Internal Medicine (256-551-4611)
Overview
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Director: Dr. Parekha Yedla
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Attendings: Corman, McConnell, Yedla, Ibrahim, Centor, Fahey, Diaz
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Contact: Juanita Spicer (256-551-4611).
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Teams typically consist of at least one upper level resident, an intern, 1-2 third year med students, and an AI (4 th year med student). Your team plus an attending physician will round on patients in the hospital every morning.
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Lecture most afternoons usually starting around 1:30 pm and lasting 1-2 hrs. Attend all lectures.
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Every student does a patient presentation in front of the Medicine attending and the other students on the rotation. These are fairly laid back and interactive (the attendings like to interject!), but make sure you are prepared and organized.
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CLIPP cases- online cases w/ decent review questions. They are only graded for completion, not percent correct. You’re expected to do 8-10 but can do more.
Schedule
Usual Day:
1.
Get to the hospital early enough to pre-round on the patients you are following (this may be 5:30 am or 7 am depending on how many patients you have to see, how long it takes you to write the notes, etc)
2.
Meet your attending around 7:30 – 8:30 am (depending on the physician)
3.
Morning report at 11am on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday (The “Centorium” – the room off of the resident’s lounge in
HH Main).
4.
Finish rounds between 12-1:00 pm
5.
If not on day call you are done after lecture! Go home and enjoy yourself (or, you know, do some studying….)
Call: 3 rd year students take call with the intern. AIs take call with the upper level.
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Day call - approximately 1-2/weeks per rotation, depending on schedule. Day call starts after rounds and lasts until 7:30 pm.
Lecture takes priority over call so just let your resident know if you have lecture that day and they will let you leave. You need to go straight back to the hospital after lecture, find your resident, and ask them to fill you in on any new admissions you missed.
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Weekend day call- 1-2 times/ rotation. You will be on call from 7 am-7:30 pm on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Starting times for rounds vary on the weekends so find out from your resident what time your team is meeting and then start prerounding early enough to see your pts, write your notes, etc
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Night call – a.
Weekday night call- Weekday call rules have changed several times, but usually you should come in at 7:30pm or come in early in the morning to admit one patient. You do not stay overnight. b.
Weekend night call- 1-2 times/ rotation. Your resident will be on call Friday, Saturday, and Sunday night but you only go Friday and Saturday night. On the weekends some physicians start rounding with the night call team very early (like 6 am) so make sure you find out from your resident what time you need to be ready.
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Weekends- you will work 3 weekends and will have the weekend before the shelf off to study.
Duties
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Write H&Ps on patients you admit from the ER. Most residents and students use the H&P template- it’s easy to run out of space on these so if you need more room just write the H&P out on a yellow progress sheet (takes a little bit longer but is better than omitting information or squeezing it all in to the point where you can’t read it).
 Follow these patients from admission to discharge. If all of your patients get discharged before you’re on call again, then just pick a pt that’s already on your team and start following them.
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Pre-round on your patients everyday (including weekend days when you are on call) and write SOAP notes with a good assessment and plan. Also write consultation notes and help with DC summaries. Ask the other members of your team what they need/expect of you. It’s a team effort. If your team looks good, you look good.
Books
 MKSAP’s questions are the best review for the shelf. USE IT!
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Essentials for Medicine Students is also a great reference with very short chapters on lots of commonly encountered topics – great to read as you are forming a differential and A/P on patients you admit from the ER.
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First Aid for the Medicine Clerkship is great.
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High Yield for Internal Medicine is a quick read, and very good.
 Dubin’s for mastering EKG(s).
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Pocket Guide for Medicine (small, green book) is great to keep with you at all times for quick reference.
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You can get Cecil’s if you want, it is expensive and BIG… look at it free on www.mdconsult.com
which you should get an account for or look at it in the library.

Hints
 Don’t do the bare minimum. Jump in and get your feet wet as quickly as possible. Ask to write orders, do procedures, and follow as many patients as you can handle (start with 1-2 patients and work your way up to 4).
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If an attending asks you to read about something - DO IT. They will most likely ask you questions about it the next day. Also an attending may ask you a question and then get busy with something else, that gives you a chance to look up the answer!
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Don't assume they've forgotten about it - they'll remember it sooner or later and ask you.
 Code for HH Main resident’s lounge is 324 .
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