Cardiology Fellowship Goals
The goal of the Cardiology Fellowship is to prepare trainees for a career in cardiovascular medicine either within the clinical practice sector or within academic cardiology. Critical to this goal is a solid foundation in Clinical Cardiology in all areas within the rotations provided during the fellowship program. Each rotation has specific goals and objectives and a curriculum is provided both in print and electronically for all trainees. Fellows will be assigned rotations to meet the requirements for Cardiology Fellowship training and then use their elective months to pursue career interests whether it be more training in cardiac catheterization, cardiac imaging, or other areas. During years 2 and 3, the Fellows will have a more active role in choosing their rotations especially as electives become proportionately more in their annual schedule. Each year and rotation has specific goals and objectives that are clearly defined in the program curriculum and all available materials will be made known to accomplish that training/learning.
SIU has a core Internal Medicine Residency Program and a medical school so the clinical rotations (inpatient wards and clinics) will have other learners such as medical residents and medical students. Within the inpatient wards, the Cardiology Fellow will serve as the Junior Attending and help to supervise and manage this team of learners. This will supplement the educational experience of all learners including the Cardiology Fellow. The insertion of a Cardiology Fellow in these settings will enhance the learning and educational environment at SIU/Memorial Medical Center. We may have other residents from emergency medicine and family medicine as part of our care team; these learners will effectively function as our internal medicine residents so the same would apply. Within the core procedural areas (cath lab, interventional cardiology, EP program, imaging areas of Echo and Nuclear), only the Cardiology Fellows will be the learners so they will have dedicated attention from the faculty and the program.
The cardiology team will consist of an attending cardiologist, cardiology fellow, medical residents, mid-levels, and medical and pharmacy students. The Cardiology Fellow will serve as the Junior Attending as the trainee progresses and gain more supervisory capacity as the fellowship progresses. At all times, the attending cardiologist will serve as the primary supervising authority in the management of patients. The team members will not switch services on the same day. There will be overlap so that there will be some team members that know the service when new members join the service rotation.
When the Cardiology Fellow's capacity is exceeded, clinical care support is immediately available from attending cardiologists and mid-level providers on-site. During normal operating hours, nurse practitioners, cardiology fellows and medical residents on the cardiology service are available for support. At least one medical resident is also available when assigned to the cardiology service in the off hours to support the Cardiology Fellow. In addition, the core internal medicine program has a 2nd or 3rd year resident available for general support on the inpatient medical services. The primary support to the Cardiology Fellow will come from the attending cardiologists on duty who are always available both by phone and on-site as clinically indicated. Other cardiology physicians and other specialists such as in cardiac and vascular surgery are also available on-site when needed. Phone support is also available 24/7 as needed.
Excluding call from home, the projected average number of hours on duty per week per fellow, inclusive of all house call is 60 hours. There is no in-house call.
- Fellows will share call equally over the years. Duty hours will be limited to 80 hours per week averaged over a 4 week period. Fellows will be provided with on average 1 day in 7 free from all duties both educational and clinical over a 4 week period, inclusive of call. There is no in-house call duty. Adequate time for rest and personal activities will be provided. All Fellows will log their duty hours; the program director and program coordinator will have real-time access for monitoring and any duty hours violations are reviewed quarterly by the GMEC.