Curriculum

In the first year, rural residents will be based in Rochester for the first 8 months to take advantage of high volume and higher acuity inpatient experiences, including hospital medicine, obstetrics, inpatient pediatrics, and the pediatric emergency department. Outpatient experiences include Dermatology and a rural farmworker care experience. Outpatient continuity clinic will be at the Highland Family Medicine main residency clinic.

In the spring of the PGY-1 year, residents will relocate to the rural community to begin their immersive rural training. This begins with a Community Medicine rotation that helps residents learn about the many resources available in the rural communities we serve. Rural residents will begin their outpatient continuity practices at Tri-County Family Medicine. Rural hospital experiences in the ICU and emergency department and outpatient experiences in orthopedics and general surgery complete the year.

In the second and third years, residents have additional inpatient experiences in rural hospitals, including night float, and the emergency department. Outpatient experiences include geriatrics, gynecology, cardiology, addiction medicine, outpatient pediatrics, and additional time in orthopedics and general surgery. There are 7 months of elective time. Maternity care and delivery experiences involve longitudinal on-call delivery experiences at Noyes Hospital. However, in each of the PGY-2 and PGY-3 years, rural residents will also return to Highland Hospital for one month each year for additional high-volume experiences that will include supervisory roles on labor and delivery and the management of more high-risk obstetrics patients.

The PGY-2 year also includes our program’s unique 4-month Psychosocial Medicine curriculum. Together with the urban program residents, rural residents will learn the principles and practices of a biopsychosocial model of medicine from our faculty team of physicians, psychiatrists, and psychotherapists. Skills such as CBT, motivational interviewing, and problem-solving therapy are honed. Residents also continue to progressively increase their clinic volume. Residents are given a chance to reflect on their own clinical practice and to use their reflections to develop their own art of family-centered clinical care.

Throughout all three years, residents spend progressively more time in their continuity practices alongside their rotation responsibilities.

Rotation Schedule

Rotation schedule by postgraduate year and duration.

Family Medicine Residency Rotation Schedule