{"id":128987,"date":"2026-01-21T07:34:43","date_gmt":"2026-01-21T13:34:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/?p=128987"},"modified":"2026-01-21T07:34:45","modified_gmt":"2026-01-21T13:34:45","slug":"residency-prep-course-readies-med-students-for-next-step","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2026\/01\/21\/residency-prep-course-readies-med-students-for-next-step\/","title":{"rendered":"Residency prep course readies med students for next step\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"panel body-content\"><div class=\"panel__container\">\n<p>To bridge the gap between the academic phase of medical school and the hands-on, clinical responsibilities&nbsp;encountered&nbsp;during&nbsp;residency,&nbsp;the UNMC College of Medicine has implemented a residency prep course. It&nbsp;is the final course&nbsp;for&nbsp;graduating&nbsp;students and is offered&nbsp;each April.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Jill Zabih, MD, assistant professor&nbsp;of hospital medicine, and Abbey&nbsp;Fingeret, MD,&nbsp;PhD,&nbsp;associate professor&nbsp;of surgical oncology, are directors for the course.&nbsp;They, along with David O\u2019Dell, MD,&nbsp;professor of general internal medicine,&nbsp;and Susan Evans, MD,&nbsp;assistant professor of family medicine,&nbsp;planned and designed the content&nbsp;of the course before it debuted in 2021.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Dr. Zabih said creating and implementing a transition-to-residency course&nbsp;is a major trend nationally with medical student curricula \u2013 a trend that UNMC has been ahead of, since its course&nbsp;became&nbsp;a graduation requirement for all&nbsp;medical&nbsp;students in 2021.&nbsp;In 2025, 127 students completed&nbsp;UNMC\u2019s&nbsp;course.\u202f&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThe transition from medical student to resident physician is the largest increase in responsibility physicians experience in their career,\u201d Dr. Zabih said. \u201cUNMC was on the leading edge of implementing a required course&nbsp;to help ease the&nbsp;transition. These courses are now part of the curriculum at&nbsp;more than&nbsp;80% of medical schools,&nbsp;though they vary in scope and rigor.\u201d\u202f\u202f&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Peyton Bash, MD, graduated from the UNMC College of Medicine in May 2025 and started as a first-year internal medicine resident on July 1. He said&nbsp;the&nbsp;residency prep course is one of the strongest aspects of UNMC\u2019s medical curriculum.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cIt bridges the gap between student and physician in a very tangible&nbsp;way,&nbsp;and it sets the tone for a smoother, more confident start to residency,\u201d&nbsp;he said.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The course includes&nbsp;two&nbsp;weeks of general content for all students,&nbsp;then students break into groups with their planned residency specialty for the second&nbsp;two&nbsp;weeks of the course.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Dr. Bash said the design of the course&nbsp;helps ease the transition from student to resident and makes those first few weeks on the job feel less overwhelming.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI walked away from the course feeling more confident about starting residency,\u201d he said.&nbsp;\u201cI had the chance to practice key skills in a low-pressure, supportive environment. Running a code, responding to RRTs, managing patients overnight \u2013 all of these are daunting at first, but the course helped me realize just how far&nbsp;we\u2019ve&nbsp;come. It truly reinforced that I had the knowledge and training needed to care for patients&nbsp;\u2013&nbsp;with supervision, of course.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Now in her seventh year&nbsp;of teaching the course, Dr. Zabih said it&nbsp;is heavily simulation-based and covers&nbsp;rapid response scenarios, procedures, cross cover, handoffs,&nbsp;disclosing&nbsp;medical errors and critical care simulation.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThis course is highly dependent on faculty facilitators, given how many simulations are included,\u201d she said. \u201cIt includes hundreds of&nbsp;faculty&nbsp;contact hours with students in small groups and simulation activities.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Dr. Bash said the guided simulations were\u00a0especially\u00a0beneficial. \u201cThey allowed us to apply our knowledge in realistic scenarios, reinforcing what we\u2019ve learned and building confidence,\u201d he said. \u201cHaving\u00a0practiced many of the tasks I was most nervous about, I felt genuinely ready to take the next step in my training.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The course, created in 2021, reinforces skills and builds confidence in graduating medical students. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":27,"featured_media":129065,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"66509,103832,97268,61110,66315,73372","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-128987","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","topic-education","topic-student-news","department-college-of-medicine","department-intercom","department-internal-medicine","author_override-maria-ball-unmc-department-of-internal-medicine"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is 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