Residency Second and Third Years (PGY-3 and PGY-4)

As an overview, the two senior resident years are divided between 12 months of clinical rotations, 6 months of electives, 3 months of pediatric neurology, 2 months of neuropathology, and 1 month of psychiatry. Senior residents rotate on the consultation service, the stroke service and the general neurology service at UMass Memorial Medical Center and head the inpatient teams at the University Campus. . There is no night call during the third year.
As part of the neurology clinical training residents also undertake an intensive, full-time three month ambulatory rotation, which affords individualized training in many of the subspecialties of neurology. Two of these months are during the PGY-3 year and one month is during the PGY-4 year. Additional outpatient experience occurs throughout the three-year program as residents follow their own subspecialty and general neurology patients in a "mini-private practice" setting held once a week under the supervision of a cadre of subspecialty attendings, who concurrently lend their subspecialty expertise as they precept the residents in the care of their patients.
The Elective block rotations during the PGY-3 and 4 years also mark the time when the Neurology trainees explore some of the many facets of neurology. Residents may immerse themselves in a wealth of subspecialty outpatient clinical and neurophysiological experiences. On the inpatient side, residents may choose to gain more in depth knowledge about vascular neurology, neuro-intensive care, or neuro-interventional radiology. During the PGY-3 and 4 years, residents are encouraged to embark on more substantive research, with the full gamut from basic research to clinical research projects beckoning. Our faculty is committed to intensively mentoring these research efforts. During the PGY-3 year many residents also explore elective opportunities at other Neurology departments, where they might pursue particular subspecialty and potential fellowship interests. Only a resident’s imagination limits the elective explorative opportunities during these years.
Second year residents (PGY-3) will typically spend 5 months of the year divided between being the Senior resident in charge of the inpatient General Neurology service and being the Senior resident on the Stroke service. The resident will spend two months on Neuro-Pathology, two months as the Clinic resident and three months on elective. Night call occurs on average 26 times over the second year, or about twice per month, but again on a flexible schedule

Representative Second year (PGY-3) resident schedule

 Third year residents (PGY-4) are the Chief residents of the residency program. In collaboration with key teaching faculty, they share the responsibility of leading and representing the residency on both intra-departmental and extra-departmental levels, developing and coordinating the formal didactic sessions, being in charge of Grand Rounds, and teaching all other learners on the Neurology rotations. The third year residents will spend three months on Child Neurology, and three months as the Consult Senior resident in charge of the Consult service. The PGY-4 resident rotates for one month each on the Stroke service and the Psychiatry inpatient service. The third of the three months as the Clinic resident occurs during this final year. There are three months during this year for research or clinical elective rotations.

Representative Third year (PGY-4) resident schedule