Curriculum

Morning report is our daily case-based conference, held on weekdays at Good Samaritan Hospital and Deaconess Gateway on the inpatient services, and at the Resident Faculty Practices for outpatient teams. Residents present real cases from the hospital and clinic, with faculty driving the discussion by pushing on the differential, the reasoning behind each decision and the evidence for management. The aim is to cover the common presentations residents will manage in practice and to build the diagnostic reasoning and clinical judgment that carry over to the boards and to independent practice.

Noon conference is protected didactic time, held Monday through Friday. It is available virtually to every training site, and sessions are archived on our website for later review. The curriculum follows the ABIM Internal Medicine Blueprint and emphasizes evidence-based guidelines and standards of management. Core and subspecialty faculty teach a broad range of topics, and residents are encouraged to engage through questions and discussion, including board-style question review.

Journal club is held once a month and is built around applying the medical literature to real patient care. Two residents each choose a paper that addresses a question arising from a clinical case. They prepare under the supervision of faculty and present the study, critically appraising its validity, results and applicability. Residents weave evidence-based medicine pearls into the discussion, and the group then talks through the article's strengths and limitations and what it means for daily practice. The goal is to help residents become skilled, independent consumers of the literature who can turn a clinical question into a practical, evidence-informed decision.

Once a month, two residents each present a case chosen to highlight a quality improvement opportunity. Each resident works with an associate program director to prepare the case, build a fishbone diagram and carry out a root cause analysis. The conference is framed around systems and process, not individual blame. It teaches residents to ask why a bad outcome happened and what can be changed to prevent it, and it connects patient safety and QI to everyday practice.