Electives
Residents choose from a wide range of electives. The number of elective blocks increases yearly, allowing residents to tailor the educational experience to their career goals. First-year residents get four weeks of elective time; second-year residents get 16 to 18 weeks; and third-year residents get 28 to 30 weeks.
Subspecialty Electives
Each traditional subspecialty of internal medicine is represented by a large and active clinical service at Strong Memorial Hospital. Some electives can also be taken at Highland Hospital. Residents doing electives work side by side with subspecialty fellows. They evaluate patients and present them directly to faculty members for review and discussion. Residents also see new and follow-up patients in subspecialty ambulatory clinics, perform inpatient consultations, get hands-on experience with procedures, and take call in rotation with the fellows.
The educational goal is to provide the resident with the subspecialty knowledge and skills needed by the practicing general internist. All residents participate in most subspecialty electives at some time during the second or third year.
Several of the subspecialties offer more than one elective. Gastroenterology offers three: GI for residents planning a GI career; GI for residents planning a career in primary care; and hepatology. Cardiology offers inpatient and outpatient cardiology electives, as well as advanced electives in heart failure and hypertension. Infectious Diseases offers an inpatient consultation elective and an elective in outpatient HIV care.
Other Local Elective Experiences
Ambulatory general medicine electives are available in the faculty-resident firm practices at Strong and Highland; in private general internal medicine practices in Rochester; and in rural practices affiliated with the medical center.
Recent additions to our elective curriculum include Evidence-Based Medicine, Health Care Systems, and a Bedside Scholar elective that combines inpatient general medicine care with a quality-improvement project. Electives are also available in a wide variety of clinical areas outside of traditional subspecialties. A few of them are Sports Medicine, Women's Health, Dermatology, and Adolescent Medicine.
International and Domestic Electives Outside Rochester
Residents may also choose a four-week elective outside of Rochester during the PGY-2 or PGY-3 year. Examples of available structured away electives include:
- iTEACH at Edendale Hospital in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa; Director - Dr. Krista Dong
This elective allows residents to experience the practice of medicine in a resource limited setting at the epicentre of the HIV and TB global crisis. iTEACH stands for integration of TB in Education And Care for HIV/AIDS. Dr. Dong directs iTEACH and is a graduate of our residency program. In her iTEACH director's report for 2007, she wrote: "In our work at Edendale, we are confronted daily with tragedies from the HIV and TB epidemics and extreme poverty. Hunger, malnutrition, abuse, stigma, isolation and hopelessness, all combine to challenge HIV prevention efforts and result in too few persons accessing life saving care and treatment, too late. But these harsh realities do not deter us, rather the opportunity to create and be part of lifesaving and reaffirming initiatives, ensure every day will be filled with rewarding and exciting challenges. We are truly privileged."
- Rural Primary Care in Lowville, NY; Director - Dr. Steven Lyndaker
This 2-4 week experience in a small community about 2 1/2 hours northeast Rochester
in the Black River Valley between the Tug Hill Plateau and the western Adirondacks
offers residents a balanced perspective on the practice of rural primary care medicine. Dr. Lyndaker, a graduate of residency training in Rochester, offers the elective because, "
I feel the stereotypes of rural medicine are often inaccurate and hopefully residents will be able to better judge for themselves the quality of life and job satisfaction that I feel fortunate to experience. " Dr. Lyndaker
mentors residents in all aspects of his practice, both clinical work as well as the business and office management side with an opportunity to learn the basic principles of staff development and management in a small office setting with a physician office manager.
- Indian Health Service in Tuba City, AZ: Director - Dr. Joe Magee
The Internal Medicine department at the Tuba City Regional Health Care Center
cares for a rural population of Navajo and Hopi Indians in Northern Arizona. Led by Dr. Magee, Chief of Medicine and a University of Rochester graduate, the department practices
a very wide range of hospitalist and outpatient medicine with good subspecialty backup. The Health Care Center includes
a 65 bed hospital and 6-bed ICU with a medical staff of over 60 physicians. The medicine department is
committed to educating and exposing young physicians to another side of medicine in this unique and rich cultural setting. Residents and students are often invited to local ceremonies and many patients here only speak their native tongues. Residents see a mix of unusual and common medical conditions from TB meningitis, plague, rheumatic heart disease and hydatid disease to diabetes and chronic kidney disease.
Additional "away" electives can be undertaken in a wide variety of settings. Such electives require Program Director approval and must be supervised by a qualified senior physician mentor.
