Program Details

Curriculum

The Internal Medicine Residency at Hackensack Meridian Health Palisades Medical Center is of 36 months duration. The program is hospital based and follows the Internal Medicine Track as identified by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) which includes the following:

• Residents are required to spend a minimum of 130 distinct half-day sessions in outpatient Continuity Clinic over the course of at least a 30-month period. Our program will achieve 180 distinct half-days with the current PGY-1 to PGY-3 rotation schedule. In these sessions, the residents function as the primary caregiver for patients, some of which they will have seen as inpatients, on an ongoing outpatient basis. This is achieved in the Internal Medicine faculty physicians’ ambulatory clinics, where the attending physician will: supervise, discuss management, review all charts, and enhance the residents’ education including diagnosis, treatment, billing, coding, and health prevention efforts common in the outpatient setting. Ambulatory clinic logs must be kept by all residents (recorded in New-Innovations).
• PGY-1 year: Internal Medicine Floors (18 weeks), Cardiology (4), Neurology (4), ICU (5), Internal Medicine Night Float (6), Women‘s Health/Research (4), and Ambulatory medicine (7). PGY1 Schedule
• PGY-2 year: Internal Medicine Floors (16 weeks), Internal Medicine Night Float (6), ICU (5), Endocrinology (4), Gastroenterology (4), Infectious Disease (4), Nephrology (4), Geriatrics (4), and Ambulatory medicine (5). PGY2 Schedule
• PGY-3 year: Internal Medicine Floors (15 weeks), ICU Nights (5), Hematology/Oncology (4), Pulmonology (4), Rheumatology (4), Emergency Medicine (4), and Ambulatory medicine (4). Opportunity for 1 month outside elective (4). PGY3 Schedule
• All residents will participate in the annual resident In-Service exam (IM-ITE) sponsored by the American College of Physicians. (Administered late August to early September)
• All residents are required to complete a scholarly project to be reviewed and approved by PD/APD and presented at a scientific meeting (Example: NJACP Chapter Residency Abstract poster competition) or publish an original research/review article in a peer-reviewed medical journal.

Didactics

• Morning Report (MR)
• Protected educational time
• Lecture and small group facilitated discussions

Education Conferences

• Tuesday: Subspecialty Lecture
• Wednesday: Grand Rounds or M&M
• Thursday (Once a Month): Journal Club
• Friday: Board Review

Research

• Case Reports from wide-ranging pathology
• Ongoing QI/QA projects
• Data-based Research
• Research projects in conjunction with GI fellowship program
• Access to Hackensack University Medical Center and St. Joseph’s Medical Center library

Ambulatory clinic

• Continuity of care
• Immersion within the community
• 1:1 mentorship with clinic attending

Resident Wellness Activities

• 1 wellness day per quarter (4 per year)
• Compensation for all major holidays
• 2 annual program wide social events
• Holiday party

Program Highlights

• 1:1 Mentorship
• Ease of access to program director, associate program director, program coordinator, all faculty
• Work with faculty on research projects
• Leadership
• Participation in Hospital Committees
• Medical student evaluations/teaching/mentorship
• Faculty partnerships in optimizing weekly conference experiences
• Resident-run morning reports with attending supervision designed to highlight important and cutting-edge information in patient evaluation and management
• Extensive, interactive weekly conferences with guest lecturers covering subspecialty topics