Our Curriculum
“2+2+2” block schedule
We optimize your educational experience and believe in transforming each teaching opportunity into a meaningful learning experience. Through feedback sessions with the Program Director, anonymous surveys, and the residency curriculum committee, you will have a strong voice in shaping the program. Over the years, Kaiser Oakland has received national recognition for its Patient Safety and Point-of-Care Ultrasound Curricula, and a team of faculty and residents showcased our innovative Academic Half-Days at a workshop on Game-Based Learning in Medical Education at a national conference.
Our “2+2+2” block schedule is designed to protect residents from having to juggle inpatient and outpatient duties at the same time, and also to prevent the fatigue that may result from longer intense rotations. On inpatient rotations, residents can focus on learning ward medicine, critical care and inpatient subspecialties, while ambulatory experiences are devoted to developing outpatient skills. Our beautiful state-of-the-art hospital opened in 2014 and will be your home for most of your rotations.
Academic Half Days (AHDs)—protected, team-based learning
AHDs occur on Wednesdays. On other days of the week there is a resident noon conference which includes weekly Grand Rounds, Resident report cases, ABIM Board Review, and the gamut of subspecialty and general medicine core talks. Specific curricula include:
- Health Care Disparities
- Lifestyle Medicine
- Medical Humanities
- Clinical Problem-Solving Series
- Critical Events simulation
- Clinical Reasoning curriculum
- Experiential learning in Geriatrics
| Rotation | PGY-1 Categorical | PGY-1 Preliminary | PGY-2 | PGY-3 |
| Ward Medicine | 18-19 weeks | 16-18 weeks | 8 weeks | 8-9 weeks |
| ICU/CCU | 8-9 weeks | 8-9 weeks | 4-5 weeks | 4-5 weeks |
| Night Float | 3 weeks | 4 weeks | 4 weeks | 0 weeks |
| IM Subspecialties | 8 weeks | 2-3 weeks | 14 weeks | 14 weeks |
| Elective Rotations | 6 weeks | 16-18 weeks | 5-6 weeks | 9-11 weeks |
| Emergency Medicine | 2 weeks | 2 weeks | ||
| Ambulatory Care Block (in addition to Continuity Clinic throughout the year) | 5 weeks | 10 weeks | 7 weeks | |
| Vacation | 4 weeks | 4weeks | 4 weeks | 4 weeks |
| Educational Leave | 5 days | 5 days | 5 days | 5 days |
Ward Medicine intern year for the Categorical tracks includes 2 weeks of ‘R2 Prep’ designed specifically as preparatory rotations to transition into the PGY-2 role
Night Float: Interns perform only cross-coverage of teaching patients (no admitting duties). R2 Night float is for admitting. There are in-house Intensivists and Hospitalists to back you up at night.
There are no Continuity Clinics on wards, ICU, or Night Medicine rotations. Clinics are distributed throughout the other rotations and during the dedicated ambulatory weeks. Preliminary interns do not adopt a continuity clinic panel
Typical IM Subspecialty Rotations by year:
- R1 Categoricals: ID, GI, Cardiology, Endocrinology
- R2: Cardiology, GI, Palliative Care, Renal, Neuro, Hematology / Oncology, Addiction Medicine
- R3: Hematology / Oncology, Pulmonary, Rheumatology, Neurology, Geriatrics, Perioperative Med
Our curriculum can be thought of as a set of Core Rotations and Electives. Our Core rotations include inpatient wards, ICU, Night Medicine, all the IM Specialties, and the Core Ambulatory blocks. During Electives, residents work with their mentor to tailor their curriculum, and many residents will pursue one or more of our special KORE Pathways to Distinctions– Read on for more!
Wards
Wards
On our inpatient ward medicine services, you will take care of everything under the sun. In addition to “bread and butter” medicine our recent cases include: CJD, paraneoplastic anti-GAD neuropathy, Rocky Mountain Spotted fever, tuberculosis, sarcoidosis, syphilis, malaria, Dengue fever, babesiosis, and silicosis, to name a few.
Ward Team details:
- 4 teams with 1 resident, 2 interns, sub-intern, 3rd-year medical student
- team caps are 14 medicine patients, 7 per intern
- incredibly diverse patient population and case mix
Our ward experiences prioritize:
- resident autonomy
- bedside rounds with a patient-centered focus
- dedicated teaching faculty
- physical diagnosis including point-of-care ultrasound curriculum
Residents interested in Hospitalist careers will work with the Program Director, Dr. Baudendistel, and Assistant Program Directors, Drs. Ingraham, Gangopadhyay, and Falahati. Dr. Baudendistel is a former Deputy Editor of the Journal of Hospital Medicine and served as the Chair of the Society of Hospital Medicine’s National Ethics Committee. Dr. Ingraham is an annual instructor in Point-of-Care Ultrasound at national Hospitalist meetings and at ACP. Dr. Ingraham leads our residency’s KORE Pathway in Hospital Medicine.
Critical Care
ICU consists of 2 teams of 3 led by an R2 or R3, with a dedicated Intensivist for each team. The Intensivists are present in the hospital 24 hours per day every day of the year to support you!
