Why Choose U-M Internal Medicine

"The talents and expertise of the faculty and residents are only matched by their humility, and I have found people at all levels of the training program to be approachable and enthusiastic about mentoring and teaching." - former resident

 

Read Why Our Residents Love Michigan Medicine 

Shannon Johnson, HO3 
Medical school: Louisiana State University Career plans: Primary Care 

Shannon Johnson, MD - HO3

As a Louisiana native not knowing anyone at the University of Michigan, I could tell on my interview day (AKA my first time in Ann Arbor) that this program and city were a special place – and I love that my initial impression has held true. I am in my last year of residency and can say that I'm grateful I chose a place where both my professional and personal goals have been well supported by the program. As someone interested in primary care, the uniqueness of the primary care track built into the categorical program was attractive to me during the interview process. As part of the track, I receive the same training as a categorial resident but have the ability to individualize certain blocks of my schedule to best prepare me to begin independent practice as a PCP at the end of this year (wow, three years is really flying by!). I like that it also brings together a smaller cohort of residents with similar career interests and provides dedicated mentorship to ensure we are achieving our goals. Overall, I love that I found a program and health system that not only supports my career in primary care but is also a phenomenal place to work (and live)! Despite being new to Ann Arbor and the University of Michigan health system, I instantly felt a sense of community and belonging, which is easy when you have amazing co-residents that quickly become friends and make work fun! 

Hear From Our Directors

Nathan Houchens, MD - Assistant Director, Internal Medicine Residency Program
 
Michael Lukela, MD - Director, Med-Peds Residency Program

 

 
Thomas Sisson, MD - Director, Physician Scientist Training Program

 

A Day in the Life of Our Residents

What is a day in the life like for an intern or senior resident at the University of Michigan? A few of our residents give us a glimpse into a typical day.

Meet Ariel Jordan, HO1 

Medical school: Morehouse
Career plans: Gastroenterology

Ariel Jordan, HO1
Ariel Jordan (middle)

As a primary care track resident, I absolutely love my outpatient clinic time. If you relate to that, you will love your ambulatory blocks. Even if you don’t find outpatient clinics as exciting, the usually free weekends (unless you have a night coverage) over the course of four weeks are a nice break from the busy inpatient schedule to catch up with family, and friends, and on some much-needed sleep!

On the ambulatory block, you have ambulatory morning report from 7:30-8:30 AM every weekday except Tuesday, which is another free hour in the morning. Ambulatory morning report is an excellent learning opportunity of the management of common conditions from various specialties you will often encounter in the primary care setting, such as headaches or chest pain. The cool part about these lessons is they are being taught by your peers who are also on the rotation with some help from a faculty expert advisor. Everyone on that ambulatory block gets a chance to teach about a topic they are interested in. You can also give a presentation on a somewhat less common yet important topic you may have a unique interest in. I gave my presentation intern year on how to be a physician advocate-a lesson I called “Advocacy 101: A Course for Primary Care Physicians.” I personally found that ambulatory morning report gave me an opportunity to showcase to my peers a topic I was passionate about and I got to make connections with a faculty member who shared my interests.

Following ambulatory morning report, it is time to head off to clinic. You have to be to your assigned clinic by 9 am each day. On ambulatory block, you will be placed in a variety of clinics, usually 2 different clinics each half day; some within your sub-specialty of interest, some primary care clinics including additional continuity clinic half days, and some specialty clinics you may have never experienced before. For example, I personally got a chance to go to Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation or PM&R clinic which is a specialty I had little exposure to in medical school, but I found interesting and helped me understand what experiences my continuity clinic patients have if I refer them there and when a referral to that clinic is appropriate. Even the additional primary care clinics can be interesting, whether you are in a clinic in at a satellite site like Northville Health Center or a private practice clinic, you will be surprised how different each clinic feels with varying patient populations and management styles of the physicians. You will likely even pick up some tips to use in your own continuity clinic. Usually, right around 5 pm, your day is done, and you have the rest of your evening free to possibly finish up notes from earlier in the day, or if you’re done, just relax!

