Application Process
All applications should be through the
Application Service (ERAS). Software can be obtained from the
Association of American Medical Colleges or the
Educational Commission for Foreign Medical Graduates.
Information for Residency Applicants
Applicants for residency positions frequently have questions about the
program that are not covered in the brochure or other material previously
provided. We have prepared this document to anticipate and respond to
the prevalent concerns of candidates to our residency program. By addressing
these prior to the interview, our department faculty will be able to utilize
the interview process to better become acquainted with individual applicants,
appreciate the unique strengths each applicant may bring to the program,
and discuss items of particular interest to applicants. Applicants are
invited to review this before their interview.
IS THERE AN UNDERLYING PHILOSOPHY OF THE SAINT BARNABAS MEDICAL CENTER
(SBMC) MEDICINE RESIDENCY PROGRAM?
We are committed to the concept that the residency training program is
an educational – not a service – experience. We expect our
graduates to be caring, competent, ethical, and intellectually curious
physicians with a passion for medicine and capable of either successfully
continuing with fellowship training or entering medical practice. We achieve
this by creating a rich, congenial, collegial educational environment
with appropriate role models for our residents, by carrying out scholarly
activities, and by representing and demanding clinical excellence.
We emphasize high standards of ethics and professionalism. We encourage
questioning. We respect scholarship. We want our residents to truly enjoy
their experience; learning is easier when it is fun. Read the reprints
provided. Ours is a uniquely intimate and nurturing environment.
Our residency now has a thematic identity. We are extremely proud to have
developed our special program on humanities and medicine and the national
recognition this has received. This is described further subsequently.
WHAT DO WE LOOK FOR IN PROSPECTIVE RESIDENTS?
We seek individuals from any background with (i) adequate liberal arts
and scientific educational preparation for a medical residency, (ii) appropriate
humanistic attributes – empathy, compassion, maturity, concern,
responsibility, and recognition that doctors care for the sick and that
the sick never inconvenience the well, and (iii) intellectual curiosity
and a commitment to develop a scholarly approach to clinical medicine.
(iv) Modern medicine is a "team" activity. We therefore also
seek people who understand this and are committed to fit well and work
well within the residency; individual excellence is necessary but no longer
sufficient to be a good resident or good doctor.
IS THERE A USMLE SCORE CUT OFF USED TO INVITE APPLICANTS FOR INTERVIEWS?
We understand that the USME examinations score are just one of many attributes
of a great applicant. Therefore, although we do not have a strict cut-off
for granting interviews, we do believe that good scores on examinations
reflect a strong medical knowledge base. In recent years our residents
have averaged well above 90% on both parts of the USMLEs and very rarely
have any of them had to take the CK or Cs exams more than one.
DO WE ACCEPT APPLICANTS WHO NEED VISA SPONSORSHIP?
Our goal is to choose outstanding residents who will excel in training
and in all their endeavors after residency. For this reason, we consider
all applications. We prefer residents who do not need visa sponsorship;
however we do occasionally sponsor J1 visas for outstanding applicants.
H1B visas are no longer sponsored by our institution.
WHAT DO WE LOOK FOR IN APPLICANTS TO THE PRELIMINARY YEAR PROGRAM? HOW
DOES THIS YEAR DISSER FROM THE CATEGORICAL INTERNSHIP YEAR?
We seek the same highly motivated and successfully physicians for our preliminary
year program as we do for our categorical program. We hope our preliminary
residents wish to invest in a busy year learning about internal medicine,
wish to belong to a cohesive program and department, and appreciate the
value of teamwork (a distinctly more challenging and different experience
than a transitional year, for example). Our preliminary year interns are
truly interested in getting a strong foundation in internal medicine and
do not see this as just another year before starting their real residency.
Other than not having a continuity clinic experience, preliminary and
categorical interns have identical schedules. At the end of the year,
all interns will have had a broad and comprehensive experience internal medicine.
DO WE TAKE INTERNATIONAL MEDICAL GRADUATES (IMGs)?
Yes, our residents come from different regions of the United States and
from around the globe. We are proud of our diversity and consider it one
of our greatest strengths. Although once our interns “matriculate”
to our program they are all the same – young men and women who are
graduate physicians anxious to learn internal medicine and become good,
caring physicians.
ARE WE IN THE MATCH?
We will be participating in the match for the 2014-2015 academic year.
WHERE DO OUR RESIDENTS COME FROM?
