Residency Program

Med-Peds

The Departments of Internal Medicine and Pediatrics at UAMS have jointly offered a combined residency in Internal Medicine and Pediatrics since the early 1980's. The program consists of four years of graduated responsibility providing care to patients of all ages.  The education of the Medicine-Pediatrics resident is fully integrated into the Internal Medicine and Pediatrics programs.  Residents begin with a 16 month term as an intern with direct, patient care responsibility and the supervision of senior, residents and staff physicians. This is followed by the remaining 32 months as a senior resident where patient care responsibilities are combined with supervision of interns and medical students.

Residents switch from Internal Medicine to Pediatrics every 4 months for the first 2 years and at 3-4 month intervals in the last 2 years of training. Current call schedules and float systems are in place to maintain compliance with work hour limits on all clinical services.

Electives on both Internal Medicine and Pediatrics are chosen from the electives available to categorical residents in each specialty; integrated adult and pediatric experiences on certain electives are also available.  At the completion of the four-year program, Medicine-Pediatrics trained physicians are eligible to sit for both the American Board of Internal Medicine and the American Board of Pediatrics certifying examinations.  The flexibility of Medicine-Pediatrics specialists makes them attractive in many practice settings.

This brief summary is only an overview of the combined Internal Medicine/Pediatrics residency program at UAMS.

Rotations/Electives

Our Medicine-Pediatrics residents divide their time between UAMS, ACH and CAVHS. Rotations at each hospital include general inpatient wards, specialty wards, ICU experiences, night float rotations, emergency department and numerous electives. Newborn [term, labor and delivery] Nursery experiences are only located at University Hospital and NICU experiences are located at ACH and University Hospital.  All Pediatric Outpatient, PICU and ER experiences are located at ACH.  Formal teaching rounds on almost all wards/units are held for 2 hours daily and are usually scheduled from 10 am to noon. The table below is a list of some of the elective rotations available. Most of the Internal Medicine rotations are available at both UAMS and CAVHS.  The Pediatric rotations are primarily located at ACH.  Electives with both IM and Peds experiences are noted with an asterix (*).  Combined electives are in the process of development in several areas.

Med-Peds residents are required to have experience in a minimum of 4 electives from the ‘Pediatric Required electives’ list, these are indicated by (#).  The program at UAMS requires Adolescent medicine, Geriatrics, Pediatric Cardiology or Pediatric Hem-Onc; so 3 of ‘required electives’ must be chosen by the resident during their training.

Residents can also request block rotations dedicated to research in order to allow our residents the opportunity to pursue research projects in collaboration with our faculty.  These rotations are approved with the input of the specific faculty mentor.

*Pediatric Call: Every 4th night call [maximum]

** UAMS Ward Call:  2 - 3 weekend 24 hr. calls and 5-6 weekday short-calls to 8 p.m. each month - VA Ward call averages every 6th night

***1 Weekend 24 hr./ weekday short call

****May be done as an elective earlier in training program