procedural training computer aids are also available for review. Every resident is also taken to the Clinical Simulation Center during intern year to learn the basics of these procedures. Multiple residents also rotate on our “Procedure Team” during their residency as an elective to gain additional expertise in this area.