Many come from the region (New York and New Jersey); we have had residents
who grew up in local communities such as Livingston and Short Hills (NJ).
Others come from a variety of other regions of the U.S. Many come from
abroad-and represent a variety of cultures and nationalities. We welcome
diversity among our residents, and consider this one of the strengths
of our program.
WHAT DO OUR GRADUATES DO?
The department is committed to support our graduates, and this is evidenced
by our success in placing our graduates into excellent fellowship and
practice opportunities. Approximately 60% of our graduates have gone on
to fellowships; the other 40% have chosen to practice general medicine.
Those in the latter group have become primary care physicians, clinician
educators and hospitalists. Many remain in the area as they have made
connections in the community. Others have moved with the U.S and outside.
Regardless of choice, all our graduates have found that their training
has well prepared them for the next step in their careers.
ARE OUR GRADUATES SUCCESSFUL WHEN APPLYING FOR FELLOWSHIPS?
As noted above, approximately 60% of our residents have gone on to subspecialty
fellowships in the past decade. Over 90% of residents applying for fellowship
have been successful in securing positions compared with a national success
rate of about 60%. This experience has been consistent for us. Our residents
entered fellowships in virtually all medical subspecialties and have obtained
positions at elite institutions such as the NIH, Hopkins, Harvard hospitals,
Yale, Cornell, Columbia, and Mount Sinai. All those entering fellowship
programs performed well and many stayed in academic medicine. Successful
resident applicants won awards, were chief residents, had advanced degrees,
and participated on (NJACP) “challenge bowl” teams.
WHAT IS THE COMMITMENT OF SBMC TO EDUCATION? IS IT POSSIBLE TO HAVE GOOD
QUALITY EDUCATIONAL PROGRAMS IN A COMMUNITY HOSPITAL?
Saint Barnabas Medical Center recognizes that education – transmission
of knowledge to a new generation of physicians and development of new
knowledge – is fundamental to its role as a major medical center
in the region and in the nation. Indeed high quality clinical medicine
and excellent medical education programs are inextricably linked and are
complementary. In many respects a community hospital, such as ours, is
uniquely able to provide clinical role models to residents, provide expert
clinical teaching, and structure successful and innovative clinical programs.
Those physicians who participate in the educational programs of the Department
of Medicine are superb clinicians and dedicated teachers, and they do
so because of their commitment to medical education and love of teaching.
We are very proud of our programs, and of our clinicians who teach residents;
we consider them equal to or stronger than any, regardless of setting.
WHAT IS THE MEDICAL SCHOOL AFFILIATION OF THE DEPARTMENT OF MEDICINE?
We are a major affiliate of the University of Medicine and Dentistry-N.J.
Medical School (UMDNJ-NJMS) and. We maintain strong but independent residencies
in many specialties including internal medicine. We have enjoyed the opportunities
to participate in the teaching of physical diagnosis to second-year medical
students and provide rotations in medicine to third-year and fourth-year
medical students. SBMC faculty has appointments at the medical school,
and medical school faculty participates in selected educational activities
at SBMC. This has been an important inter-relationship, as it facilitates
maintaining an environment conducive to clinical scholarship at our institution.
We are also affiliated teaching hospital for the St. George’s University
School of Medicine, a leading international center for medical education
that has provided high-quality clinical education for more than twenty
five years. The school now has over 5,500 graduates practicing medicine
throughout the world. We have established a very successful and popular
training program for the University’s third and fourth year medical
students and our faculty have received formal appointments to the School
of Medicine’s faculty.
HOW CAN THE SUCCESS OF SBMC RESIDENTS BE MEASURED? HOW DO GRADUATES PERFORM
ON THE CERTIFYING EXAMINATION OF THE AMERICAN BOARD OF INTERNAL MEDICINE (ABIM)?
