1.
Why are our residents happy?
Our residents appreciate the friendly and supportive atmosphere
at our community-based academic training program. They enjoy
each other’s company both in and outside of the hospital.
During your interview day you will have plenty of time to ask
the residents yourself. 2.
How frequently are residents on call? Is there a night float
system?
We have eliminated overnight "call" on all of our
inpatient rotations to allow residents to maximize their daytime
education goals and ensure the highest level of quality patient
care. It also provides ample time to enjoy life outside of
work. The night float intern/resident team provides cross-coverage
and admits patients from 8pm to 7am each day.
3. How much vacation do I get? Will
I get days off?
Residents have 3 weeks of vacation each year. There is an
additional one-week of unpaid time off between the R1 and
R2 year. During inpatient rotations, all residents are off
one day out of seven when averaged over 4 weeks. Residents
have most weekend days off on outpatient, subspecialty and
elective blocks.
4. Can I get into a fellowship after
residency at Oakland Kaiser?
You can see from our list that our residents have been very
successful in going onto fellowship training in the field
and location of their choice (see our Fellowship/Research
page for more details). As more medicine residents are choosing
subspecialty training, we have created a flexible curriculum
to optimize their fellowship preparation.
5. Is there a difference between
the categorical and preliminary intern programs?
Both our categorical and preliminary interns average 7-8 inpatient
blocks including general medicine, critical care/coronary
care unit, and night float. The preliminary interns have an
additional elective block as the categoricals do a combined
block of outpatient cardiology plus physical medicine and
rehabilitation. The amount of night float, admitting days
and weekend coverage is comparable.
6. What core subspecialty rotations
are available?
You can do four-week rotations in cardiology, pulmonary, neurology,
gastroenterology, infectious disease, endocrinology, rheumatology,
hematology/oncology, nephrology and palliative medicine. The
5 elective blocks are in addition to these rotations.
7. Can I do off campus rotations
or more subspecialty, hospital, primary care or research blocks?
Yes! Our 5 electives blocks allow for incredible flexibility
for each individual resident. There is extra time to do off
campus rotations for further fellowship preparation and up
to four weeks each year can be used for research or case report/poster
presentation preparation. We also have specific elective pathways
if you choose to practice in either the hospital or the primary
care setting.
8. What are the salaries and benefits
for our residents?
Intern Salary for July 2007 is $50,100 and parking is 100%
subsidized!
All interns and residents are given an individual UptoDate
account to be used both on campus and at home. ACP Associate
membership including subscription to Annals of Internal Medicine
is provided to all categorical interns and residents. We also
buy the MKSAP for Board review for all R3’s. All of
our categorical residents are given both an Outpatient and
Hospital Medicine textbook. Other educational funds include
$500/year for R1’s and R2’s and $750/year for
R3’s. (to be used for books, software and other educational
purposes).
We financially support our residents presenting at regional
and national meetings.
We also cover the cost of USMLE Step 3 ($655), California
Medical License ($900) and DEA license ($551) for all categorical
residents.
See benefits
section for other included benefits
9. How many interns and residents
are in our program?
We have 33 categorical residents (11 in each year) and 6 preliminary
interns.
10. What are the team caps and how
many patients do interns care for?
The ward team cap is a total of 16 general medicine patients.
Each intern cares for a maximum of 8 patients.
11. Do our residents have primary
responsibility for patient care?
Our campus has been training residents for over 60 years.
We respect that residents learn by having primary responsibility
and value resident autonomy. We protect the “first
touch” experience so our residents see fresh (i.e. not
previously worked-up by medicine or ER attending) cases often.
12. What is our ABIM board pass
rate?
100%! We have always had an excellent board pass rate and
it has been 100% for the past four years (2003-2006).
13. What is the Clinical
Teaching Program at Oakland Kaiser?
We offer an evidence-based educational teaching course
to all of our residents. It consists of seven two-hour sessions
which focus on effective teaching skills for the resident-teacher.
See our webpage for more
information.
14. What ancillary services
are available to residents?
There are virtually no “scut” duties done by our
residents. Our hospital provides 24-hour a day coverage for
phlebotomy, patient transport, clerical support, EKG’s,
respiratory therapy and other ancillary services.
