Intern Survival Series
Intern survival series focuses on fundamental concepts taught by our chief residents to the new interns during the months of July and August. The objective of the lecture series is to teach interns how to medically manage acute scenarios that they will often come across during their day and night shifts. Examples of lectures include work up and management of Altered Mental Status, Hypoglycemia & Diabetic Ketoacidosis, Fever, Shock, and Gastrointestinal Emergencies. Additional lectures include Transitions of Care and Antibiotic Choice. We often will have guest lecturers who are typically fellows from various subspecialties. The sessions are made to be interactive in an effort to make interns feel more comfortable and confident approaching these medical scenarios.
Intern Boot Camp
During the first ambulatory week of intern year, each cohort meets for Intern Boot Camp, an immersive week-long experience filled with didactics and simulation work to prepare interns for residency. Interns receive lectures about topics such as clinical reasoning, quality improvement and patient safety, basic EKG interpretation, approach to acid-base, CXR interpretation, intro to ICU medicine, and “bugs and drugs.” During the afternoons, interns engage in hands-on simulation sessions to practice cardiac auscultation, central line insertion, lumbar puncture, ultrasound-guided peripheral IV lines, and paracentesis. Finally, each group participates in daily interactive simulation cases to review the approach to common clinical scenarios.
Addiction Medicine
Our addiction medicine “selective” adds a unique experience to training at Cooper University Hospital. Unlike other electives, a selective is an integral part of our curriculum that is built into all resident schedules. Working in Camden, NJ exposes us to an underserved population, many of whom are active drug users who frequently present to the hospital with withdrawal or overdose symptoms. As medical students and residents, our exposure to and understanding of these situations often only grazes the surface. The Addiction Medicine selective at Cooper allows us to delve further into the pathophysiology behind these addictions, the various options for treatment, and—equally important—the social barriers that can alter what treatment options are appropriate for each patient. Our addiction medicine training allows us to become more effective and empathetic physicians towards patients affected by the opioid epidemic.
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Fundamental Critical Care Support Course (FCCS)
The Society of Critical Care Medicine, led by our Critical Care attendings, Dr. Noel and Dr. Bartock, created a Fundamental Critical Care Support (FCCS) Course that is now taught worldwide. The course is provided to all Internal Medicine house officers during the first few months of internship. It prepares them for the intensive care unit, focusing on the first 24 hours of management and the recognition and management of sudden clinical deteriorations in the critically ill patient. Skills learned during morning didactic lectures are applied during afternoon interactive stations. This course has been given to thousands of trainees in dozens of countries and the text has been translated into seven languages.
Bedside Ultrasound Course
Through a partnership with the Division of Critical Care Medicine, our residency has implemented a point-of-care ultrasound course to educate residents in this important and growing field. Led by ultrasound-trained Critical Care and Internal Medicine faculty, residents learn image acquisition, diagnostic techniques, and ultrasound-guided procedures in a longitudinal course. The course spans several organ systems and is designed to aid residents’ diagnostic and management decisions at the bedside.
The Simulation Lab Experience
The Simulation Lab Experience Cooper Internal Medicine Residents regularly use the Simulation Lab located in the Joint Health Sciences Building. This includes simulated medical emergencies, complex medical cases led by senior residents during didactic sessions of Ambulatory weeks, practice using ultrasound on standardized patients, and the use of Harvey, an advanced simulation mannequin to improve knowledge of cardiac murmurs. Repetition, when combined with formative teaching and feedback, leads to sustained improvements in the knowledge, skills and attitudes of our residents that further enhance patient care, communication skills, and systems-based practice throughout the hospital
Resident as Teacher Elective
Teaching is an integral part of the life of a physician, and this begins as early as intern year with medical students on service. To this end we have developed the Resident as Teacher elective. The core of this elective is dedicated time to prepare and deliver education sessions in many different settings to a variety of learners such as residents and medical students of all levels. Close supervision and real time feedback help to get those who are new to teaching comfortable with their new roles as educators in an academic institution, and help seasoned teachers push themselves and refine their skills. Combined with brief didactics during the rotation and several noon conferences covering the theory behind education, this elective will help train the next generation of medical educators.
Medical Humanities Courses
Cooper University Hospital has been a leader in exploring the use of literature and music as a tool to help instruct residents in the medical humanities. We have a very successful Literature and Medicine course, funded by a grant from the Arnold P. Gold Foundation and the New Jersey Council for the Humanities.
ABC News Medical Media
The ABC News Medical Media resident elective is a program designed to develop communication skills during a 4 week medical journalism rotation at ABC News headquarters in New York City. During this elective residents participate in journal study reviews, writing articles, and pitch stories. Residents will also gain competency for writing medical journalism, learn elements of a successful “pitch”, develop skills for interfacing with media, and improve the ability to critically analyze and summarize medical journal articles, among many others.