Our residency has been consistently and fully accredited. We received laudatory
evaluation from American Board of Internal (ABIM) site visits. And we
have been fully reaccredited with commendation and without citations by
the Residency Review Committee of the Accreditation Council for Graduate
Medical Education; our most recent accreditation was for an unprecedented
10 years, as we are a participant in the elite educational innovation
program. Positions offered in the match are all filled by the upper echelon
of candidates. Performance of our residents on American Board of Internal
Medicine examinations (99% passed the last ten years) and annual in-training
exams are considerably above national averages, we regularly win or compete
as finalists the NJ Chapter of the American College of Physicians (knowledge-based)
“Challenge Bowl”. Our graduates do very well. Many select
practice opportunities in primary care/general internal medicine from
excellent possibilities in our own or other communities. Other graduates
are offered further training at other attractive programs. Recent graduates,
for example, have obtained fellowship offers at the National Institutes
of Health, Massachusetts General Hospital, Brigham and Women’s Hospital/Harvard
Medical School, Johns Hopkins, Yale, Penn, Cornell, Columbia, Michigan,
Cleveland Clinic, Jefferson, Georgetown, UMDNJ-New Jersey Medical School,
UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, UCLA, MCV, Rochester, and other
medical centers; our recent preliminary interns have gone on to Brigham
and Women’s Hospital, Boston University, NYU, Albany, Vanderbilt,
Mount Sinai, Einstein, Yale, Duke, UMDNJ, and other institutions. Ours
is a program of established excellence.
HOW ARE OUR RESIDENTS SUPERVISED? WHAT IS THE BALANCE BETWEEN SUPERVISION
AND AUTONOMY?
Residents are carefully supervised by voluntary and full-time faculty and
given those prerogatives and responsibilities commensurate with their
abilities. In some instances, mature residents will be permitted a great
deal of latitude in patient care decisions. Because ours is not an excessively
large program (34 residents), there is a pleasant degree of intimacy within
the department. Residents have ready access to our full-time faculty,
as well as to voluntary staff, and our faculty knows the resident staff
well. In today's medicine it would be unthinkable for residents to
provide unsupervised care. It would be equally unacceptable for residents
to provide care only as directed. We therefore carefully balance supervision
and autonomy on our teaching services, titrating this to residents'
level of training, abilities, willingness to accept responsibilities,
and confidence (of residents and attending physicians).
HOW ARE OUR RESIDENTS EVALUATED AND GIVEN FEEDBACK ABOUT THEIR PERFORMANCE?
Virtually every clinical activity during residency is formally evaluated
and these evaluations are conveyed to residents. Residents’ care
of inpatients, outpatients, conference attendance, conference discussions
and presentation, grand rounds presentations, research and scholarship,
professionalism, interactions with other health care team members, scores
on monthly exams, scores on annual exams, ability to evaluate standardized
patients, and results of clinical exams are but some of the evaluative
tools employed. As ours is a small and intimate program, residents are
quite aware of their performance. Residents meet with the program director
at least twice annually to review all performance-related issues. Thus
residents are rigorously and regularly evaluated and should be quite aware
of how their performance is judged.
HOW DO RESIDENTS INTERACT WITH EACH OTHER, WITH FACULTY, WITH VOLUNTARY
FACULTY, WITH ATTENDING PHYSICIANS, AND WITH OTHER STAFF?
Well. We cultivate attitudes of collegiality and mutual respect. This
is facilitated by the modest size of our program which facilitates intimacy,
mentoring, and nurturing. There are a number of social functions throughout
the year. These range from “liver rounds” at certain local
establishments after hours, to dinners with faculty, to an annual department
awards/graduation dinner, to major institutionally-sponsored residents
parties on several occasions during the year, to “Diwali”
night. Be sure to talk to the residents about these.
WHAT KINDS OF PATIENTS WILL RESIDENTS SEE ON THE MEDICAL SERVICE AT SBMC?
On the average, an intern is responsible for the care of 4-10 patients
on a general medical service at any given time. The majority of these
patients suffer from a combination of cardiologic, gastrointestinal, pulmonary,
renal, neurologic, and infectious diseases. In addition, the interns will
encounter patients with rheumatologic, hematologic, oncologic, and endocrinology
diseases. We feel this represents an excellent inpatient medical experience.
WHAT IS THE AMBULATORY CARE EXPERIENCE?
There are one-month, ambulatory “block” rotations for interns,
Junior Assistant Residents (PGY 2s), and Senior Assistant Residents (PGY
3s). Assignments during the block rotations include outpatient gynecology,
hypertension, endocrinology, ophthalmology, dermatology, neurology, gastroenterology,
cardiology, nephrology, pulmonology, hematology/oncology, psychiatry,
hospice, geriatrics, and others.
WHAT IS THE OUTPATIENT CONTINUITY CARE EXPERIENCE?