Meet Meghan Loser, HO2 

Medical school: Geisinger Commonwealth
Career plans: Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine 

Meghan Loser, HO2

The time on my alarm clock reads 6:45 a.m. At least, that’s what I think it says through my half-open eyes as I reach for the snooze button and successfully hit it on the first try without looking (I know its location far too well). Even though this wake-up call is essentially sleeping in, compared to my usual inpatient service alarm time, I still relish the extra few minutes of sleep. And, if I’m being honest, I intentionally set my alarm 10 minutes early for this exact purpose. By the time my second alarm sounds, I force my eyes fully open and climb out of bed. The smell of coffee brewing in the kitchen on its preset timer helps pull me from the covers. I silently thank my past self for setting the automatic brew the night before, and I make a quick mental note to try to be equally proactive tonight. I turn on one of my favorite true crime podcasts and catch up on this week’s episode while I scurry around to get ready for the day – the business casual attire of consult rotations requires slightly more effort than my typical roll-out-of-bed-into-scrubs look. I grab my trifecta (white coat, stethoscope, and coffee mug), then head out to my car where I keep the podcast going for the 15-minute drive to the hospital. By the time I park, they’re just about to reveal the identity of the mystery murderer, but it’s almost 8:00 already, so that will have to wait for the drive home later.

I walk into the fellows’ work room and am greeted by the sound of the consult pager going off with our first new consults of the day. The nephrology fellow is already busy pre-rounding on everyone’s renal function panels, but she pauses to divvy up the new consults between myself and my co-resident on the service. She gives us a brief overview of each consult, reminds us of the important history points to gather (HTN, DM, NSAIDs, the works), then sends us on our way to chart review. I take a few minutes to get settled, sipping my coffee while I wait for the computer to log in. Then, I start reviewing today’s labs for the patients I have been following on the service. Once I’m up to date, I do a quick review of the new patients I’ve picked up for today. One of them is a consult for an abnormal UA with proteinuria and hematuria; before I head up to the patient’s room, I take a few minutes on Up-To-Date to refresh my memory on nephrotic and nephritic syndromes, because Step 1 was far too long ago. I have a feeling we’ll be doing some teaching on this today. When I’ve refreshed my brain enough, I leave the work room to go see my patients.

I make it back to the room in time to start some draft notes for my patients and quickly run my thoughts by the fellow before our attending joins us for 10 a.m. rounds. We start with table rounds – quick updates for the established consults, and a more thorough discussion of our new patients. We pause around 11, and my co-resident and I log-on to Morning Report while the fellow and attending head over to the dialysis unit to see a few patients. We reconvene as Morning Report finishes up, and our crew heads out to the floors to do some bedside rounds. My stomach growls in one of the patient’s rooms, and I remember that I was too engrossed in my podcast this morning and forgot to grab my protein bar. I’m grateful when we finish with the last patient, and our attending releases us to grab lunch. The fellow’s pager has beeped at least seven times in the past hour, but she graciously sends us to the cafeteria while she goes back to the room to answer all the pages. We spend the afternoon writing notes and updating the primary teams before the attending returns around 4pm to do some teaching (as suspected, today’s topic is nephrotic/nephritic syndromes). Despite my quick review earlier this morning, I’m still quite rusty, and the attending assigns me the topic of FSGS to look up and teach the group tomorrow. We’ve now made it to 5pm, and the fellow releases us from our duties.

Before I leave for the day, I glance through the list of patients on the outpatient nephrology clinic schedule tomorrow, since that’s where we’ll be starting the day tomorrow morning. My co-resident and I then head out for the day. I flip the podcast back on for the trek home. As I’m driving, I make a mental to-do list for the evening – workout (??), cook dinner, do laundry, call the fiancé, catch up on data abstraction for my research project, set the coffee pot (!!). I get home and get to work on checking off my to-do list.

As 9pm rolls around, I settle into the couch for an episode of my current show, but as I’m about to press play, FSGS somehow sneaks into my thoughts, and I realize I’ve forgotten my assignment. I crack open my laptop and peruse Up-To-Date for the second time today, scribbling down notes as I go. When I’m satisfied, I close the laptop, press play on the remote, and reward myself with a bowl of popcorn. Soon, it will be time to head to bed and set the alarm to repeat the day tomorrow. But for now, I put my medical brain to sleep and focus my attention on the episode of Friends. Any more thoughts about the kidneys will just have to wait for tomorrow.

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"What initially drew me to Michigan Medicine was the wonderful sense of community. This culture of collegiality, combined with everything that UM has to offer in terms of incredible research and clinical education opportunities, led to three wonderful years of residency." 

 

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