A residency is an exciting opportunity to gain proficiency in a specialty under close faculty supervision. The cardiology faculty will devote significant time and effort to train each and every resident however the resident in turn must commit to intense learning and hard work. Each resident will be assigned an advisor for the residency period. We do not just expect you to become a specialist, at UF we expect you to become one of the best specialists. In return for this training, residents have to abide by rules and regulations. The following guidelines are intended to provide clarity regarding the expectations associated with the cardiology residency at UF.
Cardiology residents are expected to participate in all aspects of the service when on clinics, including rounds, consults, appointments, teaching rounds and transfers.
Student Teaching
Teaching rounds for the students may be led by faculty or residents depending on caseload. One of the residents on clinics is expected to run orientation for the students with the group on the first Monday of a rotation. In addition, the clinical examination quiz should be covered in first few days of the rotation by a resident or faculty, as available. Residents should strive to teach students through all aspects of case management.
Case Management
Residents will be the primary doctor on the majority of the cases on the cardiology service, however, the faculty will also see cases as requested or as needed. All cases should be discussed with the attending cardiologist and reports will be reviewed by the cardiologist prior to finalization. Residents are expected to discuss all cases with attending faculty while the animal is still available for examination. Faculty involvement will vary depending the experience level of the resident and the degree of complexity of the case. For example, for at least the first 3 months of your residency, all cases should be examined by faculty before any diagnostic and treatment plans are finalized. It is expected that reports will be finished the day that cases are seen in most situations (at the latest within 24 hrs) and that referring veterinarians will be called the day of the appointment (at the latest within 24 hrs). During the clinic day, the callback board should be checked periodically and calls to RDVMs and clients made as needed.
Faculty should be alerted early to any concerns regarding dissatisfied clients or referral partners.
Transfers
The Cardiology service takes transfers from ECC Monday to Friday and on weekends as indicated. The resident on call for the week will take the majority of the transfers, but transfers can be divided amongst all residents on service that week if there is more than one. Availability for phone consultation by other hospital services is an expectation of on‐call duty regardless of the day and time. To facilitate case transfers and case care before the day begins, residents should plan to arrive at the hospital by 7:30 a.m.
After-hours Emergency Duty
Residents will rotate weekend on‐call duty and will always have faculty back‐up. The schedule will be available as an Excel spreadsheet which will be available on the cardiology section of the K drive. First year residents should come in for all after hour emergencies to shadow their senior resident on call from the start of the program until the Labor Day weekend. This will allow the new resident to learn hospital procedures and appropriate handling of after‐hour cases before being on call alone. After hours, the resident on‐call must be available by phone and/or be able to come in to the hospital to evaluate a patient as requested by the primary receiving service. As a result, it is a UF requirement that the on‐call resident is no more than 30 minutes away. Faculty will be available for back‐up during this time. It is expected that the resident will maintain a log documenting all after-hours calls (even calls that do not require the resident to come in to the hospital) in order to help the service monitor the workload experienced by the residents. Residents receive financial compensation for call-ins and they should remember to add the code to the patient visit list.