Four-week sessions offered monthly August through May, inclusive
Prerequisite: Completion of internal medicine internship in good standing.

The Critical Care Medicine Department (CCMD) invites internal medicine residents, in PGY-2 or PGY-3 year, to a four-week clinical rotation in the intensive care unit (ICU) at the NIH’s Clinical Center (CC). The CC is the site of intramural clinical research for the NIH. Each year, over 6,000 patients from all over the world participate in approximately 1,000 research protocols conducted by the various institutes and centers.

The CCMD provides medical, cardiac, and surgical ICU services for critically ill adult and pediatric patients enrolled in intramural research protocols. The ICU is staffed by senior physicians and fellows with expertise in critical care medicine, pulmonary diseases, cardiovascular diseases, infectious diseases, and anesthesiology.  The ICU (capacity: 18 beds) will evaluate any patient from any service within the CC at the request of the patient's primary physician.

The ICU is equipped with state-of the art cardiovascular and respiratory support services well suited to the care of patients with multisystem organ failure. Residents are expected to be an integral part of the ICU team. Academic rounds start at 8:00 a.m. and are followed by work rounds and microbiology rounds. There are also daily afternoon sign-out rounds. There is a Tuesday and Thursday morning (9:30-10:30 a.m.) lecture series in which pertinent clinical and research topics in critical care medicine are reviewed. Residents will be expected to attend morning rounds (Monday-Friday), be present at lectures, participate in evaluating and treating patients transferred to the ICU under the supervision of the staff physician or ICU fellow, and avail themselves of the outstanding electronic/library resources available at NIH to review existing literature pertinent to the clinical problems discussed on morning rounds.

Residents will also have the opportunity, under the supervision of the staff physician or ICU fellow, to become skilled in the placement of a variety of artificial airways and intravascular catheters. Residents will take in-house calls no more than every fourth night.

Elective Objectives

• Gain clinical experience in providing thoughtful and expedient care for critically ill patients. 
• Develop procedural and intellectual skills required of a critical care physician. 
• Develop skills to communicate medical information effectively to patients and their families, ancillary medical staff, and fellow physicians. 
• Gain information about critical care medicine training opportunities at NIH.

Application Procedure

Applications will be considered when the following items have been received:

• A letter indicating the desired session date(s), career goals, return address, and telephone number for daytime contact
• A curriculum vita (include name, address, education, research activities, and current level of training)
• A letter of approval from the director of the internal medicine training program
• A letter of recommendation from a member of the internal medicine clinical faculty.