The Department has developed a model ambulatory care program. This does
not detract from our commitment to excellence in subspecialty and inpatient
medicine. However ambulatory care is increasingly the predominant setting
for diagnosis and treatment in internal medicine and its sub specialties.
The number of assigned inpatient months has been decreased to accommodate
our expanded outpatient rotations. We believe the trend to do less in
the hospital and more in the outpatient setting will only accelerate in
the years ahead.
In October 1995 the Saint Barnabas Internal Medicine Faculty Practice opened
on our campus across the street from the Medical Center. This is a new,
state-of-the-art, 2,750 square foot facility which provides residents
opportunities for a model experience in ambulatory care education. Pap
smears, vaginal wet mounts, joint fluid analysis, soft tissue and joint
injections, electrocardiography, urinalysis, spirometry, and geriatric
assessment are supervised in the practice. Residents see their patients
with faculty supervision, and faculty members supervise an on site practice
that serves as a continuity clinic for residents.
In 2009 our Faculty Practice was recognized as a Level III Patient Centered
Medical Home by the National Committee for Quality Assurance. We are very
proud of this recognition as it reflects our commitment to delivering
the highest level of care to our patients.
WHAT IS THE EMERGENCY MEDICINE EXPERIENCE?
The Emergency Medicine rotation is one month in the second year. During
this rotation, they learn valuable triaging skills, the art of rapid patient
assessment and procedures like intubation, lumbar puncture, suturing,
and joint aspiration. Additionally, they have opportunities to evaluate
trauma patients and those with orthopedic and gynecologic problems.
WHAT ELECTIVES ARE AVAILABLE? ARE THEY ALL AT SBMC? ARE OUTSIDE ELECTIVES POSSIBLE?
SBMC has the advantage of offering nearly all the medical services available,
from interventional neurology and end bronchial ultrasound to renal transplantations
and cutting edge radiation therapy. Thus our program offers a wide range
of medical electives encompassing virtually any reasonable opportunity
in medicine. SBMC offers all of the traditional medical subspecialty electives
as well as others outside of medicine (radiology, pathology, psychiatry,
office orthopedics, ENT, and others). In addition residents have spent
time in non-clinical experiences such as research and medical administration.
Our residents may request selection of occasional electives at other institutions,
as it is healthy for individuals in the program to benefit from experiences
elsewhere. These will usually be at other medical centers in RWJBarnabas
Health, the UMDNJ-NJMS, and Newark Beth Israel Medical Center. We have
a monthly exchange of PGY-1s with Newark Beth Israel Medical Center, to
offer our residents an experience at an urban institution. If there are
particular experiences not offered through our system, residents are welcome
to seek those at other academic institutions.
WHAT IS THE INVOLVEMENT OF HOSPITALISTS IN THE RESIDENCY?
We now have two hospitalist groups who care for more than 50% of the medicine
inpatients and provide most of the daily/monthly teaching on one of the
inpatient teaching services. These hospitalists are here virtually full
time and most have been members of our residency and/or faculty. Residency
education has been entrusted to them because of the excellence of their
clinical and pedagogic abilities, and because of the obvious attractive
advantages of having most patients on specified teaching services under
the care of attending physicians who are responsible not only for patient
care but also the concomitant teaching.
HOW DO RESIDENTS LEARN ABOUT MANAGED CARE, "THE BUSINESS OF MEDICINE",
AND RELATED MATTERS IMPORTANT TO TODAY'S PRACTICE OF MEDICINE?
Largely in the context of caring for patients in the hospital and the continuity
experience. We are not an "ivory tower" isolated from the exigencies
of modern medicine. Our faculty and voluntary faculty practice and teach
today's medicine. We supplement practical, supervised experiences
with didactic conferences throughout the residency addressing topical
issues, such as billing and coding, discharge planning, charting, dictating,
to name but a few. Third-year residents now spend 1 month with those physicians
at our medical center responsible for utilization, which is an enlightening
and valuable experience. All residents will spend time in private offices too.
IS THERE A BOARD REVIEW COURSE?
We believe that capable and motivated residents in a sound educational
program will learn to be good doctors and have no difficulty documenting
this in a quantifiable fashion. We want our residents to develop a consistently
scholarly approach to clinical medicine and lifelong study patterns. However,
we know too that passing internal medicine boards is important and that
residents perform better on the exam when properly prepared. We have therefore
incorporated into our overall educational program a board review-oriented,
programmed reading conference with monthly tests that continue throughout
the year. This conference emphasizes material of educational value in
the context of residents learning to be good internists; it does not narrowly
address test-taking skills. We believe this is a satisfactory balance
of necessary and desirable educational objectives for our program. Our
residents’ performances reflect this.
