Congratulations, you have chosen the best, most technologically advanced and intellectually stimulating field in medicine, and we welcome you to the Creighton Radiology Residency Program! We have the fortune of working in a friendly, resident-run, Midwest program in a level 1 trauma center that provides experience in the complete gamut of radiological studies. Our rotations include Chest, Bone, GI, Outpatient Clinics, Neuroradiology, Body, IR, Ultrasound, Nuclear Medicine, Mammography and, at the Omaha Children's Hospital, Pediatrics. We are a close-knit group of residents that value patient care, collegiality, teaching and team-work above all else, and the guidelines of our program reflect those values.
In an effort to promote our first priority, patient care, we accept our responsibility to act as true imaging consultants. This is partly accomplished by ensuring every study ordered is appropriate and does not subject the patient to potential harm. Please call the referring clinicians when there is a question regarding an order, a potential patient allergy or any other questionable aspect of the patient's history. Calls to referring clinicians are also required to convey critical results. This applies to every cross-sectional study ordered by the emergency room (US, CT, MRI).
A collegial atmosphere is maintained by ensuring a welcoming environment to our referring clinical teams. We encourage these teams to visit our department daily for imaging rounds. Please assist them by reviewing any requested study. If you are unsure about a study, don't hesitate to ask for help from another nearby resident or an attending. Remember, radiology dictates the course of patient care! Collaborative conferences are also a valued part of our program and include weekly tumor board, monthly GI conference, and monthly neurology conference. Please be prepared to present and discuss the radiological studies on the involved patients if you are selected to represent our department at these conferences.
We are a teaching institution and fourth-year medical students are in the department on their radiology elective for most of the year. Please assist in their learning by reviewing pertinent aspects of studies as you work through them and consider having them take cases themselves. We try to give 2-3 medical student lectures a week and each resident is responsible for one lecture per month. These lectures are already prepared for you!
Team-work is the single most important attribute that makes the difference between a great work environment and a poor work environment. We have the fortune of a developed culture of team work that makes coming to work a great experience. If a resident is double-covering two stations, please pick up the slack by assisting him/her if you find yourself with downtime. If there is a question of whether you should read a study yourself or save it for the next resident, please read it, the karma will come back to you!
In regard to the day-to-day logistics of the department, the workday is structured as follows: Work begins at 8:00 am (please see IR and Pediatrics sections for exceptions) and we take all studies performed until 4:30 pm. Daily conference is protected time covered by an attending from 12:00 to 1:00 pm. Residents can leave at 4:30 after all their studies have been staffed by an attending or a preliminary report has been submitted, unless they are on call. Call is taken by second, third and fourth-year radiology residents. One resident is on call daily starting at 4:30 pm on weekdays and at 8:00 am on Saturday and Sunday. For further details about call please refer to the the "Call guidelines" section.
We receive 20 days of paid vacation per year plus multiple holidays. 5 days of extra leave are granted to residents attending fellowship or employment interviews. Submitting research or scholarly activities to publications or national meetings is highly encouraged and 5 days are allotted per year for these events. We are a family friendly program and understand families don't always conform to a work schedule, but if you are sick or a family emergency comes up, please inform the chief resident via direct phone call and, if possible, find someone to cover for yourself. Every third year resident is provided 4 weeks of extra paid leave to attend the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology Conference (AFIP) in Washington DC. Room and board and the cost of the conference are provided by the department. The ABR mandates no more than 30 days of leave for any reason (excluding attendance at AFIP) are permitted per year.
Again, we welcome you to our outstanding residency program and are confident our spirit of team-work, collegiality, caring and dedication will be carried on in you!