Curriculum
The Program's Curriculum has the following structure:
- Internal medicine: 4 months
- General Surgery: 1 month
- Emergency Medicine: 1 month
- Ambulatory Primary Care: 1 month
- Elective Rotations: 5 months
The combination of a strong clinical core and 5 months of elective rotations serves to maintain a Transitional Year that provides a strong basic clinical background with sufficient flexibility to provide a firm clinical base for continuation in any subspecialty residency or service obligation. Opportunities for elective rotations include most medical and surgical subspecialties, including anesthesiology, orthopedics, obstetrics and gynecology, pathology, and radiology.
On each rotation, residents in the Transitional Year program will work with and be taught by attending physicians. On medicine rotations, the Transitional Year Residents work with senior residents in the institution's internal medicine program. On Emergency Medicine and in General Surgery, the Transitional Year Residents work with senior residents from the institution's affiliated programs in those specialties. Those who select electives in Radiology, Obstetrics and Gynecology, or Urology will have contact with senior residents as well. In addition, Transitional Year residents will supervise junior medical students from the University of Illinois College of Medicine.
Saint Francis Hospital's affiliation with the University of Illinois College of Medicine also enables Residents in the Transitional Year Program to access the University's Graduate Medical Education Online Core Curriculum. This on-line curriculum is designed to meet the goals of the ACGME's General Competencies.
Saint Francis Hospital serves an ethnically and socioeconomically diverse community. This offers experience with management of both common and unusual medical problems. Scholarship and research are encouraged. The medical education program sponsors an annual "Medical Jeopardy" competition in which prizes are offered for the winning residents. Transitional year residents have also collaborated on clinical research projects.
The Transitional Year Program at Saint Francis Hospital is fully accredited by ACGME. The program had its last site visit in 2005 and received continued full accreditation for 4 more years.
