Rotation Descriptions

First Year

Critical Care Unit (ICU)

In the ICU, you work with a team of fellow family medicine residents to manage critically ill patients. Daily teaching rounds are conducted by pulmonary/critical-care attendings. In addition to performing procedures such as intubations, central line placement, ABGs and others, you will also gain experience in managing ventilated patients, performing ACLS, and handling end-of-life care. Residents gain knowledge and confidence in managing the critically ill patient.

Emergency Medicine

During your month in the ER, you will learn the first-line management of acutely ill patients. You will have opportunities to suture, intubate, and participate in CPR, while interpreting EKGs, X-rays, and ABGs. Under the direction of board-certified emergency physicians, you will be participating in the acute care of adult and pediatric patients.

Family Medicine Service (FMS)

During your months on our adult medicine teaching service, you will closely manage patients who present with an array of medical problems, from chest pain to newly diagnosed malignancy. You will attend daily rounds with your co-residents and attendings. Residents become competent providers of inpatient medical care.

Inpatient Pediatrics – Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago

During this month, you will rotate at Lurie Children’s Hospital and follow patients on the general medicine service and/or the community-doc service. As part of the pediatric inpatient resident team, you admit and manage common inpatient pediatric illnesses including asthma exacerbations, fever in newborns, hyperbilirubinemia, UTIs, and dehydration.

Perinatal and Child Health (PCH)

On the PCH service, you are part of the team that manages laboring patients, postpartum patients, obstetric triage, the newborn nursery, and the special care nursery. Daily rounds feature high-yield teaching points by C-section trained family-medicine attendings and PCH fellows. Procedures include newborn circumcision, IUPC and FSE placement, vaginal delivery, and laceration repair. Further opportunities exist for those who seek more operative delivery training in preparation for fellowship.

Surgery

During the intern year, the focus of surgery is on the inpatient management of surgical patients. Working directly with board-certified general surgeons, you will see patients in the hospital and spend time in the OR assisting in surgeries, with a focus on hands-on technical skills. You will also see patients in the outpatient surgery clinic. Additional learning occurs in the Wound Care Clinic where you will participate in the management of chronic wounds.

Second Year

Behavioral Medicine

In this rotation, you spend time with board-certified psychiatrists, managing complex psychiatric patients, as well as with clinical psychologists to hone the resident’s counseling skills. In addition, you will rotate through addiction medicine in the form of our chemical dependency clinic, where you will see opiate and alcohol dependence treated with a combination of medication and psychotherapy.

Critical Care(Senior)

The West Suburban ICU is a 12-bed unit in which we manage for a wide range of medical and surgical diagnoses. By the time you graduate, you will be well-trained in the management of common cardiac emergencies (e.g. AMI, CHF, and acute arrhythmia), pulmonary emergencies (e.g. ARDS, respiratory failure, COPD, status asthmaticus), and common medical/surgical diagnoses (e.g. DKA, sepsis, acute abdomen). This is a truly unique experience for family medicine residents. The family medicine residency provides full coverage of the ICU six months of the year. There are ample opportunities for procedures (e.g. central lines, endotracheal intubations, and thoracenteses) under the guidance of the critical care specialists. As a second year, you spend a month on service and one week of night float in the ICU.

Family Centered Pediatrics I (FCP I)

During this month, you will spend most of your time seeing pediatric patients in the outpatient setting. Under the guidance of our board-certified pediatrics attendings, you will gain skills in routine well child visits as well as management of commonly encountered pediatric outpatient illnesses. You will use this knowledge base to integrate pediatric care into your own continuity practice.

Family Medicine Service (Senior)

The Family Medicine Service (FMS) is a comprehensive, diverse, and high-volume general adult medical/surgical service. West Suburban Medical Center provides a unique mix of urban, underserved patients, as well as suburban patients. As the FMS senior, you are responsible for delegating daily work tasks for the interns, coordinating daily teaching rounds, and providing enhanced learning opportunities for the team. In addition, you will be involved in teaching bedside examination skills to interns and medical students. As a second year, you spend two months as an FMS senior.

Perinatal and Child Health (Senior)

During this rotation, you spend 1½ months, in total, leading the PCH team. Your role includes supervising first-year residents and medical students, and as a team, managing laboring, postpartum, and triage patients, as well as the newborn nursery. The PCH team manages the labor of many high-risk diagnoses (e.g. pre-eclampsia, hypertension, gestational diabetes, preterm labor, and multiple prior C-sections), and our Level II nursery cares for premature infants as young as 32 weeks.

Pediatric Emergency Department – Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago

This month, you will spend at Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s in downtown Chicago, where you gain valuable experience seeing pediatric patients in an emergency setting. You see common childhood illnesses and injuries such as respiratory illnesses, gastroenteritis, dehydration, fractures, and trauma. You also attend the weekly pediatric resident lectures, given by pediatric ER specialists.

Third Year

Crtical Care (Senior)

As a third year, you spend two weeks on service and one week of night float in the ICU, as previously described.

Family Medicine Service (Senior)

As a third year, you spend one month as an FMS senior, as previously described.

Geratrics

You will spend a month in various parts of the community to get a full spectrum experience in elder care. In addition to spending time with a community family medicine practice that has a particular focus on geriatrics, you will also spend time in nursing homes, inpatient and home hospice, and a local township center with social services for the aging. As a second and third year resident, you will be assigned two nursing home patients whom you follow monthly throughout the two years.

Perinatal and Child Health (Senior)

As a third year, you will spend an additional 1½ months in this role, as previously described.

Family Centered Pediatrics II

During this month, you will focus on acute pediatric complaints in an urgent care setting, as well as training in adolescent medicine within a school based clinic. This may include a range of musculoskeletal, respiratory, dermatologic, and behavioral complaints that make up a broad range of pediatric illnesses.