15. How has the program
done on the recent ACGME/Residency Review Committee visit?
Thanks to our excellent educational program, high resident
satisfaction, our committed faculty and our superb administrative
support we received a full 5-year accreditation in 2006! (Five
years is the maximum length of accreditation) We are compliant
with the duty hours for our residents.
16. What IT/computer services
are available?
Our campus uses computers extensively in the outpatient and
inpatient settings. We have a fully integrated computerized
medical record called ”‘Healthconnect” in
the outpatient setting (including notes, lab, pharmacy records,
radiology films and ECG tracings and results available for
viewing).
We provide individual UptoDate subscriptions for all of
our residents for use both on campus and at home. Our large
on campus library is available 24 hours/day with extensive
paper and online journal subscriptions. The resident’s
lounge and resident’s clinic have their own smaller
library as well as many computers with rapid Internet search
capabilities.
17. What sorts of research
opportunities are available?
A variety of research is available at the Oakland campus.
Each resident can spend four weeks each year on pursuing this
interest. Residents complete a research project/case report
or other scholarly project. These projects include case reports
as well as research with other residents and faculty investigators.
Our residents are financially supported to present at conferences.
Oakland Kaiser is closely located to the Kaiser Permanente
Division of Research. http://www.dor.kaiser.org/
18. Are off campus elective
rotations allowed?
Absolutely! We encourage off campus electives for all residents
and especially for residents seeking fellowship training.
These rotations can be taken at UCSF, Stanford or other accredited
programs.
19. How successful have
our recent graduates been in finding jobs?
Completely successful! Our recent graduates are practicing
as specialists, hospitalists and primary care physicians throughout
the Bay Area and beyond at the locations of their choice.
Frequently our residents return to Kaiser Permanente after
completing their fellowship. Please see our Life
After Residency section.
20. Do we have a University
affiliation?
We are affiliated with UC San Francisco School of Medicine.
21. Are there medical students
at the Oakland Kaiser campus? Are student clerkships available?
Yes. We have a very active clerkship program and include medical
students in every aspect of their patient's care. We have
4th year students on general medicine wards, cardiology, critical
care, pulmonology, rheumatology, hematology/oncology, nephrology,
infectious diseases, gastroenterology and neurology. Medical
students have lively small group sessions each week with our
program director, Dr. Michael Clement< and our chief residents.
Our resdients enjoy the additional teaching opportunity and
camaraderie the students add to the team. Please see our clerkship
section to apply, or contact our Program Coordinator Joy Gundersen
(medicine.oakmeded@kp.org)
for more information.
22. Can I afford to live
in Oakland?
The East Bay and Oakland have some of the most affordable
housing in the Bay area. The Bay Area is exciting and one
of the most desirable places to live in the US. Most of our
residents live in Berkeley, Oakland or San Francisco. Remember,
our program also pays for high-ticket items such as licensing,
UptoDate subscriptions, ACP dues and conference costs for
presenters.
Useful links to help you find a place to live include:
Craigslist
23. Is Oakland Kaiser different
from other HMO’s?
Yes. We are
non-profit and the Oakland site includes a tertiary-care hospital,
three clinic buildings and a multi-specialty group practice.
Our resident and staff physicians are not required to get
“pre-approval” or “pre-authorization”
for tests, procedures or subspecialty consults. Kaiser Permanente
is the patient care quality leader in California for 8 years
running. Click here:
http://www.permanente.net/homepage/awards/publicrecognition.html
24. Are there restrictions
on ordering tests?
No. Our resident and staff physicians are able to order any
tests, x-rays or subspecialty consults they deem necessary
without restriction or “pre-approval” forms.
25. How do I apply to Oakland
Kaiser? How can I contact the Program Director or Chief Residents?
Contact Joy Gundersen, our Residency Coordinator for Internal
Medicine by e-mail (medicine.oakmeded@kp.org)
or by phone (510) 752-6126 with any questions. For the past
two academic years we have matched only US Medical Graduates
into our program, although we did interview and rank IMGs
both years. Please click here
for application requirements.
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