Our residents play a significant role in shaping the curriculum and the program. Regular resident feedback sessions (“town halls”) with the program director ensure we are meeting the educational and professional needs of our house staff. This core curriculum, combined with conferences, ensures that our residents obtain a thorough knowledge of internal medicine principles. Residents also take an active role in the annual program review.
Two hospitals serve as the principal education centers for both inpatient and outpatient clinical experiences – the Nashville General Hospital at Meharry (NGH, an urban charity facility) and the Department of Veteran Administration Tennessee Valley Healthcare System, Alvin C. York Campus (VA). The residents spend approximately 50 percentI of their time at each facility over the course of their training. Both facilities offer training by Board certified internists and specialists. General medical floor and intensive care unit experiences are available at NGH and general medicine floor at the VA. Additional training opportunities in the medical subspecialties are available at both facilities and at Tennessee Valley Healthcare System-Nashville. Inpatient rotations are also done at The James H. Quillen VA Healthcare System at Mountain Home in Johnson City and Methodist Le Bonheur Hospital in Memphis.
The Internal Medicine residency program is closely associated with the Meharry Medical College School of Medicine. Our residents are expected to supervise and teach third- and fourth-year medical students during their Internal Medicine rotations. The school’s resources, such as an extensive digital medical library and computer system, are available to all of our residents 24 hours a day.
The Department of Internal Medicine has strengthened its commitment to performing high-quality research with an emphasis on improving the care of minority patients. Each categorical resident is required to do a research project with minimum progress requirements for each year. This renewed focus on research should allow us to cultivate among our residents an interest in careers in academia and life-long learning.
Meharry Medical College’s Internal Medicine program offers a nurturing setting for our residents to be exposed to a broad range of patients at all stages of their illness in both an outpatient and inpatient setting while participating in a stimulating academic environment.
The residency program is designed to help develop a fully rounded internist. Our objectives include, but are not limited to, development of the following:
- Ability to generate a complete and accurate differential diagnosis list;
- Ability to write proper histories, progress notes and discharge summaries;
- Skills in the management of complex disease;
- Familiarity with all phases of a patient’s care from continuity clinic to the ED to ward teams to the MICU/CCU;
- Ability to perform—and teach—a wide variety of procedures without assistance;
- Ability to work as a leader of the health care team;
- Ability to manage patients in both the inpatient and outpatient settings;
- Ability to recognize need for higher level of care (e.g. admission from clinic or transfer of patients from floor to ICU); and
- Ability to pass the ABIM Boards through an integrated series of review sessions and core lectures
Note: A passing score on USMLE Step 3 is a requirement for promotion to PGY-2 level.