Internal Medicine Curriculum > Residency Programs

The CMC Internal Medicine Residency curriculum includes many different educational opportunities. Please take a moment to learn more about our educational curriculum by using the links above for easy navigation.

Lunch Didactics

We alternate a traditional faculty-led lunch conference with our resident-led noon reports. These lectures are generally held between 12 and 1. A wide variety of topics are covered throughout the year by our teaching faculty: subspecialty foci, inpatient general medicine, and ambulatory topics as well. Curriculum Lunch Conference Noon reports are designed to be engaging and interactive with a presenting resident and our Chief Resident leading the discussion. All of these lectures are well attended by students, residents, and faculty for a lively banter.

There is also embedded within these time slots a few other learning opportunities worth noting:

Acute Care Series is held early in the academic year and designed specifically with the fresh intern in mind. These conferences focus on the evaluation of core medicine topics such as chest pain, altered mental status, acute renal failure, etc. There is a strong emphasis on differential diagnosis and increasing one's comfort with public speaking.

Morbidity and Mortality Conference is held once per month as a part of our Inpatient Noon Report Series. After selecting a case in which an adverse outcome or near-miss occurred, the PGY-3 resident has an opportunity to present the case to his/her peers and facilitate discussion on the relevant patient safety issues. The group examines and discusses the case in a low-pressure environment with the goal of improving care in the future.

Finally, a High Value Care Conference is offered once per month as a part of our Inpatient Noon Report Series. This innovative conference series focuses on delivering cost-conscious care in an effort to make our learners more responsible stewards of limited healthcare resources

Outpatient Education

Ambulatory Lunch Conference and Symposia: Ambulatory Lunch Conference and Symposia: Friday lunch conferences are dedicated to ambulatory clinic topics. We utilize Yale University's Ambulatory Clinic Curriculum and assign resident leaders to facilitate the weekly topics under faculty mentorship. At the end of each week, all residents are asked to review the weekly material on their own if they have not been able to attend the conference. In conjunction with this, all residents are asked to complete a short quiz online for topic review.

Additionally, we have an annual Simulation Education to practice Office based procedures. We also have a Butterfly Ultrasound in clinic to be used as needed for educational purposes.

Ambulatory Pain Management Curriculum: Residents receive longitudinal instruction on safe opioid use for chronic pain. www.scopeofpain.com We have a curriculum to guide residents on how to manage patients with opioid use disorders.

Grand Rounds

Our Medical Grand Rounds Series is held on the second and fourth Wednesdays of each month from 12:30 p.m. – 1:30 p.m. in the Susanne Freeman Main Auditorium. We routinely host regionally and nationally known speakers from other institutions, and the lecture series also includes presentations given by our own Carolinas Medical Center faculty.

Journal Club

Journal Club is held monthly during noon conference and is led by a PGY-2 resident. Under the mentorship of a faculty member, the PGY-2 resident chooses a recent article and completes a review of the pertinent literature. After the article is presented to his/her peers, the audience has an opportunity to discuss the methodology, findings, and impact on clinical practice. Skills learned include basic statistics, epidemiology, and critical appraisal of medical literature.

Board Review

The Department of Internal Medicine faculty lead an extensive Board Review Series every year. These sessions are designed for our PGY-3 residents although all are welcome to attend. These sessions alternate between evening and lunch time reviews, with both our general medicine and subspecialty division leaders involved with the overall series.

In addition, a lunchtime Board Review series is held occasionally during noon conference. Audience response system technology is used during these sessions to cover difficult topics that frequently come up on the ABIM exam.

Our residents are extremely well-prepared for the ABIM exam by the conclusion of their residency training. Our program's pass rate over the recent decade is 99%, placing us in the top 1% of Internal Medicine residency programs nationwide.

In-Training Exam in Internal Medicine

In our program, categorical residents take the In-Training Exam in Internal Medicine each year that they are in the program. We have found that sitting for the exam annually assists our residents greatly with time management and other skills that are critical to navigating the ABIM exam successfully.

Rising PGY-3 Leadership Seminar

Internal Medecine Residents Curriculum

Our rising PGY-3 residents participate in a full-day off-site retreat designed to develop resident teaching and leadership skills. Topics covered include leadership skill development, conflict resolution, resiliency training, and time management, etc.

PGY-2 Resident as Teacher Symposium

This two-day symposium is designed for our PGY-2 residents and led by Drs. Furney and Lloyd. During this popular, interactive conference, our residents are equipped to improve their skills of medical student teaching and feedback.

