Curriculum

PGY-1 trainees are the primary frontline providers for our patients on the wards. You are responsible for taking histories, performing physical examinations, and carrying out diagnostic and therapeutic procedures. You are supervised by a PGY-2 or PGY-3 resident and the attending physician responsible for each patient's care. In turn, you provide supervision and teaching to medical students.

This year, you also gain experience in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU), well-baby nursery, Pediatric Emergency Room, and outpatient setting in our continuity clinic, Adolescent Health Center, and our development clinic. You spend a full day in your continuity clinic on all rotations except when on the wards, well-baby nursery, NICU, and development. Additionally, you rotate in the Emergency Department at Mount Sinai Beth Israel as well as our teaching affiliate, Elmhurst Hospital Center, an acute care hospital in New York City’s municipal health care system.

You receive four weeks of elective time in the PGY-1 year.

PGY-1 Call Schedule

The PGY-1 schedule complies with both New York State and Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) duty hour rules. For each four-week inpatient floor block, each intern typically has:

• Three weeks of days
• Two 24 hour calls.
• One five-day stretch of nights (Sunday to Thursday)
• Two weekends off per month

You provide weekend cross-coverage of floors while you are on community pediatric ambulatory, adolescent, development, and elective rotations, with an average of two-four shifts per block.

PGY-2 & PGY-3 Curriculum and Responsibilities

PGY-2s and PGY-3s are senior residents. During these years, you will focus on establishing and augmenting an individualized curriculum to identify and build on your career goals. A hallmark of our senior resident schedules is flexibility for elective opportunities to foster career interests and mentorship by faculty.

Developing supervisory and teaching skills is another major curricular goal. PGY-2s typically have eight weeks on the pediatric wards (a combination of four-week blocks of days and two-week night blocks), and one four-week block in the PICU. PGY-3s typically have one four-week block on the pediatric wards, one four-week block in the NICU, and one four-week block in the pediatric intensive care unit (PICU). 

In both years, you spend full days in the continuity clinic while on non-inpatient services as well as elective. You also have a block of time each year for your Community Pediatric Ambulatory rotation. Additionally, you spend time in our Pediatric Emergency Department gaining exposure to a diversity of patient presentations and practicing skills of triage and acute care management. During the PGY-3 year, residents have a dedicated teaching block to further hone clinical teaching skills through work with medical students and pediatric house staff.

PGY-2 & PGY-3 Call Schedule

The senior resident schedules comply with Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) duty hour rules. Senior residents work no more than 27 hours (24 hours for patient care plus three hours for transition) during a call and get at least one day off per week, although we strive to give all residents two weekends off per month. During service time on the inpatient wards, seniors gain experience during both daytime clinical exposure as well as one to two weeks of nights through our night float system. Senior residents provide cross coverage of wards, PICU, and NICU and while they are not on these inpatient services by taking approximately four to six calls per block. PGY-3s have one call-free block and PGY-2s have one “light call” block. There are no in-hospital overnight calls while on the ambulatory rotation.

Rotations

Below is a typical categorical resident's schedule (in weeks). Our academic year is structured by 13 four-week blocks.