Post Grad Year 1

Wyckoff Heights Medical Center | Main Campus New York, USA

Wyckoff Heights Medical Center

Residency is the phase of formal medical education beginning at graduation from medical school and ending after the educational requirements for the medical specialty certifying board have been completed.

A resident physician's responsibilities include patient care activities within the scope of their clinical privileges and commensurate with their level of training and competence, attendance at clinical rounds and seminars, timely completion of medical records, and other responsibilities as assigned or as required of all members of the medical staff. Under the supervision of attending physicians, general responsibilities of the resident physician may include:

• Initial and ongoing assessment of patient's medical, physical, and psychosocial status.
• Performance of histories and physicals.
• Development of assessment and treatment plan.
• Participation in patient care/teaching rounds.
• Recording progress notes.
• Ordering tests, examinations, medications, and therapies.
• Arranging for discharge and after care.
• Writing admission notes, progress notes, procedure notes, and discharge summaries.
• Providing patient education and counseling covering health status, test results, disease processes, and discharge planning.
• Performing procedures, under supervision until certified competent.
• Assisting in surgery.

The objective of medicine under the watchful eye of attending clinicians includes:

• Participation in safe, effective, and compassionate patient care.
• Developing an understanding of ethical, socioeconomic, and medical-legal issues that affect graduate medical education, and how to apply cost containment measures in the provision of patient care.
• Participating in the educational activities of the training program, and as appropriate, assumption of responsibility for teaching and supervising other residents and students, and participation in institutional orientation and education programs and other activities involving the clinical staff.
• Participating in institutional committees and councils to which the house staff physician is appointed or invited; and
• Performing these duties in accordance with the established practices, procedures, and policies of the institution, and those of its programs, clinical departments, and other institutions to which the resident physician is assigned, including, among others, state licensure requirements for physicians in training.

The resident physician is both a learner and a provider of medical care. The resident physician participates in caring for patients under the supervision of more experienced physicians. As their training progresses, resident physicians are expected to gain competence and require less supervision, progressing from on-site and contemporaneous supervision to more indirect and periodic supervision.

Resident physicians are given progressive responsibility for the care of the patient. The determination of a resident physician's ability to provide care to patients without a supervisor present or act in a teaching capacity are based on formative evaluations and summative evaluations of the resident physician's clinical experience, judgment, knowledge, and technical skill. These evaluations follow institutional guidelines and align resident physician learning in relation to the general competencies of medical knowledge, patient care, practice-based learning, interpersonal and effective communication, professionalism, and systems-based practice.

Ultimately, it is the decision of the teaching faculty as to which activities the resident will be allowed to perform within the context of the assigned levels of responsibility. The overriding consideration must be the safe and effective care of the patient.

Both formal examinations and performance ratings by the attending physicians are utilized to evaluate the resident’s performance, and the resident physician is personally apprised of his or her strengths and weaknesses at appropriate intervals, at least twice annually. Completion by the Program Director of an annual summative review is an important part of this evaluation process. The Residency Program Director has the responsibility to determine and to document in writing, that the resident physician possesses the skills necessary to practice at the level commensurate with their training.

All resident physicians are supervised by licensed independent practitioners who are attending physicians practicing at Wyckoff Heights Medical Center or affiliated institutions.

The resident physician shall participate in patient care under the direction of physicians whose clinical privileges are appropriate to the activities in which the resident physician is engaged. Neither the resident physician's clinical privileges nor their clinical responsibilities shall exceed in scope those of the supervising physician. The…