Core training experiences include:

• Inpatient and outpatient pulmonary consultation
• Critical care medicine
• End stage lung disease including lung transplant and lung volume reduction surgery (LVRS)
• Thoracic radiology
• Thoracic pathology
• Echocardiography and thoracic ultrasonography
• Sleep medicine
• Pulmonary function testing, physiology, and exercise testing
• Thoracentesis
• Flexible bronchoscopy, including bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL), transbronchial biopsy (TBBX), transbronchial needle aspiration (TBNA), endobronchial ultrasound (EBUS), and other interventional procedures
• Continuity specialty clinic
• Research and quality improvement projects

Electives

A variety of elective opportunities allow you to individualize the training program in order to best meet your career goals. Elective experiences in related specialties include thoracic surgery, otorhinolaryngology, pathology, allergy, and radiology.

Call frequency

Your call schedule is different for each rotation. Mayo Clinic follows the recommendations of the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME).

Moonlighting

You may moonlight with program director approval. Moonlighting activities may be scheduled during those times when you are assigned to consultative or outpatient rotations. Moonlighting should not interfere with the required learning and must not violate the work-hour rules of the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) or visa regulations.

Research training

Your research opportunities at Mayo Clinic are outstanding. You are encouraged to participate in research projects with the consulting staff. This includes opportunities for clinical studies and laboratory-based projects.

Didactic training

Didactic training is an integral part of the Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine Fellowship, though fellows are also exposed to other innovative ways of delivering education such as the use of social media platforms, video blogs, and flipped classroom models.

During training, you participate in:

• A weekly combined case conference featuring pulmonary, thoracic surgery, critical care, sleep, radiology and pathology cases
• A weekly conference presented by pulmonary and critical care medicine fellows or the staff consultants, often on materials published in peer-reviewed journals or presented at regional and national meetings, recent advances or new technologies, or research projects with clinical translational impact
• Core lectures in pulmonary and critical care medicine
• A biennial course in advanced pulmonary physiology
• Frequent journal clubs to discuss and critically evaluate recent scientific publications on basic mechanisms of lung disease and clinical aspects of pulmonary and critical care medicine
• Morbidity and mortality conference

Teaching opportunities

Pulmonary and critical care medicine trainees are encouraged and expected to participate in the education of others. You may be asked to participate both formally and informally in the educational activities of other training programs including internal medicine, general surgery, and family practice. You also participate in educational activities involving medical students from the Arizona campus of Mayo Clinic Alix School of Medicine.

This participation may take the form of lecture preparation and presentation, journal club moderation and mentoring, and informal teaching rounds. Additionally, you present lectures to the allied medical staff in respiratory therapy, cardiopulmonary rehabilitation, and the ICU.

Evaluation

To ensure you acquire adequate knowledge and develop the appropriate technical skills to meet program expectations, your performance is monitored carefully during the Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine Fellowship. You are formally evaluated by supervising faculty members on a regular basis and meet with the program director to review these evaluations. In addition, you regularly evaluate the faculty to confirm your educational needs are being met.