Medicine / Pediatrics Combined Residency

An essential component of the mission of MetroHealth Medical Center's Departments of Pediatrics and Medicine is education. You will find that we offer a unique training environment designed to further your professional growth. Our Internal Medicine/Pediatrics program fosters the close links between faculty and residents required for excellence in clinical training, as well as the close relationships between a physician and patient required for continuous, longitudinal care. We are committed to a quality educational experience for our residents. Early on, residents at MetroHealth Medical Center assume major responsibility for the day-to-day care and decision making for their patients. The attending staff's commitment to resident teaching and patient care challenges residents to combine academic and research interests with the primary goal of providing excellent medical care to the diverse population that MetroHealth Medical Center serves.

The combined Internal Medicine/Pediatrics Residency Training Program at MetroHealth Medical Center is a four-year program leading to board certification in both specialties. The program is equally divided between internal medicine and pediatrics, preparing residents for careers in primary care, subspecialty practices or academic medicine.

The program has faculty trained in Internal Medicine/Pediatrics who are actively involved with resident education and guidance.

The combined program, which began 1986, accepts six residents annually. The first year of the Internal Medicine/Pediatrics program is divided into four blocks of three months each. Each block is devoted to either medicine or pediatrics and residents alternate blocks. During the subsequent years the block months are either 3 - 4 months long and provide for seasonal variation among the specialties needed for a quality experience.

There is a strong emphasis on ambulatory care throughout the program, with 25% of the residency program devoted to ambulatory and primary care rotations.

The internship is 14 months long and equally divided between internal medicine and pediatrics. During the first year, residents focus on patient management skills in the ambulatory setting, inpatient and intensive care units (ICUs). With the goal of broadening residents' knowledge and clinical skills, the second year then continues with electives, including combined medicine/pediatrics subspecialties, emergency room, ambulatory rotations and additional ICU experience.

During the third year, residents continue with additional subspecialty electives and ambulatory rotations, and begin supervisory rotations on the wards and in the ICUs.

During the final year of the program, residents are given extensive experience in a supervisory capacity in both the ambulatory and inpatient settings. The rotations are designed to serve as a transition between residency and post-graduate positions. During this time, senior residents have primary responsibility for patient care and for the teaching of new residents and medical students.