Simulation Center

Carolinas Medical Center has an extensive, full-time simulation laboratory on campus. The Simulation Center opened in 2007 and is fully accredited by the American College of Surgeons.

It includes everything from lumbar puncture trainers, knee/shoulder arthrocentesis models, thoracentesis models, to full resuscitation models. We fully utilize the Simulation Center to complement our residents’ training experience including the Intern Patient Safety Skills OSCE and Common Critical Care Curriculum.

View additional information about Carolinas Medical Center’s Simulation Center.

Also, view a list of all of the materials at the center!

Intern Patient Safety Skills OSCE

All of our incoming PGY-1 residents take part in an OSCE [Observed Structured Clinical Exam] during their orientation period. History and physical exam skills, not to mention procedural skills, often vary depending on the level of exposure a particular incoming intern may have had during medical school. Our Intern OSCE is a low pressure mechanism that offers incoming PGY-1 residents direct feedback on several different modules. Topics covered during this session include history taking from a simulated patient, the cardiac and pulmonary exam, LP training, basic suturing and knot tying, foley catheterization, and the pelvic exam. Our incoming trainees have felt the OSCE to be a very valuable experience.

PGY-1 Common Critical Care Curriculum

Later during intern year, all of our PGY-1 residents participate in our Common Critical Care Curriculum (4Cs). This series consists of three 4-hour critical patient care and procedure sessions in the simulation lab. Topics covered during this series include code blue resuscitation, procedure training including central line placement, and scenarios involving delivering bad news to a patient or disclosing a medical error.

Point-of-Care Ultrasound

Our program recently established a point-of-care ultrasound curriculum. Each of our inpatient ward teams has access to a Butterfly iQ® portable ultrasound probe that connects directly with a smart phone or tablet device. Residents also have access to a portable ultrasound device in our ambulatory clinic. Our department features several attendings with interest and experience in bedside ultrasound. Point-of-Care Ultrasound

Our experienced faculty lead a weekly small-group point-of-care ultrasound teaching session at the bedside. In addition, our program offers a quarterly departmental ultrasound symposium that combines didactic lecture on the use of bedside ultrasound with standardized patient scanning stations. Residents receive instruction and have opportunities for hands-on practice of pleural effusion imaging, basic cardiac imaging, IVC imaging for volume status, basic abdominal imaging such as presence of ascites/hepatomegaly, and ultrasound imaging in the evaluation of cellulitis and skin abscess.

Our residents also receive instruction and gain experience with ultrasound on our MICU rotation. Our residents become facile with our Sonosite® ultrasound machine in the MICU for procedure guidance such as central line placement.

Finally, interested residents may elect to complete a rotation in bedside ultrasound through our Department of Emergency Medicine.

Schwartz Rounds

This unique conference series is offered every other month and is based on the work of the Schwartz Center for Compassionate Healthcare. These case-based, interactive conferences provide residents and staff from all disciplines to reflect on the emotional aspects of their work. These discussions lead to improved insight, understanding, and connection amongst members of the healthcare team. Furthermore, this series allows participants to reconnect with their values and reaffirm their motivation to work in healthcare.

Rotation Pre and Post Testing

Many of our subspecialty departments administer both a pre-test and post-test for the consult rotations. These tests do not count toward the resident’s evaluation per se but are used for the residents to self-identify areas of weakness to be addressed during the rotation. They also provide an opportunity for the house staff to see how they have improved by the end of the month! Many of these tests are created internally, but we also use some external educational materials. Specifically, we use the Yale Office Based Medicine Curriculum for ambulatory education as well as the Society of Hospital Medicine teaching modules which provide instruction on perioperative care.

International Activities

We encourage our residents to take part in our global health elective experience. We have established partnerships with Tenwek Hospital in Bomet, Kenya, and Mbingo Baptist Hospital in West Cameroon, Africa. Any interested PGY-3 resident may participate in one of these global health elective opportunities. Outside of the established partnerships with Tenwek and Mbingo hospitals, our residents have tremendous flexibility in terms of where they would like to travel and study. All opportunities are reviewed and approved on a case-by-case basis.

Our PGY-2 and PGY-3 residents may apply their annual CME funds (which total $1900/year) toward international rotation travel expenses. Our program leadership is flexible in allowing our residents to find global health opportunities that best fit their learning objectives – whether that be a mission trip combined with Medical Spanish immersion or an intense third world experience to serve as a base for a lifetime of international volunteerism.

The following links are commonly used for residents who are considering these global health opportunities:

Curriculum