Banner Good Samaritan Medicine-Pediatrics Program Description:

The combined program in Medicine & Pediatrics is a four-year program that is sponsored by Banner Good Samaritan Medical Center in collaboration with Phoenix Children’s Hospital.  The program contains the core elements of training in both Internal Medicine and Pediatrics.

The Banner Good Samaritan MedPeds Program has been in existence since 1982 and is the oldest program in the Southwest.  Training in the program provides a rich clinical experience in hospitals that provide both General Internal Medicine & Pediatric care, as well as in institutions that serve as tertiary referral centers for Internal Medicine & Pediatric Subspecialties. These healthcare facilities serve a large and diverse patient population and access the full range of Adult & Pediatric Subspecialties under the supervision of highly committed faculty dedicated to resident education. 

Mission:

The mission of the program is to combine a structured, evidence-based educational curriculum with a challenging clinical training experience under the direction of faculty mentors that demonstrate strong leadership skills.  Upon completion of the program residents will be capable of comprehensively caring for the spectrum of illnesses that affect newborns, children, adolescents and adults, and have the skills necessary to become leaders in the community.  The primary goal is to provide an excellent clinical experience in a supportive environment and to promote scholarship and leadership within our residents and faculty.

Our core programs are determined to develop innovative ways of mentoring and educating residents, documenting their progress and competency, and providing  the leadership and experiences necessary to guarantee their success in the  profession of Medicine, whether their focus is in Primary Care, a subspecialty area of Internal Medicine or Pediatrics, or in the advocacy for a specific patient population  The programs facilitate the education and training of our residents in three facets: volume and diversity of patient population and clinical teaching, structured didactics and curriculum, and promotion of lifelong learning and independent reading.

Educational Curriculum:

The combined Medicine-Pediatrics Program curriculum has been carefully planned to provide the structured educational and clinical experiences necessary for residents to develop clinical competency in inpatient, outpatient and subspecialty areas of Internal Medicine and Pediatrics over the course of 48 months.  Residents begin with core inpatient and outpatient rotations, and are given progressive responsibility and autonomy over the 48 months of residency.  Continuity clinics begin in the first month of training, and are maintained for the duration of the program. 

Residents are provided with a curriculum description that includes goals and objectives for each rotation that they will complete.  Residents complete 24 months of training in each specialty, switching from Internal Medicine to Pediatrics in 4 month blocks.  First year residents spend a total of 8 months in each specialty functioning at the intern level.  These months are divided into 4 month blocks.  The initial 2 blocks of the first year take place in clinical areas that are heavily supervised, i.e. inpatient wards, ambulatory clinics, ICU, Emergency Departments, providing a rich exposure to fundamental elements of Internal Medicine and Pediatric care.

Adult Cardiology is a required rotation during the third Internal Medicine block, and thereafter subspecialty experiences are gradually added, allowing residents access to subspecialty areas in both fields that offer the clinical experience they will need to practice primary care or enter a subspecialty fellowship program.  Required Subspecialty experiences are selected from a core list of subspecialties in Pediatrics and Internal Medicine.  If a resident has a special interest, a unique elective experience can be designed with Program Director approval.

Prior to completion of internship, and again early in the PGY2 year, residents participate in specially designed workshops focused on teaching and leadership, as they prepare to take the role of senior resident supervisor.  Leadership and mentorship are important elements of the training program.  Residents are monitored closely by core faculty to ensure that they are developing in these critical areas through the mentorship of the Faculty Advisor System, and the workshops devoted to Teaching and Leadership.  As residents progress in the program and competency has been established, they function with more autonomy and have the responsibility of supervising junior residents.   

Clinical competency is documented using multiple evaluation tools along the way to verify that residents are developing the skills necessary to advance in the program and ultimately are competent to practice Internal Medicine & Pediatrics independently upon completion of the curriculum.