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#FlashbackFriday 1990: First residency rotation at Mayo Clinic’s campus in Jacksonville, Florida
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This article first appeared in September 1990, in the publication Mayovox.
On July 2 four residents from the Mayo Graduate School of Medicine arrived in Jacksonville to begin staffing a new Internal Medicine teaching service at St. Luke’s Hospital.
A new service is barely noteworthy in Rochester; Saint Marys alone has more than 100 teaching services. But in Jacksonville, the new service was an exciting “first” in the development of education programs at Mayo Jacksonville and in the evolution of St. Luke’s from a community hospital to a teaching hospital.
The service is designed to give the residents experience in caring for hospitalized patients. Patients on the service, averaging about 17 patients a day, are selected by physicians in the Department of Internal Medicine.
The first participants in the program, all second year residents, are Drs. Charles Cannan, William Loui, Michael Rich and Doug Franke.
What attracted them to the program? Cannan, a South African native, says the first snow in Minnesota got him interested. (He’s also signed up for a rotation in Scottsdale.)
But the prime attraction was the opportunity to see how medicine is practiced in a different setting. “Our experience here is closer to what we will be doing when we’re in private practice,” says Loui.
The new program is getting good reviews thus far from residents and consulting staff.
The residents like the diversity of patients they see, with a wide range of ages and conditions. They like getting the opportunity to formulate their own diagnoses and care plans for patients. They like the ample opportunities to practice procedures, and they like getting to know consultants personally.
“People have really bent over backwards to make it a good experience for us,” says Franke.
The consulting staff are also enjoying the presence of the young residents. “We have been very impressed with the skills and judgment of this first group,” says Dr. Joseph Blackshear, a consultant in Cardiovascular Diseases and one of the program coordinators.
The Jacksonville rotations are electives available to all residents in the three-year Internal Medicine program. There are openings for 12 residents per year. Based on comments from the first group there should be no trouble filling the openings.
Mayo Clinic Scottsdale plans a similar residency rotation at Scottsdale Memorial North Hospital beginning in July 1991.
