Our residency program has always been an environment that embraces change. Since we started in 2018, we have sought to create an educational environment that is optimized to produce the finest ambulatory family medicine physicians possible. We have created a flexible curriculum with a unique focus on our outpatient clinic that allows us to increase elective opportunities for residents to shape their own education. This innovation is just one of the ways our program is transforming family medicine! Here are more examples:

Office every day: with few exceptions, residents see patients in our outpatient clinic every day, regardless of their current rotation. Residents on our inpatient service finish rounds in the morning and see 1-3 clinic patients in the afternoon, those in the Emergency Department see a patient or two before or after their shifts, and outside specialty rotations like urology include a half day of clinic every day. This structure keeps our primary focus in view at all times, as residents are able to take what they learn with a specialist and immediately apply it to their own patient panels.

Longitudinal curricula: Our curriculum is enhanced by longitudinal opportunities exploring many areas within family medicine. Almost all of these tracks can be experienced together if a resident is interested in multiple options. Because our ambulatory focus allows our residents to easily obtain the patient encounters needed to gain competence in general outpatient medicine, there is room in our second and third year curriculum for focused experiences in other areas.

Resident-led education: We find as many ways as possible to allow for resident leadership with faculty and staff support. Residents lead out during didactics (link), run various committees, and create quality improvement initiatives. There are many examples of resident led initiatives leading to change around here. One is our psychotherapy track which was started by a resident with an interest in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, and has now turned into a bi-weekly longitudinal optional curriculum available to all 2nd and 3rd year residents.

Ambulatory Feedback: Based on resident feedback about a lack of feedback, we have created a new feedback model that ensures every resident meets individually with a faculty member during every block for a dedicated time to receive high quality feedback regarding their performance in our clinic. This model has undergone several iterations since it began, and we will continue to refine it!