The three-year UTRGV Internal Medicine-VBMC Residency Program is designed to provide residents with comprehensive skills in the inpatient and outpatient practice of internal medicine. The patient population consists of permanent residents of Harlingen supplemented by referral cases from the communities of the Lower Rio Grande Valley and by an influx of visitors from the Northern United States each winter. Residents will care for common internal medicine diseases as well as more unusual illnesses unique to the border region of Texas and Mexico. Residents will provide inpatient care for the patients admitted to Valley Baptist Medical Center. These patients will include patients enrolled in the continuity clinics at Su Clinica ensuring continuity of care between the inpatient and outpatient settings.

Block Schedule

The schedule differs for each postgraduate year (PGY) of training, providing the advancing resident with increasing responsibility in patient care, leadership, teaching, and administration.

PGY-1 Year (Internship)

Each resident will complete 5 months of internal medicine wards, 3 months of critical care, 1 month of ambulatory care, and 1 month of emergency medicine. There is no overnight call on any of the rotations.

PGY-2 Year

Each resident will complete 3 months of internal medicine wards, 1 month of ambulatory care, 3 months of electives, 1 month of men’s and women’s health, 1 month of oncology, 2 months of night float split into two 2-week sessions dispersed throughout the year and 1 month of allied specialties which could be split into 2 weeks (ophthalmology, orthopedics, otolaryngology, and psychiatry, quality improvement, non-invasive cardiology).  There is no overnight call on the inpatient services.

PGY-3 Year

Each resident will complete 2 months of internal medicine wards, 1 month of ambulatory care, 2 months of night float split into two 2-week sessions dispersed throughout the year, 1 month of critical care, 3 months of electives, and 1 month of geriatrics/rehabilitation medicine, 2-weeks of palliative care, 2-weeks of research. 

Electives

Elective months allow each resident to individualize his/her medical training. Residents may choose to obtain additional experience in primary care or a medical subspecialty of interest, to learn principles of public health through community outreach projects, or to perform basic science or clinical research.

Research and Quality Improvement

All residents will participate in scholarly activity, which may include conducting extensive reviews of medical literature, reporting interesting clinical cases at regional or national academic societies, or conducting original medical research under the guidance of a faculty mentor.

Outpatient Medicine

About 45 percent of the educational program is conducted in the outpatient environment. General medicine outpatient experiences include continuity clinic, held at least one-half day per week over the three years of training, and month-long ambulatory care rotations dedicated to outpatient internal medicine practice. The three-year program also provides outpatient training in the specialties of dermatology, emergency medicine, geriatrics, infectious diseases, men’s and women’s health, neurology, oncology, orthopedics, otolaryngology, ophthalmology, psychiatry, and rehabilitation medicine.

Point of Care Ultrasound

• Multiple lectures and workshops throughout the year
• Image-guided procedures in the ICU

Conferences

All residents obtain a solid foundation in basic sciences, pathophysiology of disease, and core topics in general internal medicine through Resident Core Conference, Medical Grand Rounds, Clinical-pathological Conference, and Morbidity and Mortality Conference. Our residents learn to lead the medical team through Multidisciplinary Rounds and to practice evidence-based medicine through faculty-supervised Journal Club. And our faculty physicians provide hands-on instruction in interviewing and examination skills and careful mentoring in the professional and humanistic practice of medicine through Morning Report (every weekday) and Teaching Rounds.

*All didactic sessions are also available via Zoom for residents on off-site rotations.

Fellowship Programs

As a graduate of the UTRGV Internal Medicine-VBMC Residency Program, you will be competitive for fellowship programs throughout the nation. Our subspecialty rotations prepare you for fellowship training through one-on-one mentoring by experienced board-certified specialists. You will be first in line to perform procedures usually left to fellowship trainees under the expert guidance and supervision of our faculty. Away rotations are available for those residents that qualify. Many of our residents have rotated at UTHSCSA and at TTUHS-Lubbock, both nationally recognized academic institutions.