Core Rotations
From left, first-year residents Nariman Hossein-Javaheri, DO; Usman S. Najam, DO; program director Alysia V. Kwiatkowski, DO; and first-year resident Mingma D. Sherpa, DO.
Your core rotations give you a thorough grounding in the full spectrum of treating conditions germane to practicing internal medicine.
Rotations take place at a variety of sites, giving you opportunities to work in multiple settings with distinct patient bases and documentation systems.
Ambulatory Week
Also known as the +1 in our 4+1 schedule. This week you will be at your continuity ambulatory site for the whole week without call or other interruptions. You will see your continuity patients, urgent ambulatory patients, and patients following up from recent hospitalizations. You will also work on quality improvement and patient safety projects related to your site. This week is an intensive education in ambulatory medicine and a lighter clinical schedule compared to hospital weeks. As a PGY-2 and PGY-3 you also learn how to take ambulatory call for your practice.
Cardiac Critical Care/Cardiology Service
Location: Buffalo General Medical Center
In this rotation, you will gain experience managing a broad range of cardiac diseases under the supervision of a cardiology attending. To supplement your hands-on clinical experience, you may spend variable amounts of time on electrocardiogram (ECG) interpretation, echocardiography interpretation with emphasis on basic cardiac anatomy, physiology and pathophysiological correlation. Cardiology faculty will supervise your care of patients with primary cardiac problems, including STEMI, NSTEMI, heart failure and CAD. You will work with some patients in the Coronary Care Unit and others on a step-down unit.
Inpatient Medicine
Location: Buffalo General Medical Center, Erie County Medical Center, and Buffalo VA Medical Center
You will have opportunities to rotate on inpatient services in our affiliated hospital systems over the course of your residency, gaining expertise in managing a variety of patient bases and working with multiple professional environments and electronic health records systems. Your inpatient rotations will give you responsibility for supervising the admission processes for new patients, maintaining progress notes and patient records, communicating patient care issues among members of your work team (including faculty attendings), presenting cases, teaching medical students and, in your later years, junior residents.
Medical Intensive Care
Location: Buffalo General Medical Center and Buffalo VA Medical Center
Your MICU rotations give you experience treating patients with a full range of cardiac, pulmonary, renal, endocrine and neurological disorders, as well as infectious diseases and cases of overdose. You will take comprehensive medical histories and physical examinations for patients with these conditions, and learn to counsel patients and their families effectively regarding pathophysiology, treatment options and prognosis. Many intensive care patients are at particular risk for iatrogenic complications such as decubitus ulcers and hospital-acquired infections, and you will gain skills to assess these risks and act proactively to reduce them. You will have the opportunity to participate in procedures and practice point-of-care ultrasound at the bedside.
