Junior and Senior Residency
Junior Residency
The junior resident supervises housestaff teams on the general medical services as well as in the medical and cardiac intensive care units and assumes primary responsibility for teaching. Opportunities for sampling subspecialty rotations in this year assist in career planning.
Teaching as a Junior Resident
- Reminder emails from the intern spring retreat about what it takes to be a great teacher and resident.
- Direct observation of residents leading rounds.
- Junior residents each spend up to 4 months leading teams on the medical wards. During those months, the Chief Residents and Firm Chiefs are assigned to do walk rounds each week with one of the residents on their Firm. They then provide feedback on the teaching skills observed during rounds.
- Small group presentations: During each ambulatory block rotation, three residents are asked to give one talk to a small group of their peers. That talk is observed by a faculty member or chief resident.
- Lead attending rounds: During every rotation on the medical wards, each resident leads one attending rounds discussion. The two ward attendings help in preparation and provide feedback on small group discussion and teaching skills.
Senior Residency
Senior residency is the year for consolidating teaching experience and refining clinical skills. Highlights of the year include time for:
Teaching as a Senior Resident
- Inpatient Resident-as-Teacher Rotation: Seventeen residents choose to do a three-week rotation which involves predominantly inpatient teaching. They have a syllabus of readings and are evaluated after direct observation of their teaching skills in multiple settings. Their teaching venues include:
- Lectures to 3rd and 4th year medical students rotating on the inpatient service.
- Leading weekly bedside physical diagnosis rounds for all medical students.
- Observing of full clinical skills examinations for subinterns and providing feedback to those subinterns.
- Leading one Firm conference, under the mentorship of the Firm Chief, with feedback given by the Firm Chief at the end of the conference.
- Leading one intern report, under the supervision and mentorship of the Chief Residents.
- Precepting intern in continuity clinic, under the supervision and mentorship of the Program Director.
- Outpatient Resident-as-Teacher Rotation: Seventeen residents choose to be senior teacher as one of their three-week ambulatory block electives. They have a syllabus of readings and are evaluated after direct observation of their teaching skills in multiple settings. Their teaching venues include:
- Lectures to 3rd year medical students rotating on the outpatient service.
- Small group seminars with ambulatory interns. One of these sessions is directly observed by the primary care program director with feedback given by the primary care program director at the end of the conference.
- Performing observation of full clinical skills examinations for interns on ambulatory rotation and providing feedback to those interns.
- Precepting interns and residents in continuity clinic, under the supervision and mentorship of select faculty in general medicine.
- Senior Talks/ Lecture: Each senior resident is required to present one 30-minute talk to the entire housestaff on a clinical or basic science topic. Before Senior Talk season, the Program Director gives a talk on "How to Give an Effective Lecture." Each resident chooses a content mentor for the talk. A member of the Program rates the talk and provides feedback after the presentation.
- Preceptors in Patient-Doctor I, II course for medical students: Each year a number of our residents participate either longitudinally or during some weeks. The longitudinal preceptors have access to the HMS faculty development for the course.
- Tutorial Leaders for Pathophysiology: Each year several of our residents lead a tutorial of pathophysiology at the medical school. Typically in the GI unit but also at times in the Pulmonary and Renal units of the course, the residents get the HMS faculty development for the course and are evaluated by the students at the end.
- West Roxbury VA Chief Resident: Approximately ten of our senior residents each year are selected to spend up to three months as a Chief Resident at the West Roxbury VA Medical Center. They function as either an inpatient chief resident or outpatient chief resident. Their duties include administrative work, numerous teaching conferences including resident report daily, and teaching at the bedside. They are mentored by on-site VA physicians who have appointments on the Harvard and Boston University faculties.
- Medical Education Area of Concentration: Residents may choose to do an education project during their senior year. Projects might include curriculum development or evaluation, work with the office of graduate medical education, or work on educational technology.
