To alleviate excessive continuous hours of work, a night float system on each inpatient Firm and at the VA Medical Center provides care for admissions and manages acute problems on the teaching service at night. In addition, non-physician personnel perform ancillary services, such as phlebotomy and IV line placement, enabling house staff to meet the needs of their patients and their educational goals. There are more than 250 full-time faculty at or above the assistant professor level in the Department of Medicine. Didactic teaching occurs in a variety of settings including weekly grand rounds, clinical-pathological conferences, journal clubs, core curriculum conferences, ambulatory care conferences and morbidity and mortality conferences. A weekly firm conference is case-based and attended by faculty members of all disciplines.
Senior residents participate in grand rounds, core conferences and clinical-pathologic conference.
Senior residents also have opportunities to participate in reviews of manuscripts for the Washington Manual of Medical Therapeutics, and its new companion, The Washington Manual of Ambulatory Therapeutics. Barnes-Jewish Hospital house staff may attend all subspecialty conferences offered at the Medical Center. Scholarship is an important part of Internal Medicine training. Residents are encouraged to submit abstracts to regional and national meetings. Financial support is available for presentation of their work.