The Critical Care rotation has been a pillar of team-based teaching and ICU faculty have been honored with many teaching awards over the years.
Ultrasound curriculum, Procedure Clinic, and Simulation Room
- Simulation training in thoracenteses, paracenteses, lumbar punctures, and central venous catheter placement
- All interns rotate through Procedure Clinic
- Training in critical events/ rapid response/ code blue scenarios using “Sim-man 3G” and other models
- Point-of-care ultrasound curriculum for cardiopulmonary diagnosis, to guide procedures, and for ambulatory medicine
All residents rotate through the core internal medicine specialties including:
| Cardiology Palliative Medicine Neurology Gastroenterology |
Hematology/Oncology Infectious Disease Rheumatology Endocrinology |
Pulmonology Nephrology Critical Care Geriatrics |
We have robust ambulatory experiences which highlight the needs of our diverse urban patient population. Kaiser Oakland launched the first HIV and LGBTQ and Transgender clinics in Northern California Kaiser decades ago, and we continue to take pride in optimizing the health of all the incredibly diverse individuals who live in the East Bay.
Continuity Clinic: Residents have a true Continuity experience over 3 years and are the Primary Care doctor for 100-200 patients. Residents care for their patients in a dedicated resident teaching clinic where they are mentored by a core group of preceptors including several Assistant Program Directors.
Other Ambulatory training: There is a dedicated 3-year ambulatory curriculum which includes the spectrum of outpatient IM specialty clinics, IM areas of focus (HIV, gender-affirming care, Women’s Health, Obesity Medicine. etc), and non-IM specialty care (Derm, Sports Med, Psychiatry, and other surgical specialties). The KORE Distinction Pathways in Primary Care, Lifestyle Medicine, Technology and Medicine are all mentored by our dedicated outpatient core faculty.
Community Experiences: Community engagement is important to our residents and to our program’s mission. After community health experiences during residency, graduates have become staff physicians at several local community sites such as La Clinica de la Raza and Clinic By the Bay.
For Categorical residents, community experiences include working at Cardea Health and Clinic by the Bay. Additional community electives ae available, and most resident participate in local volunteer activities such as the Asian Health Fair and health fair at a local place of worship, and at pipeline recruiting events such as Mentoring in Medicine (MIMS) and Black Men in White Coats.
Residents in the Health Equities and Disparities track are fully immersed in our community— see the separate website section about this special track. Residents in this track rotate at multiple other sites in addition to what the Categoricals typically experience.
State-of-the-Art practice: Kaiser Oakland residents are provided individual laptops and smartphones enabling them to manage patients in person, via video visit, or via telemedicine. Resident note-writing is augmented with Artificial Intelligence (AI) and voice dictation apps. Residents also gain experience in dermoscopy and in using point-of-care ultrasound to diagnose common outpatient conditions.
It is our goal to promote equity in health care for all individuals, and to eliminate disparities in health outcomes. Community engagement is important to our residents and to our program’s mission. After community health experiences during residency, graduates have become staff physicians at several local community sites such as La Clinica de la Raza and the Lifelong Clinics. Residents at Kaiser Oakland participate in the following:
- Lifelong Over-60 and East Oakland community clinics
- San Quentin prison medicine
- Oakland’s Malta Free-Clinic for uninsured or underinsured patients
- Native American Health Center of Oakland
- Tri-City Transgender Clinic
- Asian Health Services
- Volunteer days at community fairs/projects supported by Kaiser
- Funded International medical rotations
- On-site Farmer’s Market (Kaiser Oakland was the first U.S. hospital to have an on-site farmer’s market featuring food grown by local farmers
R2 and R3s may go on Global Health rotations. For their first Global Health rotation, the R2 or R3 will receive an additional stipend to offset additional costs of travel and lodging.
Learn more about our International Rotations and Global Health opportunities.
Learn more about our research and quality improvement opportunities here.
All residents receive formal training in clinical teaching. There is a dedicated all-day offsite for this during the PGY-2 year, and during all 3 years, residents can partake in the KORE Pathway to Distinction in Medical Education and in Dr. B’s Master Clinician Educator elective. Ask Dr. B or the residents about our home-grown 200-page Kaiser Oakland Residency “PASSPORT” which includes a variety of Teaching Scripts or “Schema” which prepare residents to deliver 10-15 minute talks for their teams on a variety of clinical topics (Antibiotic selection, evaluation of syncope, approach to weakness, acid-base and ABG interpretation, and the list goes on!)
The Kaiser Oakland Internal Medicine residency pays for:
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- Personal iPhone loaded with all the necessary apps to access the EMR, including Open Evidence and Abridge AI tools (No, you don’t get to keep your phone after you graduate!)
- Individual UptoDate account to be used both on campus and at home, including on your iPhone
- Board Review: free MKSAP for all residents, AND $1500 in dedicated funds for Board prep
- California Medical License and DEA license for categorical residents
- Funding to prepare posters and to travel and attendscientific conferences
Residents also receive discretionary education funds which can be used to purchase books, journals, software, or for other educational purposes.
We have an onsite hospital library with medical librarians at your disposal to help with research projects and presentations. The library includes free access to all major medical journals (including the New England Journal of Medicine, JAMA, etc.).