Rotations are one month in duration. During the inpatient service, residents work in teams consisting of two senior residents, three interns and a variable number of medical students. A teaching attending physician is assigned to each inpatient service, serving as mentor and conducting daily patient rounds and formal teaching rounds three days per week. You'll be admitting patients every fourth day, and will take overnight call once a week.

As PGY1, responsibilities include accepting primary decision making for patient management in collaboration with the senior resident and attending physician. The intern is expected to write all orders, document care in the chart, perform daily work rounds and attend all conferences.

As PGY2, the main responsibility is supervising the PGY1 residents with the management of patients. Junior residents are expected to ensure quality of care for each patient, take leadership roles during work rounds, and participate in all conferences. They also play a major role in the education of students and present three cases (morbidity and mortality) and a Journal Club session during this year.

As PGY3, the main responsibility is to assure appropriate functioning of the entire team, with an accent on scholarship. The senior residents are expected to ensure quality of care for each patient, to lead work rounds, participate in all conferences, and supervise the education of students. During this year, you will be presenting a Senior Presentation, summarizing known and new data in a topic of your interest. Most of our Senior Presentations are of true Grand Rounds quality!

The night float team, comprised of a senior resident and an intern, provides overnight coverage for the on-call general floor team, five days a week from 9 p.m. to 7 a.m. The service is complemented by the study of a hospitalist curriculum during that month.

The medical intensive care unit (MICU) rotation involves exposure to critical care patients under direct supervision of the MICU medical director. You also will interact with many of the subspecialists. The MICU team is made of two residents and three interns who cover approximately 10-14 beds. You will be assigned to MICU twice as a PGY1 and twice as a PGY3 resident. You will take overnight call every fifth night (calls are shared with the CCU/ PCCU team). There are plenty of opportunities to acquire and become certified in the ABIM required procedures (central line placement, arterial lines, lumbar punctures, thoracentesis, paracentesis, etc.). In addition, you will become comfortable in managing mechanically ventilated patients.

The coronary care unit (CCU) and progressive care coronary unit (PCCU) rotation involves direct exposure to inpatients with a diverse spectrum of cardiovascular diseases. One of the faculty cardiology attendings will directly supervise you during the month along with a cardiology fellow. The team is made of two residents and two interns, taking call every fifth night. Interns are essentially assigned to PCCU (16 beds) and residents are in charge of the CCU (four-six beds), but also supervise the interns. You will be assigned to PCCU once as PGY1 and to CCU twice as a PGY2. It is a good opportunity to become familiar with stress testing, Holter monitoring, transvenous pacemaker and pulmonary artery catheters, as well as intra-aortic balloon pumps.

During elective rotations, residents learn by working directly with board-certified physicians and fellows in the subspecialty areas of medicine.

In the Cardiology rotation, as PGY1 you will see inpatient consultation and will have broad exposure to cardiology-related tests (i.e. ECG, echocardiograms, stress tests, coronary angiograms, electrophysiology procedures, etc.). As a PGY2 or PGY3, you will be assigned to a very active inpatient consultation service, working with one the cardiology fellows and under the supervision of one of the cardiology faculty attendings. You will be exposed to a diversity of cases and procedures, which will be a perfect complement of your experience in the PCCU/CCU.

The Pulmonary rotation is another very active, inpatient consultation service. Under the supervision of one of our specialists, you will be doing daily rounds on patients with underlying pulmonary problems. On top of that, there is permanent discussion of imaging studies (i.e. X-rays, CT scans) during this rotation. You also will learn how to interpret pulmonary function tests and will assist the attendings when performing bronchoscopies.

During the mandatory Infectious Diseases rotation you will be exposed to a wide spectrum of patients with underlying infectious problems, learning how to diagnose and manage these conditions. You also will be exposed to a variety of HIV/AIDS patients, and will become familiar and comfortable with their complex and ever-changing medical management.

The Gastroenterology rotation is offered at any level of training; you'll be a member of a very active inpatient consultation service. As part of your rotation you'll be observing procedures in the GI lab, and also will have some outpatient exposure.

The mandatory Geriatrics rotation is mainly an outpatient-based rotation under the supervision of the chief of geriatrics. You will join him in his very active practice and will do inpatient rounds with him in our acute care geriatric unit.

During Nephrology rotation, you will have the opportunity to work under the supervision of either one of the co-chiefs, and join them in the inpatient consultation service, as well as their outpatient practices. As part of you rotation you will have the opportunity to do once a week rounds at a dialysis center.

Illinois Masonic has its own cancer center, with a very active outpatient and inpatient program. The Oncology rotation will provide you with the opportunity of outpatient practice at the cancer center, along with some inpatient consultations. This rotation is complemented by the Pain Service rotation, a new addition to our curriculum. You will join the pain service team (an anesthesiology attending, an anesthesiology resident, and a clinical nurse specialist) on their inpatient rounds and consultations.

During the Neurology rotation, another inpatient-based consultation service, you will have the choice to work with either one of the two groups of neurologists on staff at Illinois Masonic. Both groups have an active consultation service, with exposure to EMG and EEG interpretation, as well as sleep studies.

The newly created Hospital Administration rotation is offered to our PGY3, giving you an experience about hospital management/administration. You will be present at meetings of the hospital administration and learn the "other side" of medicine. You are encouraged to develop a quality care project during this rotation.

Residents also can choose other rotations such as endocrinology, hematology, rheumatology, pathology, psychiatry, or radiology, and are able to use one elective month for research.