Residency Schedule & Rotations

Expect a wide range of rotations and experiences during the internal medicine residency at St. Bernards Healthcare.

Rotations

You’ll spend most of your time in general medicine wards, the intensive care unit and outpatient clinic. View a sample block schedule [PDF].

General Medicine Wards

During general medicine ward rotations at St. Bernards Medical Center, your days begin at 6:30 a.m. with a morning report Monday through Thursday. Rounds start at 7 a.m., and you’ll guide medical students through pre-rounds. Formal teaching rounds with your attending physicians begin at 9:30 a.m.

St. Bernards Internal Medicine Residency has two inpatient services, and each has one resident and one intern.

Intensive Care Unit

During ICU rotations, you begin pre-rounding with attending physicians at 6 a.m. six days per week, followed by your own rounds. You’ll also participate in formal teaching rounds with attendings. St. Bernards Medical Center’s ICU is very active, with many admissions and discharges. There’s no night float in the ICU.

Internal Medicine Residency Clinic

On average, you can expect one clinic day per week for the duration of residency. ICU, Night Float, and ER rotations are exceptions, and you will not be required to do clinic. You’ll have a panel of patients for whom you’re a primary care physician (in supervised environment) and follow them for all three years.

Night Float

St. Bernards doesn’t use a call system. You’ll have one night float as an intern and two each during your second and third years. Expect to manage overnight admissions and cover inpatients in the ICU and general medicine wards.

Didactics

Didactics include:

• Weekly lectures on a variety of topics by specialists in their respective fields
• Board prep lectures
• Monthly board prep quizzes with follow up discussion
• Case presentations of rare disorders
• Noon reports
• Tumor boards

Research & Scholarly Activities

You’ll lead one or two grand rounds per year and participate in clinical studies or scholarly activities. You’re encouraged to present at regional conferences and competitions as part of your contribution to the field of internal medicine. St. Bernards participates in national randomized controlled trials, so you’ll get exposure to complex studies.

Morbidity & Mortality (M&M) Conferences

St. Bernards holds an extensive M&M conference several times a year. Our program director brings cases and facilitates discussion to identify opportunities to improve care and determine how to prevent errors. You’ll learn how to analyze difficult cases in a constructive environment.

Journal Clubs

Residents meet monthly to review and critique a recent article from medical literature in detail. Unlike many other residency programs, residents also conduct Journal News meetings weekly to keep up with the amount of literature published every day. 

Board Exam Preparation

You’ll have protected time to prepare for your board certification exam. All residents receive a free subscription to MedStudy and the Medical Knowledge Self-Assessment Program (MKSAP). Program directors assess your progress and lead board review sessions regularly.

Fundamental Critical Care Support Course

St. Bernards sponsors a course from the Society of Critical Care Medicine to train residents to manage critically ill patients for the first 24 hours or until an intensivist is available. The course is also open to hospitalists and advanced practice providers.