How many months of ICU or CCU in your prelim IM program?

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[ShyRem]

2.

 

[FutureInternist]

3-4.
I believe the ACGME states that you cannot do more than 6 ICU in your 3 years. However, this may not apply to prelims.

 

[ShyRem]

You are correct, ACGME states at least 3 and no more than 6 ICU months in 3 years for internal medicine. I do not know about prelims.

 

[jdh71]

I was just wondering how many ICU and/or CCU months you guys or gals have to do in your preliminary IM year? I've heard a wide range, some 1-2 and other up to 7.

7 months? I highly doubt that is even kosher.

 

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[gutonc]

I agree with you, but that's what I've heard. I've also heard of an instance in a west coast program where an intern requested ICU's for his/her electives which ended up being most of the intern's year being almost entirely of ICU/CCU/MICU (and approved by the program director).

But that's not the question you asked, is it?

Also, some programs (like mine) will have something like a "cardiology wards" month which is made up primarily of medical management of NSTEMIs, post-cath STEMIs, heart failure and pre-post transplant disasters, almost all of which are in the ICU. So it's a "wards" month on paper but actually an ICU month.

Also, if you're in a place with an open ICU (don't do this...it's a horrible idea) you can wind up with an entire "wards" service on vents in the ICU. There are also places that handle vents and stable cardioactive drips (dilt gtt for instance) on the floor or in a step-down unit. Again...wards on paper, ICU in reality.

But yes, 1-2 months a year is standard and no more than 6 for IM categoricals. Since nobody cares about prelims as long as they show up and do their work, nobody will follow-up a complaint about too many ICU months.

 

[NOsquid]

Yeah CCU can = cardiology and ICU can = pulmonology

 

[CyberKnife19]

1 month in the ICU for my preliminary year

 

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[Doctor4Life1769]

6-7 ICU months in an intern year...

 

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[Bostonredsox]

6-7 ICU months in an intern year...

I wish there was 10 months of icu in intern year. And that the other two months were pulm consult. Im def not bias or anything.....

 

[castafari]

I did 2. Tried to get a 3rd but couldn't get it approved. I'm going into anesthesia next year so I wanted to get as much as possible.

 

[thesauce]

2. Nights and days.

 

[Law2Doc]

I was just wondering how many ICU and/or CCU months you guys or gals have to do in your preliminary IM year? I've heard a wide range, some 1-2 and other up to 7.

I've seen 1-4.

 

[Apollyon]

I had zero unit months in my prelim IM year.

 

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[DreamLover]

I did my a prelim year of internal medicine in a pretty vigorous categorical program before happily moving onto my anesthesiology residency and I did 2 CCU months and 1 MICU month....but none of the categoricals did that much. They usually did 1 and 1 if that much...

 

[Renova]

There are also places that handle vents and stable cardioactive drips (dilt gtt for instance) on the floor or in a step-down unit. Again...wards on paper, ICU in reality.

I did my prelim year at a program like that. We routinely titrated dilt, milrinone, and dobutamine drips on the general cards floor - patients really only went to the unit if the needed a vent or pressors.

With regard to the OP's question, prelims at my program did 1 month in the MICU and 1 month in the CCU.

 

[G-Man82]

My program, which is at an inner city university hospital, makes prelims do the same number of ICU months as categorical interns: two. One of those months, randomly assigned, can be CCU. I interviewed at some community hospitals in the area that had a separate prelim track for anesthesiologists that included a 2nd icu month (+EM), while their categorical intern and other prelims only did 1 ICU month, and no EM. So it really depends on the hospital. Anesthesiology requires 4 months of critical care medicine, 2 of which can come from your intern year. The other 2 must be done in the CA years in a unit that has an anesthesiology presence.