Education & Training

Brian Cohen, D.O., wanted to work in a medium-sized urban setting with a diverse group of patients. He did a rotation at Saint Raphael’s while a medical student at New York College of Osteopathic Medicine, and liked it so much he applied for residency. “Residents get the right amount of teaching by the staff. I had the opportunity to do things on my own instead of having someone constantly over me making all the decisions.”

Teaching program

We want you to get the most out of your residency experience at the Hospital of Saint Raphael. The Department of Medicine’s full-time faculty is devoted solely to resident teaching – whether at the bedside or as a mentor for a board review reading group. Experience in both inpatient and ambulatory settings is emphasized. Residents are given:

• A weekly half-day continuity clinic to follow a panel of patients
• Additional month-long blocks in our Family Health Center
• An opportunity to spend one month in a community physician’s office

Within these and other settings, our staff takes a topic-based approach to learning. Faculty present intensive daily interactive conferences grouped by topic, designed to promote reading and retention. For example, if the topic of one three- or four-week session is cardiology, all activities and lessons relate to this subject – daily noon conferences, weekly board review conference, weekly pre-clinic conference, etc. At the end of the session, residents show what they learned by taking part in a medical quiz game modeled after Jeopardy. Questions tie in to the study topic, focused on information essential for passing board exams.

Other opportunities that enhance learning include:

• Board review groups led by full-time faculty.
• Conferences, such as autopsy conferences with hands-on anatomical correlation of clinical findings; Hospital of Saint Raphael medical grand rounds and Yale medical grand rounds.
• Peer teaching conferences: At noon conference, a PGY 3 resident, working with an attending, presents a topic with text and literature review to fellow residents and faculty members.
• Journal Club: Residents work with faculty to analyze an article, discussing study design, strengths, weaknesses, and application to the clinical setting.
• An interactive weekly board-review conference where an attending reviews materials and MKSAP questions relating to the monthly topic, and residents answer questions with an audience response system.
• EKG interpretation: Twice monthly conference to learn the techniques of basic and advanced EKG reading, taught by an attending cardiologist.
• Saint Raphael’s Health Sciences Library and computer facilities: Open 24 hours a day. More than 2,000 books and 400 journals are housed here, along with seven computers available for use. One computer has a CD burner and a scanner. The photocopier also offers scanning for the purpose of e-mailing. Fax machine is operational during staffed hours. The library has its own home page via any computer within the hospital’s IP range, offering programs such as UpToDate, MDConsult, PubMed (enables residents to engage in literature searches for clinical projects and patient care, as well as write articles with the guidance of attending physicians), Cochrane and the Microsoft Office programs, among others. These services are complemented by the Yale Medical Library.
• Research: Our curriculum stresses the importance of research methodology. All Categorical residents work on a research project and are strongly encouraged to publish research findings. You will receive considerable instruction and support in hypothesis generation, protocol design, and statistical analysis of data and manuscript preparation. Many residents present oral and poster presentations at the annual meeting of the American College of Physicians, Connecticut chapter.