Get Ready for Residency is far less about building your knowledge, but instead much more about getting a chance to put your knowledge to practical use. We aim to create a safe learning environment to practice these newfound abilities before having to be in high-stakes settings and impacting direct patient care.  

Knowledge

1. Summarize an approach to the evaluation of the most common patient complaints, including:
   • Chest Pain
   • Abdominal Pain
   • Fever
   • Altered Mental Status
2. Explain a systematic approach to common clinical tests including:
   • EKG
   • Chest X-Ray
   • Blood Gases
3. Articulate common stressors experienced by residents and describe tactics that effectively reduce such stressors.
4. Define common terms related to evidenced-based medicine.

Skills

1. Demonstrate a systematic approach to the review of common clinical tests.
2. Demonstrate a systematic approach to the diagnosis and treatment of undifferentiated life threatening disease processes, including:
   • Tachycardia
   • Bradycardia
   • Hypotension
   • Hypoxia
   • Cardiac Arrest
3. Practice common procedures encountered by residents, including:
   • Central Line Placement
   • Lumbar Puncture
   • Basic Airway Management
4. Evaluate a scholarly article with regard to its value in answering a defined clinical question.

Attitudes

1. Recognize the importance of teamwork and closed loop communication in hectic clinical scenarios.
2. Value wellness and healthy living habits as a resident.
3. Appreciate the role that life-long learning plays as a physician. 

We have several session formats that we will use to accomplish these goals:

• Morning Report - Each morning we will start the day off with an interactive case discussion about an actual case you saw during your time in medical school.  Each student should present a case and a faculty member will guide the group through a discussion of the differential and how they would think about tackling the situation.  We will have a point person among the course faculty with whom we ask you discuss your case prior to presenting it. The case needs to be a diagnostic point of interest (e.g. "Should I get a d-dimer in this patient?") or a workup dilemma/illustrated point.
• Engaging Didactics - Each day we will tackle a symptom that patients often present with and provide a sense of how to approach the complaint with focus on evaluation, differential diagnosis building, and management.   Our goal is to take the bottom-up thinking that is typically perpetuated in didactic teaching (i.e. "here is a lecture on COPD and all of the things that it can present with") and turn it on its head, much like patients do when they present to you (i.e. "I've been coughing for three days, what do you think might be going on?").  We also have a "Top 5 Pearls" lecture series where experts in various fields come to discuss the 5 things they wished interns knew (or they had known when they were interns) about their specialty populations (i.e. the pediatric patient, the pregnant patient, the surgical patient, and the psychiatric patient). 
• Skills Sessions - Physicians are often called on to do far more than just think through differential diagnoses.  Every field one enters has some procedure or skill set that is unique.  The Skills Sessions are meant to help you hone your skills on everything from difficult interactions you will experience with patients to ensuring you can obtain vascular access on critically ill patients.
• Nightmares On Call Simulations (NOC) - Talk to any physician and they will tell you about a terrible scenario that happened to them one night when they were on call during intern year.  These high-yield simulation sessions are built to help you tackle the situations that you will certainly want to have thought through before you are in a situation where the patient's life may hang in the balance.

• Realism - We hope you will suspend disbelief to ensure that our simulations are the most realistic they can be to enhance your learning.
• Safe Space - We aim for a space that you are willing to share your thoughts, commit to diagnoses, and undertake treatment plans without the fear of harsh criticism.
• Engaging Atmosphere - All aspects of the sim are built to engage all of your senses and most especially get you thinking about the disease processes at hand.

• Attendance - Attendance for ALL course sessions is mandatory. Excused absences will be granted at the discretion of the course directors as outlined in the Student Handbook. For any absence, a Medical Student Status form is required to be completed. For each absence, generally, your grade will go from honors, to high pass, to pass, to fail, and there will also be expected make up work for each absence, to be completed by the end of the course. The only excused absences that do not result in a grade drop are for residency interviews. Learners that have unexcused absences will have a professionalism report filed with the Dean of the COM.

  Of note, we are aware of the UCCOM policy for students to have two days off “without reason” but in speaking with advisors within the UCCOM we have clarified that we as course directors are still allowed final determination in whether or not an absence is excused or unexcused. At this time in general, the only excused absences are for mandatory UCCOM meetings, doctor’s appointments that cannot be moved, acute illnesses with a provided doctor’s note, and residency interviews. Other allowances will be made on a case-by-case basis. Simulations in person and hands on procedural sessions are integral to the course, and most of these (especially the simulations) are difficult to replicate with make-up work, hence our strict attendance policy.

• Morning Report Case Presentation - Most students will be asked to present an interesting case that they experienced at some point during medical school. The case should either be an example of an uncommon presentation of a common illness or a common presentation of an uncommon illness. A faculty member will guide discussions around differential diagnosis at different points in the case. The student should bring at least 2 teaching points to share with the group related to the diagnosis and management of the condition they present.
• Journal Club Presentation - Students not presenting in Morning Report will be responsible for presenting an article in a small group. We have a list of suggested articles that you can consider. While it is worthwhile to emphasize the key teaching point of the article, you should be focusing on the methods and results to help you improve your ability to synthesize evidence-based medicine.
• Asynchronous Modules - You will be expected to complete the assigned asynchronous modules before class that day and submit your answers to the quiz questions. Our expectation is that you will work on these independently and use them as an opportunity to familiarize yourself with the topic before our sessions.