ARE THERE RESEARCH OPPORTUNITIES IN THE PROGRAM?
Yes. Indeed it is a requirement of our program that residents complete
a scholarly project in order to graduate from our program. This “scholarly
project” may consist of original research but may also be a case
report, literature review, chart review, or other effort. For those residents
who wish, an experience in laboratory research can be arranged; most elect
to carry out a clinical scholarly project. Our department faculty serves
as preceptors, guiding the residents appropriately through this effort.
The purpose of this, of course, is to enable our residents to gain experience
with scientific method and learn to develop critical analytical skills
so that they may apply these abilities to clinical medicine. We are very
proud of the considerable success that our residents have had with these
efforts. For example, our residents have presented abstracts or papers
to the meetings of the New Jersey Chapter of the American College of Physicians,
to national meetings, to subspecialty meetings, have received several
awards, and have published in well-regarded peer-reviewed journals. We
invite residency applicants to examine our listings of resident and faculty
publications in the department office. These reflect and document the
excellence of our commitment to clinical scholarship. Our residents have
published/presented over several hundred papers over the past years.
WHAT ABOUT FELLOWSHIP PROGRAMS AT SBMC?
We are actively (re-)developing these. We share fellowships in pulmonary-critical
care and electrophysiology with our sister institution, Newark Beth Israel
Medical Center (NBIMC). July 2007 heralded resumption of our Nephrology
fellowship, also in conjunction with NBIMC. Others are expected to soon
follow. We have subspecialty programs that have sponsored fellowships
in the past and are prepared to do so again. Our institution has the resources
and commitment to see a rich complement of fellowship programs in medicine.
WILL THERE BE ANY CHANGES IN THE PROGRAM IN THE NEAR FUTURE?
We are very pleased with and proud of our program as it is. However we
are never satisfied or complacent and are committed to make our program
still better. Each year our faculty and residents together critically
review our program and identify opportunities for improvement. We surely
do not intend to revamp or overhaul a successful program but rather improve
next year’s program to be even better.
IS THERE HOUSING? WHAT AMENITIES ARE AVAILABLE TO OUR RESIDENTS?
Safe and convenient housing is available to our residents across the street
from our campus. This is one of many attractive aspects of our institution
and our location. Consistent with our commitment to the residency being
an education – not a service – experience, resident coverage
of inpatients on the medical services is circumscribed as mandated by
the Residency Review Committee and is facilitated by the constant availability
of IV teams, phlebotomists, respiratory therapists, EKG and ECHO technicians,
and other ancillary personnel.
DOES THE FACULTY SUPPORT RESIDENTS SEEKING POSITIONS, BE THEY IN PRACTICE
OR FELLOWSHIP, AFTER GRADUATION?
Of course. How could we not? We are selfish in that we want to succeed;
our success is defined by our residents' performance. We understand
that. That is why we do what do. That is why we are so committed to developing
and maintaining an environment where everyone has fun learning and caring
for patients together, and does it as well as possible. That is why we
are so committed to helping our residents flourish. That is why we expend
so much effort talking with residents about life decisions, life after
residency, practice situations, fellowships, preparing resumes, writing
applications, conducting mock interviews, and otherwise supporting residents
as they move into new phases of their careers.
We hope this information has provided some additional insights and perspectives
about our program. We would enjoy hearing from you and wish you well.
Selection of Residents Entering Our Program in 2015
We only accept formal applications through the Electronic Residency Application
Service (ERAS®)
https://www.aamc.org/services/eras/.
The selection committee will review applications and offer interviews to
those candidates with strong academic backgrounds and varied clinical
and non-clinical experiences. We wish to have residents who are knowledgeable,
highly motivated, and caring physicians who are interested in receiving
a well rounded clinical and didactic experience in internal medicine.
PLEASE NOTE THAT FOR THE RESIDENCY CLASS ENTERING IN 2013 OUR PROGRAM
WILL NOT BE PARTICIPATING IN THE NRMP'S MATCH PROGRAM. ALL OFFERS FOR POSITIONS IN THE RESIDENCY PROGRAM WILL BE MADE OUTSIDE
OF THE MATCH SYSTEM.