Rotations
Rotations

1st Year

  • One to Three half-days (3-12 hours) of office hours per week
  • Family Medicine Service (12 weeks)
  • Obstetrics (8 weeks)
  • General Surgery (4 weeks)
  • Pediatrics (12 weeks)
    • 8 weeks at MacNeal
    • 4 weeks at University of Chicago
  • Critical Care (4 weeks)
  • Emergency Medicine (4 weeks)
  • Cardiology (4 weeks)
  • Elective (4 weeks)

2nd Year

  • Two to Four half-days (8-12 hours) of office hours per week
  • Obstetrics Senior(4 weeks)
  • Pediatrics Senior(4 weeks)
  • Pediatric Emergency Medicine at Children's Memorial (4 weeks)
  • Family Medicine Service (12 weeks)
  • Behavioral Health (4 weeks)
  • Critical Care (4 weeks)
  • Gynecology (4  weeks)
  • Endocrinology (4 weeks)
  • Orthopedics / Sports Medicine (4 weeks)
  • Elective (8 weeks)

3rd Year

  • Three to Five half days (12-20 hours) per week of office hours
  • Family Medicine Service (4 weeks)
  • Outpatient Surgery/Procedures (4 weeks)
  • Surgical subspecialties- Urology, Ophthalmology, ENT, Gastroenterology-optional (4 weeks)
  • Dermatology (4 weeks)
  • Geriatrics (4 weeks)
  • FMC/Practice Management (4 weeks)
  • Orthopedics / Sports Medicine (4 weeks)
  • Neurology (4 weeks)
  • Women's Health/Community Medicine (2 weeks/2 weeks)
  • Ambulatory Pediatrics (4 weeks)
  • Elective (12 weeks)

One of Vanguard MacNeal’s best qualities is the flexibility in the curriculum for residents with special areas of interests.  If scheduling allows, residents will be able to use one elective to move a required rotation earlier in their residency if that fits better into their education plan.  For instance, a resident may want to use an elective to have their Dermatology rotation before their third year of residency – therefore that resident could do Derm instead of an elective in the second year and then have 3 electives in their third year of residency. 

Every resident has an individual educational plan (IEP) that is reviewed with them at least twice a year with their advisor. Residents are encouraged to pursue an area of concentration to both explore their passion for particular areas of medicine, and to increase their marketability upon graduation by having gained extra expertise and experience in a focused area which can make them uniquely qualified over other physicians seeking jobs or prepare graduates exceptionally well for fellowships or to become academic faculty. 

There are a total of 6 months devoted to electives and residents are allowed a maximum of two 4 week away rotations while on their elective months. As per the ABFM rules, residents cannot be away from their continuity patients for rotations for more than one month per academic year, hence away electives are limited to one per year and two away electives over 36 months of residency.

 

What makes our curriculum unique?

  • Spanish electives with 24 hours of classes plus an immersion experience in a community clinic is offered four times a year to all residents
  • Endocrinology is a required rotation to better prepare residents to handle the increasing number of patients that are diabetic
  • Medicine, pediatric, and obstetric services are teams of only Family Medicine residents – no turf battles for patients
  • International rotations are encouraged