Western GIM Elective
Our Western GIM Elective experience is tailored to meet your educational interests, while providing you with enough GIM faculty facetime for reference letter opportunity.
The 4-week elective is designed so you can explore different aspects of GIM unique from core IM training programs. We recognize that training programs have different levels of exposure to inpatient or outpatient medicine, or to the various clinical niches of GIM (e.g. obstetric medicine, perioperative medicine, bariatric medicine, cardiometabolic health, vascular medicine, and thrombosis).
During your rotation, we ask that you do at least 1 week (max 2 weeks) of our preceptor-led CTU (Clinical/Medicine Teaching Unit). This allows maximum face time with a GIM staff and the best opportunity to obtain a reference letter. The other 2-3 weeks are tailored to your educational needs and consist of consult medicine, GIM clinic, other GIM-related niche clinics, or some combination thereof.
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Preceptor-Led CTU:
This is a CTU that is capped at 20 patients and is led by one of our GIM physicians.
Team: The team usually consists of the attending and 1 other PGY 2/3 core IM resident. There may be 1-2 elective medical students depending on the time of the year. On the rare occasion, there will be a PGY 4/5 Junior Attending.
Acuity: This is a medium to high acuity CTU (similar to typical CTU).
Your Role: You will care for a small roster of patients directly. As this is a preceptor-led CTU, you will not be expected to ‘senior’ the team. Of course, feel free to expand your role and provide supervision/teaching for the medical students and whatever else the team needs.
Duration: Minimum 7 days, maximum 14 days. We usually recommend visiting electives do 2 weeks as this is the best opportunity to obtain a reference letter. We often find that visiting elective residents take a few days to get used to the EMR (PowerChart/Cerner) and the logistics of a new hospital system.
This is a CTU that is capped at 20 patients and is led by one of our GIM physicians.
Team: The team usually consists of the attending and 1 other PGY 2/3 core IM resident. There may be 1-2 elective medical students depending on the time of the year. On the rare occasion, there will be a PGY 4/5 Junior Attending.
Acuity: This is a medium to high acuity CTU (similar to typical CTU).
Your Role: You will care for a small roster of patients directly. As this is a preceptor-led CTU, you will not be expected to ‘senior’ the team. Of course, feel free to expand your role and provide supervision/teaching for the medical students and whatever else the team needs.
Duration: Minimum 7 days, maximum 14 days. We usually recommend visiting electives do 2 weeks as this is the best opportunity to obtain a reference letter. We often find that visiting elective residents take a few days to get used to the EMR (PowerChart/Cerner) and the logistics of a new hospital system.
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Consult Medicine:
This GIM service provides consultations to other non-CTU services. Consults may involve pre-operative medical optimization, management of post-operative complications, assessments for transfer of care, and general medical assessments.
This GIM service provides consultations to other non-CTU services. Consults may involve pre-operative medical optimization, management of post-operative complications, assessments for transfer of care, and general medical assessments.
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Call Requirements:
While on CTU, you will be required to work one weekend. There is no overnight call while on CTU. Working hours are generally from 8-5 but will vary depending on volumes and acuity.
While on CTU, you will be required to work one weekend. There is no overnight call while on CTU. Working hours are generally from 8-5 but will vary depending on volumes and acuity.
If you choose to do some consult medicine, you may be asked to do some home call. At Victoria Hospital, this is overnight and at University Hospital, the call ends at 10pm. Calls are generally infrequent after hours.
Our blocks at Western usually start on a Tuesday and end on a Monday. If you are a visiting elective, we will give you the last weekend (and Monday) of the block off so you can travel back to your home school.
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GIM Clinics:
These outpatient GIM clinics will be a combination of Urgent Medicine Clinic (UMC) and Preadmission Clinic (PAC). UMC consists of patients referred from the ER who are not quite sick enough for admission but have urgent medical issues that need to be addressed. PAC is a pre-operative assessment clinic where patients are seen for medical optimization prior to surgery.
These outpatient GIM clinics will be a combination of Urgent Medicine Clinic (UMC) and Preadmission Clinic (PAC). UMC consists of patients referred from the ER who are not quite sick enough for admission but have urgent medical issues that need to be addressed. PAC is a pre-operative assessment clinic where patients are seen for medical optimization prior to surgery.
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GIM-Related Niche Clinics:
These outpatient clinics showcase the clinical niches of a GIM specialist. These clinics include obstetric medicine, bariatric medicine, cardiometabolic health, and vascular medicine. Although we will do our best, these clinics only occur a few times per block, and as such, we cannot guarantee their availability.
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Point of Care Ultrasound:
Western is well-known for its PoCUS training. Unfortunately, our PoCUS service is unable to accommodate a 1-2 week rotation. However, if interested, you are welcome to join PoCUS image review sessions that occur usually on Wednesday afternoons at University Hospital. At these image review sessions, the PoCUS attending reviews and discusses some of the interesting cases of the week in more detail with the PoCUS elective residents.
Western is well-known for its PoCUS training. Unfortunately, our PoCUS service is unable to accommodate a 1-2 week rotation. However, if interested, you are welcome to join PoCUS image review sessions that occur usually on Wednesday afternoons at University Hospital. At these image review sessions, the PoCUS attending reviews and discusses some of the interesting cases of the week in more detail with the PoCUS elective residents.
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GIM Academic Events:
Depending on the time of the year (paused during the summer months), there are usually several GIM academic events for you to attend. This includes academic half days for our GIM 4/5 residents, seminar series, and journal club.
Applying For An Elective:
If you are interested in an elective at Western GIM, please email our program administrator Ruth Gilbert with the requested dates of your elective. In your email, please also CC the program director Dr. Marilyn Phung and assistant program director Dr. Eden Liu. Following acceptance of your elective, we will direct you to the next steps to complete the necessary paperwork.
About 2-3 blocks prior to your elective, we will arrange a meeting with Dr. Liu and/or Dr. Phung to tailor your elective experience. For that meeting, please let us know the following:
- If you will have access to transportation (as Victoria Hospital and University Hospital is about 20-30 minutes apart by car)
- How many days of CTU you wish to do (minimum 7, maximum 14)
- What you wish to do with the remaining 2-3 weeks of your elective
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During the elective (most likely near the end), we will also arrange for you with the program director Dr. Phung and/or the assistant program director Dr. Liu.
