Curriculum and Schedule

In St. Clair Health’s Transitional Year Program, our physician educators provide residents with broad, hands-on experience across various specialties and care settings.

We are dedicated to providing an unparalleled foundation in core clinical skills while offering broad-based, flexible training across multiple specialties to prepare residents for the next stage of their medical careers.

Integrated Rotations

The St. Clair Health Transitional Year Residency thoughtfully integrates with its parent Internal Medicine program to provide a rigorous, yet well-rounded training experience. Our residents learn alongside internal medicine residents on medicine wards, critical care, and subspecialty electives, which fosters a robust, collaborative learning environment that enhances clinical education and prepares residents to work effectively within multidisciplinary teams. Additionally, transitional year residents gain unique, hands-on experience in areas such as general surgery, emergency medicine, and family medicine, offering exposure to a broader range of specialties.

Individualized Curriculum

Our Transitional Year Residency offers an individualized curriculum, tailored with each resident’s categorical track in mind. Rotation examples include:

This approach ensures that residents gain exposure to relevant disciplines and acquire essential skills for their chosen specialties.

For undifferentiated residents, we take extra care to assess individual preferences and career goals, customizing rotations and electives to align with those needs. This includes front-loading schedules to maximize planning time and ensure personalized support, helping residents successfully navigate their career paths.

Educational Collaboration

The St. Clair Health Transitional Year Residency is integrated with the Internal Medicine program’s innovative educational initiatives. By sharing educational activities such as subspecialty noon conferences, grand rounds, multidisciplinary morbidity, mortality and improvement conferences, morning report, journal club, and simulation stations, transitional year residents benefit from a rich and diverse learning environment. This collaboration allows for increased efficacy and opportunities to gain perspectives across both programs.

To meet the specific needs of transitional year residents, we also offer a focus on Health Systems Science—a key component of our curriculum. This provides residents with a deeper understanding of healthcare delivery, patient safety, and quality improvement to serve as a foundation for lifelong physician leadership practices and professional satisfaction. Our educational program employs a variety of teaching methods such as didactics, workshops, whiteboard mini lectures, and simulation, catering to different learning styles.