Medicine Subinternship

This the first rotation where students are held personally responsible for the daily care of their patients. The emphasis of this rotation is more about learning professionalism and responsibility, rather than just increasing knowledge base.

Subinterns are expected to work the entire four weeks (all 28 days) and get an average of one day off per week. Which day the subintern takes off depends on their team's call schedule, days off for their PGY1 colleagues, their resident's clinic conflicts and subinternship-related educational concerns. The specific days off for the month will be determined by their senior resident on the first day of the rotation. To accommodate for unforeseen circumstances, a student's grade will not be affected if a subintern misses one additional fifth day and provided there is a valid reason for the absence. Students who miss days due to family emergencies and/or illness will be handled on a case-by-case basis by the site director.

Students should make every effort to schedule the majority of their interviews either before or after their subinternship. Students will be allowed to use their "fifth floating day off" to accommodate interviews that might become available on short notice. Interviews that were scheduled prior to the start of the rotation should be discussed with the clerkship coordinator before the first day in order to help find the optimal team assignment and call schedule. If subinterns need to travel and miss two consecutive days, then one day will be considered their "fifth floating day off" and the second day will be their scheduled day off for the week. Students are not allowed to leave at noon the day before an interview or return at noon the day after an interview. We actively discourage more than one out-of-town interview since a flight cancelled due to bad weather could result in a student needing to remediate the clerkship if they have an unexcused absence.

Subinterns are expected to attend their own conference, VA conferences, Northwestern service conferences, morning report, noon conference and grand rounds.

Every attending and resident has individual ideas of how things should be run. There is no “right way” to run work rounds. The only way you know what they expect is if you ask them what they expect. Make your resident and attending go over expectations at the beginning of your rotation. Ask for regular feedback. Do not let the last day of the rotation become the first time you get feedback.