Education Programs & Resources

A wide spectrum of educational conferences and small group teaching sessions are offered on a daily basis.

Interns will attend Morning Reports during ward and outpatient general medicine rotations, and will participate in a weekly "Evidence-Based Medicine" Journal Club.

Noon Conferences
After rounds, there is a 12:15 p.m. conference every weekday. On Mondays, the Morbidity and Mortality conference is held in collaboration with the departments of Pathology and Radiology. Medical Grand Rounds are held every Wednesday. Tuesday and Thursday are reserved for the residents' core curriculum series. "Harrison's Club," a resident-run conference for Board Review, is held on Fridays and alternates biweekly with General Medicine Mini-Cases, where the inpatient General Medicine teams discuss interesting cases.

Board Reviews
To prepare for the American Board of Internal Medicine Certifying Examination, our faculty present a series of one-hour review sessions from April through June. In addition, all categorical residents receive a complimentary copy of MedStudy and a complimentary copy of the Mayo Board Review textbook when it is published (on a biennial basis). Webcasts and lecture notes of the board review sessions are also available via the residency web-page.

Textbooks
Residents receive an electronic set of learning objectives and a teaching syllabus at the beginning of each rotation. All residents have access to UpToDate. A collection of over 3,600 electronic medical texts can be accessed from any of the 52,000 physician workstations throughout the medical center, or via remote access from home when connected to the Mayo network.

Teaching Opportunities
Residents are responsible for teaching both Mayo Medical Students and visiting senior medical students through bedside instruction and formal didactic lectures. Senior residents complete a teaching skills curriculum at the beginning of their supervisory rotations.

Cardiac Life Support Certification
Each resident must be certified in Basic Cardiac Life Support and Advanced Cardiac Life Support (ACLS) before starting residency.  Incoming interns are strongly encouraged to obtain BSL/ACLS certification prior to coming to Rochester.  A limited number of ACLS courses are held during June, before the start of the academic year. The ACLS recertification course also is offered throughout the academic year to facilitate recertification. Mayo covers the cost of recertification. Residents also participate in periodic ACLS workshops to maintain their resuscitation skills. All residents complete additional cardiac emergency training during the cardiology rotation ("Emergency Response Team Leader Course").

Libraries
Mayo Clinic Rochester's library system has one of the largest medical collections in the world - more than 4,900 journal subscriptions, nearly 400,000 bound volumes, and several medical databases and search engines.

The main library provides study space, computers, literature searches, microfilm readers and reader-printers, translations, photocopiers, book ordering, audiovisual services, coffee and cappuccino.

Reference librarians can perform literature searches and arrange interlibrary loans. During orientation, librarians and expert faculty members teach residents to use the computer database services that link Mayo Clinic to a global network of scientific information. Hundreds of clinical conferences are preserved on videotape, DVD, and web-cast archives each year. Residents may view these tapes at the library or check them out for use at home, while the web-archived materials are viewable from the computers on the campus or with remote access.

Branch libraries include two hospital libraries, a health-related sciences library, and the Learning Resource Center (LRC). Textbook collections are available at multiple sites in the hospitals and on-line for reading and reference while on duty. The library provides access to a variety of Web-based texts and databases.

Computer Services
Over 52,000 computer workstations are available in nursing units, resident work areas, resident call-rooms, and in the outpatient clinics. The Internal Medicine Residents' Center for Residency Education (CORE) at Saint Marys Hospital contains ~30 computers, LCD projectors and other audiovisual equipment. Residents can use the computers to access the computerized patient-record system, laboratory test results, and pharmacology data, to conduct literature searches, and to access the Internet and Mayo Clinic's internal electronic messaging system.
Residents at Mayo Clinic Rochester will participate in the use of a sophisticated electronic medical record system for both inpatients and outpatients. Mayo Clinic's Microcomputer Education Center provides training in the use of computers for word processing, data collection and data analysis. All residents have access to computerized intensive care units; a computerized medical record system; computerized laboratory results; computerized retrieval and review of radiologic studies; computerized literature and textbook access at each nursing station; and state-of-the-art surgery, radiology and laboratory services.  Fully staffed computer help and support systems are available 24/7/365.

Telecommunications
Mayo Clinic's facilities in Rochester, Jacksonville and Arizona are linked via a sophisticated satellite telecommunications system, which provides video teleconferencing and data transmission. Staff can have live, interactive consultations with physicians and their patients at the other sites via TV monitors. In addition, x-rays, laboratory test results, CT scans, ECGs, angiograms and pathology slides can be transmitted between sites.