Elective Rotations for Residents and Clinical Fellows: Critical Care Medicine/Internal Medicine

Select 'Apply to REP' under Program-Specific Elements to apply to this rotation.

Elective Description

The NIH Clinical Center Critical Care Medicine Department (CCMD) invites internal medicine residents, in PGY-2 or PGY-3 year, to a four-week clinical rotation in the intensive care unit (ICU) at the NIH's Clinical Center (CC). The CC is the site of intramural clinical research for the NIH. Each year, approximately 6,000 patients from all over the world participate in about 1,500 research protocols conducted by the various institutes and centers.

The CCMD provides medical, cardiac, and surgical ICU services for critically ill adult and pediatric patients enrolled in intramural research protocols. The ICU is staffed by senior physicians and fellows with expertise in critical care medicine, pulmonary diseases, cardiovascular diseases, infectious diseases, and anesthesiology. The ICU (capacity: 18 beds) will evaluate any patient from any service within the CC at the request of the patient's primary physician.

The ICU is equipped with state-of the art cardiovascular and respiratory support services well suited to the care of patients with multisystem organ failure. Residents are expected to be an integral part of the ICU team. Academic rounds start at 8:00 a.m. and are followed by work rounds and microbiology rounds. There are also daily afternoon sign-out rounds. There is a Tuesday and Thursday (11:30-12:30pm) lecture series in which pertinent clinical and research topics in critical care medicine are reviewed. Residents will be expected to attend morning rounds (Monday-Friday), be present at lectures, participate in evaluating and treating patients transferred to the ICU under the supervision of the staff physician or ICU fellow, and avail themselves of the outstanding electronic/library resources available at NIH to review existing literature pertinent to the clinical problems discussed on morning rounds.

Residents will also have the opportunity, under the supervision of the staff physician or ICU fellow, to become skilled in the placement of a variety of artificial airways and intravascular catheters.

Elective Objectives

  • Gain clinical experience in providing thoughtful and expedient care for critically ill patients.
  • Develop procedural and intellectual skills required of a critical care physician.
  • Develop skills to communicate medical information effectively to patients and their families, ancillary medical staff, and fellow physicians.
  • Gain information about critical care medicine training opportunities at NIH.

Selection of Applicants

All applicants will be expected to provide COVID-19 vaccination verification.

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This page last updated on 11/07/2022

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