Transitional Year Overview

Our Transitional Year Program is a one-year internship providing preliminary education for applicants interested in residency programs that begin at more advanced PGY-2 levels (Anesthesiology, Radiology, Ophthalmology, Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, etc.). The program is approved by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) and offers six positions each year.  We are pleased to announce that our Transitional Year Program Director, Mukta Panda, MD, was recognized by the ACGME as one of only 10 program directors nationally who received the 2008 Parker J. Palmer Courage to Teach Award for excellence in medical education.  Click here to read about Dr. Panda's award.

The objective of the Transitional Year is to provide a well-balanced program of graduate medical education in multiple clinical disciplines designed to facilitate the choice of and/or preparation for a specific specialty. The Transitional Year is not meant to be a complete graduate education program in preparation for the practice of medicine.

The Transitional Year Program is designed to meet the educational needs of the residents. Service obligations of the sponsoring institution are secondary to the Transitional Year educational objectives. 

Transitional Year residents are usually among the finest in all our programs at the UT College of Medicine Chattanooga. Their input and contribution to the medical education programs in Chattanooga are recognized as enhancements to the other departments. These residents are incorporated into the patient care team in whatever discipline they are assigned. They are included in all conferences, Grand Rounds, research activities, and outpatient activities of the other residencies. Educational quality, rather than meeting service demands, is the objective of our program. We feel that you will find our Transitional Year uniquely flexible in providing you with a firm base on which to build your career. 

In accordance with the accreditation requirements, at least 24 weeks of each resident's curriculum are provided by a discipline or disciplines that offer fundamental clinical skills, e.g., emergency medicine, family practice, internal medicine, obstetrics/gynecology, pediatrics or surgery. Our program typically requires four months of general internal medicine as part of this six month requirement. Other rotations are a minimum of 4 weeks in duration to ensure reasonable continuity of education and patient care. The curriculum includes emphasis not only on clinical and biomedical problems but also on discussion of moral, ethical, legal, social, and economic issues via the institution's Educational Core Curriculum Grand Rounds series. 

The development of mature clinical judgment requires that residents, properly supervised, be given responsibility for patient care commensurate with their ability. Residents are given the responsibility for decision making and for direct patient care in all settings, subject to review and approval by the attending physician, including planning, record keeping, order writing, and continuing management. The Transitional Year resident has no fewer than 8 weeks of electives (not including vacation time). Elective rotations are determined by the educational needs of the individual resident. The Transitional Year residents must have at least a 4-week rotation (minimum of 140 hours) in emergency medicine under the supervision of qualified teaching staff within the sponsoring or an affiliated institution The Transitional Year residents have the opportunity to evaluate and participate in the evaluation and management of the care of all types of patients who present to Erlanger's Emergency Department. The Transitional Year residents also have at least 140 hours of documented experience in an ambulatory care Medicine rotation. Other outpatient experience is obtained from ambulatory experiences provided by family medicine, internal medicine, obstetrics/gynecology, pediatrics, and surgery.