Fellowship Matching & Career Development

Career Development

Due to our residents having a wide range of clinical interests, we have designed our program to create maximum flexibility to allow residents to achieve their unique future goals:

Quarterly Career & Fellowship Meetings with Program Director: meetings are divided into individual subspecialties (i.e. Sports, Pain, Interventional Spine, Neurorehabilitation).  Meetings involve discussing extra-curricular opportunities, updates in fellowship / job application process, CV building, coordination of research, mentorship, etc.  

Mentorship: Residents are encourage to have both a "life mentor" (i.e. gives guidance on work-life balance, wellness, etc) and a "career mentor" (i.e. someone to guide to match into a Fellowship).  Residents are given freedom to chose their own mentor regardless of location, discipline in medicine, etc.  They are required meet with at least one of their mentors twice a year (spring and fall).  Mentors are easy to find for our residents due to our approachable faculty, expansive Alumni network including multiple alumni working in the Chicagoland area, and our location within a large metropolitan area

Flexible Schedule:  

• To maximize the residents ability to match into a fellowship, we have created a flexible schedule to would allow up to THREE electives during PGY-3 year to complete 'Audition Electives' 
• PGY-4 residents can flex as many of their 4 total months of electives during residency towards the end of the year to create a 'mini-fellowship' prior to starting work, fellowship, etc (see example below)

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Mini-Fellowship

Residents have a total of 4 months of elective time during residency that they can use during their 3rd and/or 4th year.  Since our Medical Center has a diverse faculty with unique subspecialties, our residents have used time during their last four months to get themselves prepared for work and/or fellowship by creating a 'Mini-Fellowship' as noted below.  Typically, residents currate 2 to 4 week experiences within a field of interest with example as noted below

Alumni Network

Our success in Fellowship matching could not be done without the assistance of our active Alumni Network who continue to provide mentorship well after their graduation.  Residents meet Alumni via our Annual Alumni event at the AAPM&R and/or via introduction by the Program as they demonstrate interest in a career path shared with a former alumnus.

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Residency Class in 2015.  Pictured: The late Barbara Cook who took special care of each and every resident of hers for over 20+ years.  We miss your kindness, smile, and guidance