Rotation Schedule by Year

At least one year of training in an approved PGY-1 year is required before entering the Neurology Residency. Although many residents do the PGY-1 year in a Yale program, training may also be done at another ACGME-accredited institution/program. Eight months of internal medicine are required. However, ample elective time has been arranged with the cooperation of the Internal Medicine Department at Yale to enable residents to pursue additional clinical opportunities and approved research and scholarly activities during this year.

The first year of neurology training is designed to provide an intensive clinical experience in a structured teaching setting. The primary goal of the PGY-2 year is for the resident to achieve a high degree of competence in the clinical assessment, evaluation, and treatment of patients with neurological disease. Residents will also gain experience in the appropriate use and interpretation of diagnostic tests.

Yale General Junior: 4 weeks. Residents work with a team that includes an attending, residents, and medical students. They take primary responsibility for the care of non-vascular/general neurology patients on the inpatient Ward. Supervision is by a PGY-4 resident and attending.

1. Yale General Junior: 4 weeks. Residents work with a team that includes an attending, residents and medical students. They take primary responsibility for the care of non-vascular/general neurology patients on the inpatient Ward. Supervision is by a PGY-4 resident and attending.
2. Yale Stroke Junior: 4-5 weeks. Residents work with a team that includes an attending, fellows, residents, APRNs/PAs, and medical students. They take primary responsibility for the care of vascular/stroke neurology patients on the inpatient Ward. Supervision is by a PGY-3 or PGY-4 resident, fellow and attending. The Stroke junior[PJ1] resident covers the inpatient wards from 6 a.m. - 8 p.m. e[PJ2] ach Saturday.
3. VA Junior: 4-6 weeks. Residents work with a team of attendings, residents and students, and care for neurology patients on the neurology service. Residents also participate in subspecialty clinics, such as epilepsy, stroke, movement disorders, multiple sclerosis, sleep medicine, [PJ3] and neuromuscular. In addition, residents help provide consults on inpatients for other services and in the ER. Supervision is by a VA senior resident (PGY-3 or PGY-4) and attending.
4. Neuroscience ICU (NICU): 4 weeks. The NICU resident is charged with managing neurology patients admitted to the NICU. They work closely with the attending and fellow to devise and execute a plan of care. It is also expected that residents gain an understanding of neurosurgical ICU patients. Residents also gain experience with neurocritical care consults, providing recommendations on the most complex neurological complications of systemic illness, including management of hypoxic brain injury after cardiac arrest.
5. Emergency Neurology/ED Swing: 3-5 weeks. Residents are stationed in the Yale Department of Emergency Medicine. They function as neurological consultants on all neurologic cases presenting to the Yale Emergency Department. Supervision is by a PGY-4 resident, clinical fellows in neurocritical care and vascular neurology, and attending physicians in general neurology, vascular neurology and neurocritical care. The Swing resident starts their shift in the early afternoon and serves as the primary contact for neurological emergencies from mid-afternoon to evening, with the support of the ED resident. These roles are designed to balance the challenges of being the primary contact for neurological emergencies with timely completion of clinical tasks and documentation. ED/Swing residents each have one day off per week with coverage on those days from residents on other rotations.
