Clinical Experience
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General Medical Floor and Telemetry Services
The inpatient general medical services include 8-10 residents, 16-20 interns and two night float teams. Each resident-intern team is responsible for approximately 6-10 patients. Dedicated teaching attendings are assigned to provide teaching rounds for 4-5 hours per week. Significant teaching also occurs at the bedside throughout the course of the day.
The educational environment is enriched by the presence of medical students, primarily from the University of Illinois College of Medicine.
The teams also oversee the care of medical patients with cardiac disease who require cardiac monitoring. Teaching on the Telemetry service is done both by Cardiologists and Internal medicine physicians.
Critical Care Services
Critical care education occurs in a combined 21 bed Intensive Care Unit (ICU) at Saint Joseph Hospital, as well as a 32 bed unit at Saint Mary's Hospital. The critical care service at Saint Joseph Hospital is composed of five senior residents and four interns. Two busy cardiac catheterization laboratories add to the spectrum of patients cared for in this unit. A full-time director of the CCU adds to the quality of the educational experience. The Intensive Care Unit (ICU) serves medical and surgical patients, with the medical service patients being a mix of traditional intensive care patients and those with acute cardiac disease. Daily rounds with a full time intensivist and electronic ICU supervision complement the academic experience in this unit.
The Critical Care Unit at Saint Mary's Hospital is staffed by full-time intensivists who also provide teaching and supervision to the four residents and four interns assigned to the service each month. Residents rotate through both ICUs over the course of their training and benefit from the differences in pathology and patient types.
Daily teaching rounds with our full-time intensivist
Ancillary Services
In addition to high-quality consulting specialists in all fields of medicine, Saint Joseph Hospital has a full array of outstanding support services. The Clinical Laboratories and Radiology departments are state-of-the-art and include a digital radiology system and on-site MRI and PET-CT. The department of nursing is well staffed and supportive of our educational programs and the ancillary services (IV team, blood drawing, transport, etc.) are efficient and prompt.
Residents have access to digital radiographic images on all nursing units
Training in Ambulatory Medicine
Recent trends in medicine have clearly shifted the emphasis from inpatient care to patient care in the ambulatory setting. In addition, the Residency Review Committee for Internal Medicine requires that 33 percent of a resident's training be spent in an ambulatory care environment. At Saint Joseph Hospital, the house staff receive diversified training in ambulatory care. As a university-affiliated community hospital, our program offers the optimal balance between general medical and subspecialty exposure.
Residents spend one half-day per week at an outpatient continuity clinic. All residents are assigned clinic patients whom they follow throughout their residency. Residents act as attending physicians in caring for their patients and gain meaningful experience in patient management and decision-making. Although independence is encouraged, a dedicated preceptor is always present to supervise and teach.
Additional ambulatory care education is provided in four month-long ambulatory rotations, a month-long primary care elective, a Palliative Care/End-of-Life elective, a one-month Geriatric rotation and Emergency Medicine experience. During their outpatient training, residents gain experience in ophthalmology, otorhinolaryngology, outpatient gynecology, pain management, and other specialties.
The goals of medical education in the ambulatory setting are straightforward:
- Acquisition of knowledge in outpatient medicine, including common illnesses and preventive health promotion;
- Development of skills in history-taking, physical examination and diagnostic approaches to the non-hospitalized adult; and
- Formation of attitudes that can foster a doctor-patient relationship built upon trust and mutual respect.
We at Saint Joseph Hospital feel we can offer the best opportunity for you to meet these goals and invite you to join with us in our efforts to achieve excellence in ambulatory medical education.
