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Internal Medicine Residency

medicine residency

A Day in the Life

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Other Notable Features of Our Program:

4 + 2 Block Schedule

Categorical interns and residents are on a modified ‘x+y’ block schedule. Most of the time the 4-week primary admitting inpatient blocks (ICU and wards) alternate with either 2-week inpatient subspecialty consult or ambulatory (outpatient subspecialty or continuity clinic) blocks. This schedule diminishes the tension between inpatient and outpatient needs and allows for longitudinal QI experience as well as longitudinal subspecialty clinics. Additionally, we work with residents to craft ambulatory rotations targeting their specific individual goals.

Protected Time to Learn

In September of 2019 we rolled out highly interactive, ‘flipped classroom’ academic afternoons. Interns have protected times on Tuesday afternoons and residents have protected times on Thursday afternoons. These sessions include time to review the previous week’s learning goals, intensive MKSAP review for seniors, and focused, small group case review followed by expert subspecialist debriefing. The sessions are mapped to the ABIM blueprint and are intended to increase medical knowledge and evidence-based decision making.

POCUS Curriculum and Simulation Sessions

We have a two-tiered POCUS curriculum. All interns are exposed to a longitudinal, hands-on, foundational exposure to the main POCUS skills for Internal Medicine. Our senior residents have the option for a mastery elective during their second or third year that includes self-directed learning and asynchronous feedback on diagnostic studies they have performed.

We also run a ‘code blue 101’ for interns transitioning into their PGY2 year and have noon report sessions dedicated to rapid response and code blue scenarios with a simulation mannequin that occur throughout the academic year.

Individual Learning Pathways

Please see the dedicated page on the ILPs. These pathways are designed to support and strengthen your chosen career arc. They also offer one more level of mentorship: each ILP has dedicated faculty advisors that will help you hone your career goals.

Professor EBM

This curriculum is updated yearly by the Hospitalist group and highlights some of the most important evidence-based literature. Click here to access the both the Learner’s and Teacher’s guides to alcoholic hepatitis. These teaching modules are used on the wards and during weekly EBM noon conferences. Click here​ to see the full Professor EBM curriculum

Quality Improvement involvement

All residents are involved in QI/QA beginning with chart audits as interns and continuing with chronic care audits in their 2nd and 3rd years. Some seniors develop more intensive senior QI projects with significant impact. Recent projects include:

  • Increasing colon cancer screening in Spanish-speaking patients
  • Identifying care gaps in the LTBI ‘care cascade’
  • Improving nursing communication and cutting down on incorrect pages
  • Examining sepsis outcomes in oncologic patients
  • Characterizing diagnostic and treatment delays in patients with newly diagnosed NSCLC
  • Examining work-flow to prioritize outpatient MRI in low-risk TIA to minimize unnecessary bed-days

Diverse ambulatory opportunities

Housestaff can rotate through multiple outpatient clinics targeted to specific at-risk patient populations. Electives include our PACE clinic, which cares for HIV positive patients, clinics dedicated to refugee outreach, custody medicine at the county jail, and a TB clinic that treats approximately 100 patients per year. Some senior residents rotate with our Valley Homeless Healthcare Program, working with a close-knit team of doctors invested in advocacy and health equity. Click here ​to link to interviews with some of our patients who have experienced homelessness. Their stories serve as a powerful and personal reminder of the impact of social determinants of health and reinforce the necessity of safety net hospitals. 

Academic Affiliations

We are a core teaching site for Stanford medical students and residents, and Valley interns and residents rotate at Stanford and the VA. We are also affiliated with Geisel School of Medicine (Dartmouth) and host two third year students per block for their Medicine clerkship. Because of these two academic affiliations you will have many opportunities to teach and mentor students during your training at SCVMC.

Medical Students at Valley

What do medical students say about their rotations at Valley?

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Mission Driven Care and Our Commitment to Diversity and Inclusion

Santa Clara Valley Medical Center’s vision is “Better Health for All,” and our mission is to “provide high quality, compassionate, and accessible healthcare for all persons in Santa Clara County regardless of their social-economic status and ability to pay.” Eliminating health disparities has been a strategic priority for our Public Health Department since 2015, and in June 2020, Santa Clara County’s board of supervisors declared racism a public health crisis and is taking significant steps to address racial injustices in our County. Faculty, working with the Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, continue to host ongoing education around systemic racism and racial and health equity. Our residency also has an explicit goal to recruit and retain more physicians who are underrepresented in Medicine (UIM) or come from underserved backgrounds, and we continue to promote dialogue that creates a culture of inclusion and equity. 

Resident Wellness

At Valley we work hard to improve our local systems and to create space for individuals to connect with their work. Recent changes have included an expanded non-teaching group, lower Medicine Wards caps, wellness check-ins for new interns, and the elimination of 24-hour call. We continue to expand the opportunity for resident driven change. At an individual level, we recognize the essential practice of bringing intention to our work as physicians. Connecting with meaning is a critical skill to inoculate against burnout. We build this practice into our educational curriculum, our healer’s art sessions and our one-on-one meetings with our residents.