6. Yale Consult Junior and Yale New Haven Hospital Saint Raphael Campus Consults: 4 weeks (combined). Residents provide consultative services to all other departments within the hospital. Under supervision of the Yale Senior Consult Resident and an attending, the Yale Consult Junior is responsible for seeing new consults and stroke codes on Yale inpatients. This resident also covers the off day for the ED resident. The SRC residents will provide inpatient consultations at the St. Raphael Campus of Yale New Haven Hospital, under the direct supervision of an attending neurologist. This rotation provides the opportunity for more direct clinical mentorship, and the experience of providing consultative services in a smaller hospital environment. Residents on this rotation also cover the off day for the Swing resident.
7. Inpatient Night Float and Consult Night Float: 6 weeks. The inpatient night float resident covers the Yale inpatient neurology and stroke services six nights per week. Supervision is by a PGY-4 resident, a stroke fellow and attending, and a general neurology attending who are on call. The consult night float resident provides consultation services to the Yale Adult Emergency Departments and all Yale New Haven Hospital inpatient services six nights per week, including pediatric hyperacute emergencies if care is required before the home-call resident can present (e.g., pediatric stroke code), and pediatric neurology consults in rare instances when a home-call resident is not assigned. Supervision is by a PGY-4 resident and attending physician on call. Since the 2021 academic year, residents have alternated between these services during their two-week block: one week as the INF resident and one week as the CNF resident. As of 2024, PGY2 residents will do their first CNF week with a PGY3 “buddy” (CNF1). There will be adequate staffing for two residents (one PGY2 and one PGY3) to staff CNF until November of the 2025-2026 academic year.
8. Clinics: 8 weeks. Every six weeks, residents will attend a combination of general continuity clinics and subspecialty clinics. Continuity clinics are held at Yale ½ day Monday p.m. (primarily follow up), Tuesday p.m. (primarily follow up), Wednesday p.m. (hospital/ED discharge follow-up), Thursday a.m. (first seizure clinic), and Thursday p.m. (primarily new patient consults), at the VAMC ½ day Tuesday a.m. (new consults), Wednesday p.m. (continuity clinic) and Friday a.m. (new consults), and at Cornell Scott-Hill Health Center on Monday afternoon. Each resident follows his/her own cohort of patients for three years, assuming all responsibility for outpatient care with supervision by an attending. Residents have approximately 4-5 free half-days during each clinic block, which are spent in selected subspecialty outpatient clinics. A few times a year, all residents on the clinic block are responsible for covering consults at Gaylord Rehabilitation Center on Wednesdays and Fridays.
9. Neurophysiology: 6 weeks. Residents will divide their time between the EEG services (Epilepsy Monitoring Unit and ICU-EEG service) and the outpatient EMG lab. They will not have primary patient care responsibilities, so they can concentrate on developing skills in the interpretation of neurophysiological tests. The rotation will be augmented by asynchronous learning resources, including the EEG Video Lecture Curriculum and the AES Resident EEG Course.
10. Pediatric Neurology: 1 week. Residents are supervised by Pediatric Neurology faculty and fellows, and provide consultations for patients on the Pediatrics ward, Newborn Special Care Unit, Pediatric ICU, and Pediatric Emergency Room at Yale New Haven Children’s Hospital.[PJ4] Residents also attend ½ day clinics an average of one time per week. Residents have one overnight call per week on pediatrics, occurring on a Monday-Friday nights. Further information may be found under Pediatric Home Call Protocol.
11. Jeopardy/Float: 1-2 weeks. Residents on this rotation have a variety of tasks throughout the week including CNF on Friday and Saturday, Gaylord Specialty Healthcare [PJ5] on Wednesday, and float for the general and stroke services on Mondays/Tuesdays in cases of high census, among other “float” responsibilities as needed. Thursday and Sunday are OFF days.
12. Vacation: 4 weeks.

