Conferences

The Department of Internal Medicine is committed to comprehensive education for our medicine residents, both in the wards and clinic as well as through dedicated didactics. Our robust teaching conferences are one of the areas that distinguish our residency from other training programs.

Medicine Grand Rounds

The Department of Internal Medicine hosts Grand Rounds each Thursday morning. This conference hosts experts in their fields, both within MUSC and externally. This forum presents timely issues and medical advances with practice-changing knowledge and implications across the department.

Morning Report

There are two unique morning report sessions within the residency, one inpatient and one outpatient. For those on inpatient or consult rotations, morning report occurs on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays from 8:30 to 9:30 a.m., where cases are presented by two residents on inpatient rotations. Cases are described up to the point where a clinical question is posed. We then break out into small groups, so that residents, medical students, and faculty can discuss higher-level diagnostic and therapeutic issues with each other. Cases generally have been resolved prior to presentation at morning report so that conclusions and a teaching point can be made.

For those on outpatient rotations, there is a separate morning report that occurs in clinic. These conferences are from 8:00 to 8:30 a.m., Monday through Friday, and are a mix of case-based presentations, simulations/outpatient procedure workshops, and interdisciplinary conferences with psychiatry, pharmacy, nursing, or case management.

Academic Half Day

Interns and Residents have dedicated education time during Academic Half Day each week. On Tuesdays, all interns are excused from clinical responsibilities to attend this educational conference from 12:15 to 2:15 p.m. Residents continue clinical duties during this time so that patient care is uninterrupted. On Thursdays, all upper-level residents are excused from clinical commitments from 12:15 to 2:15 p.m. and interns continue their clinical roles.

We believe our unique format offers several advantages. Because this educational block is truly protected, learners can engage in conferences without fear of interruption or lapses in patient care. Only those rotating in the ICU or on nights are excused from attendance which ensures all house staff can attend the vast majority of conferences throughout the year. We have limited the total time to 2 hours (with breaks) providing a reasonable length of time to stay engaged in learning and to balance education with accomplishing clinical responsibilities before the end of the workday.

Conferences are broken up into three separate sessions within the two-hour block. Each week has a core medical knowledge topic, but we also include subjects related to the social issues in medicine and real-world medical practice, such as Financial Education, Evidence-Based Medicine, Health Policy, Health Disparities, Career Development, Quality Improvement, Adult Education/Teaching, Board Review, and others. All sessions are meant to be interactive and engaging.

When we transitioned from a daily noon lecture to our Academic Half Day in 2018, one of our former chiefs Morgan Randall studied and published on the effect of this change. We found that residents had increased satisfaction with their didactics and had more time in conference per week. We continue to solicit resident feedback and make changes to improve our education for residents.

Intern Emergency Series

Interns have dedicated educational time for the first 2-3 months of their internship on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays from 12:00 to 1:00 p.m. This series is focused on management of high-yield inpatient medicine emergencies. The objective of this series is to provide knowledge and strategies of managing patients with complex diseases.