Primary
Care Program Details
The Primary Care Residency Program is one of the oldest in the country, founded in the mid-1970s by leaders in the primary care movement. Our program combines university-based in-hospital training with extensive experiences in outpatient medicine. It is distinguished by its work with the underserved in diverse practice settings. Many of our residents go on to become academic general internists; they may become chief residents in the categorical program; most pursue careers in general internal medicine after they finish training.
Overview of Clinical Experience
There are five primary care residents per year. Residents have a combination of inpatient and outpatient experiences during their residency. In addition, they have the opportunity to do many outpatient medical and non-medical electives which strengthens their ability to provide comprehensive care to their patients. During intern year and the first part of second year, PC residents follow the same schedule as their categorical counterparts. They then embark on a one-year continuous schedule of ambulatory care from January of their second year through December of their third year. During this time, they are encouraged to create and follow their own patient panel in their continuity clinics. This gives them the opportunity to build confidence in managing the care of often-complex medical patients.
Upon completion of this track, residents are in a good position to apply for internist positions having taken care of their own patient panel, worked in an urgent care setting and even taken home call for the practice.
For those with diverse interests, the primary care track offers the opportunity to spend time in community clinics and international electives and even engage in public policy classes and activities.
Educational Conferences
To complement their clinical experience, PC residents have ample opportunity to benefit from educational conferences. Residents participate in morning report, discussing inpatient cases, as well as in pre-clinic didactics, discussing the management of ambulatory care patients. During ambulatory care year, residents have one morning per week of lectures and board-review questions. These sessions are resident-driven and attendings from all specialties have been invited to lecture the group on chosen topics.
Morning Report
During inpatient ward months, residents attend morning report each weekday morning.
During ambulatory care year, PC residents attend morning report once per week and each resident presents a case once per month.
Noon Conference
Residents attend conference throughout the program during inpatient and outpatient rotations.
Primary Care Lectures
Thursday mornings during the ambulatory care year, residents receive 1-2 hours of lectures and spend the rest of the time doing board review questions. Resident choose the topics and invite faculty to speak. In addition to board review, this is an opportunity to discuss other topics such as medical ethics and the business of medicine and to practice procedural skills.
Pre-Clinic Didactic Sessions
Each week before continuity clinic there is a short didactic session focusing on an outpatient medical problem.
Research Project
During the ambulatory care year, residents are required to do a research project. Faculty members support these projects. This project can vary from patient surveys to policy research. Topics from recent research projects include
obesity in America, HIV and women,
alcohol and the elderly,
and access to care among the indigent of D.C.
Structure of the Three Years
PGY 1 (same as categorical)
8-9 Wards/Units, 1 Clinic, 1 Elective, 1 Nightfloat, 1 ER
PGY 2
First 6 months includes 3 Wards, 1 Unit, 1 Nightfloat, 1 Elective
Second 6 months
— ambulatory care
PGY3
First 6 months
— ambulatory care
Second 6 months
— 3 Wards, 1 Unit, 2 Electives
Inpatient Experience
Primary care residents follow the same schedule as the categorical residents for intern year, the first half of PGY2 and the second half of PGY3 including ward months, unit months and inpatient electives.
Continuity Clinic
During inpatient months, PC residents have one half-day continuity clinic per week.
During ambulatory care year, PC residents have three half-day continuity clinics per week.
Urgent Care Clinic
One half-day/week during ambulatory care year
Elective Clinics
Three half-day clinics per week during ambulatory care year
Medical specialties: renal, pulmonary, GI, ID, endocrinology, rheumatology, geriatrics, heme/onc, cardiology, allergy, hospice, palliative care
Non-medical specialties: breast clinic, neurology, podiatry, ophthalmology, ENT, urology, dermatology,
complementary & alternative medicine, health policy
Community Service Clinic
During ambulatory care year, PC residents work a half day at Bread for the City, a D.C. clinic for the underserved. They can also spend time at Whitman-Walker Clinic, La Clinica del Pueblo, and Upper Cardoza community clinics.
Nightfloat
Like their categorical counterparts, the PC residents do one month of nightfloat as an intern and one as a resident.
PC residents also do one nightfloat shift per month during ambulatory care year.
Emergency Department Shifts
PC residents do one ER month during their inpatient months. They also do one shift per month during ambulatory care year.
Home Call
PC residents take home call once per month for the entire Division of General Internal Medicine. For each weekend or weeknight shift, they take pages from the answering service and respond to patients, hospitals, and pharmacies who have called in after hours. Residents are paired with a faculty member for each shift.
Private Practice
PC residents have the option of spending up to one half-day per week for six months with a private practice internist.
International Electives
PC residents have the option of spending one month doing an international elective. Residents have recently gone to Brazil, India and Jamaica.
Post-Graduate
Placement of Recent Primary Care Graduates
Most
graduates of the Primary Care Program pursue careers in general internal
medicine. Their paths after graduation are highly diverse. Recent
positions have included academic appointments, chief residencies, community
clinics/private practice, and various public health, general internal
medicine, and outpatient-based medical subspecialty fellowships. Below
is a representative list of recent graduates, followed by their year
of completion of the primary care residency program.
Academic
Appointments
Elizabeth Trimble - Veterans Affairs DC 2006
Natalie Vassall - George Washington University 2006
Zohray Talib - George Washington University 2005
Seema Kakar -
George Washington University 2003
Linda Spooner - George Washington University 2002
Jeff Schwartz - Veterans Affairs DC/George Washington University 2001
Carla Aamodt - University of Kansas 2000
Rochelle Brown - George Washington University 2000
Hilit Mechaber - University of Miami 1998
Matt Mintz - George Washington University 1997
Creshelle Nash - University of Arkansas 1997
Christina Pulchalsky - George Washington University 1997
Alex Mechaber - University of Miami 1997
Chief
Residency at The George Washington University
Melissa Blakeman 2006
Jessica Adams 2005
Zohray Talib 2005
Danielle Doberman 2003
Michelle Salvat 2003
Ray Martins 2003
Ben Keidan 2002
Carla Aamodt 2000
Rochelle Brown 2000
Tom Yackel 1999
Richard Weber 1997
Matt Mintz 1999
Alex Mechaber 1997
Community
Clinics/Private Practice
Navdeep Mathur - Washington, DC 2006
Melanie DeSouza - Florida 2006
Deborah Huang - Seattle, WA 2004
Vickie Murphy - Virginia 2004
Rhonda Mough - Virginia 2004
Allison Richman - Virginia 2004
Ray Martins - Washington, DC 2003
Nicola Russel - Arizona 2001
Linz Audain - Washington, DC 2001
David Donahue - Delaware 1999
Richard Weber - New York 1997
Hospitalist
Jessica Adam - Fairfax, VA 2005
Valerie Slocum - Reston, VA 2005
Fellowships
Valerie Pratt - Endocrine, George Washington University 2005
Rebecca Chatterjee - Geriatrics,
Mount Sinai, NY 2005
Chris Cirino - Infectious Disease, George Washington University 2004
Danielle Doberman -
Palliative Care, Johns Hopkins
University 2003
Kavitha Prakash - Harvard Commonwealth Fellowship in Minority Health
Care 2002
Chris Cirino - Internal Medicine, George Washington University 2002
Letha Seraphin - Infectious Disease, George Washington University
2002
Karl Finley - Endocrinology, National Institutes of Health 2001
Peter Sklar - Infectious Disease, GWU, HIV Research Fellow at NIH
1999
Tom Yakel - Medical Informatics, University of Oregon 1999
Gina Wei- Internal Medicine, Uniformed Health Services University
1998
Last
Updated: September 28, 2006 |