The second year of neurology training is directed toward focused training in key areas of neurology. Three months of child neurology (split between PGY-3 and PGY-4 year) are required during all adult neurology residency programs, providing in-depth exposure to the pediatric population. 2.5 months of elective time allow residents to tailor their training with additional subspecialty clinical pursuits, research projects and other scholarly opportunities.

1. Yale Stroke Senior: 4-6 weeks. The stroke inpatient senior resident leads a team consisting of a junior neurology resident, APRNs/PAs and medical students who care for stroke patients on the neurology ward. Along with the stroke fellow they will fulfill an educational role, providing formal and informal teaching of topics related to stroke neurology. The stroke senior is supervised by the attending and by the fellow, but plays an active role in management of patients. The Stroke Senior resident covers the inpatient wards from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Sunday.
2. Neuroscience ICU: 4 weeks. Combination of the same rotation as during the PGY-2 year and the NICU senior role (see below)
3. NICU Senior: 2-4 weeks. This is the senior resident role on the neurosciences ICU service established in 2024. The senior supervises the resident team from Monday to Friday and provides primary coverage on Wednesdays when the junior resident is off. The team consists of a PGY-4 or -3 senior resident, 1-2 PGY-2 junior residents, and usually a PGY-1 the second-half of the year.
4. Pediatric Neurology: 4 weeks. Same rotation as during the PGY-2 year.
5. Emergency Neurology/ED Swing: 4-6 weeks. Same rotation as during the PGY-2 year.
6. VA Junior: 4 weeks. Same rotation as during the PGY-2 year.
7. Yale Consult Junior: 1-3 weeks. Same rotation as during the PGY-2 year.
8. Night Float (INF/CNF): 4 weeks. Same rotation as during the PGY-2 year.
9. Clinics: 8 weeks. Same schedule as during PGY-2 year.
10. Elective: 10 weeks. Residents are provided mentoring by the program director, chair,[PJ1] and other faculty members to select approximately five months of electives in their last two years. Residents are encouraged to obtain intensive exposure to research, other scholarly work, or specific fields in neurology or related to neurology. At least one week in the PGY-3 year should be spent on the neurophysiology rotation, unless the resident proposes an alternative plan that ensures adequate achievement of neurophysiology objectives. Many residents spend time pursuing a clinical or basic science research project in collaboration with a faculty member in Neurology or other departments at Yale School of Medicine[PJ2] . Many of these projects culminate in presentations at national meetings and publications in peer-reviewed journals. In some cases, electives may be taken off campus, provided that the necessary documentation and approval has been obtained.
11. Jeopardy/Float: 1 week. Same rotation as during the PGY-2 Year.
12. Vacation: 4 weeks.

The PGY-4 year of neurology residency training is one of advanced clinical responsibility and in-depth study in elective areas of interest. Each resident will complete 16 weeks of senior clinical rotations, including the Consult Service at Yale New Haven Hospital and the General Neurology services at Yale and the West Haven VA Medical Center. These rotations are considered the core of the senior resident educational experience, and provide an invaluable transition to clinical practice, fellowship, or academic neurology. Three months during the year are available for electives.

During the PGY-4 year, the senior residents assume a major role in teaching within the residency program and for the supervision of medical students rotating on the neurology service.

1. Yale General Senior: 4-6 weeks. The general senior resident leads a team of junior residents and medical students who care for non-vascular/general neurology patients on the neurology ward. This leadership position is closely supervised by an attending physician, but the senior resident plays an active role in the management of patients. The senior resident also supervises the ED resident and night float residents and should be available for guidance 24 hours a day.
2. B. Yale Consult Senior: 4-6 weeks. Residents provide consultative services to all other inpatient services in the hospital except Pediatrics. Together with the Consult Attending, this resident acts as the main liaison between Neurology and other services in the hospital for inpatient care. The consult senior also supervises the consult junior resident, [PJ1] residents rotating from other specialties (e.g., internal medicine, neurosurgery, psychiatry), and medical students on the consultation service. The consult senior covers the general senior overnight 1-2 nights/week.
3. C. VA Senior: 4-6 weeks. The VA senior is a PGY-3 or PGY-4 resident. Together with an attending physician, the senior resident supervises a team of junior residents and medical students who care for neurology patients on the wards and in the ICUs, and perform consults for other services in the hospital. Residents also attend an average of three clinics per week. The senior resident is responsible for distributing the work among team members on the neurology service, which usually includes PGY-3 and PGY-2 neurology residents, a psychiatry intern, medical students, and other rotators.
4. D. NICU Senior: 2 weeks. Same rotation as during the PGY-3 year.
5. E. Elective: 10-12 weeks. Electives during the PGY-4 year are the same as those during the PGY-3 year, except PGY-4 residents on elective are responsible for backup only for other senior residents. At least 1-2 weeks of elective should be spent on neurophysiology rotations.
6. F. Pediatric Neurology: 6 weeks. Same rotation as during the PGY-2 and -3 years.
7. G. Psychiatry: 4 weeks. Residents work with the Yale Psychiatry Consult Liaison Service, providing psychiatric consultative services to the rest of the hospital.
8. H. Clinics: 8 weeks. Same structure as PGY-2 and PGY-3 years.
9. I. Gaylord: 2 weeks. PGY-4 residents will rotate for two weeks through the offsite Gaylord Specialty Healthcare Center[PJ2] , a dedicated rehabilitation hospital, to learn principles in rehabilitation medicine as related to neurologic patients often encountered in the acute inpatient setting.
10. J. Vacation: 4 weeks